Author: Earl Yaokasin
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What Is a Step-Up in Basis and Why It Matters for Your Heirs
Most people first hear the term “step-up in basis” while setting up a loved one’s estate. That’s one of the worst times to learn about it because by then, the time to make the decisions that could have made a real difference has already passed. For people who have spent decades building wealth, knowing what…
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What Are REITs and Do They Belong in Your Portfolio?
Most people build real estate wealth by buying a home or investing in rental properties, but a third option gets less attention. A Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is a company that owns, operates, or finances income-producing real estate. Instead of buying an apartment building or shopping center yourself, you can buy REIT shares and…
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What Rising Interest Rates Mean for Your Bond Portfolio
The relationship between bond prices and interest rates is one of the most important concepts for bond investors to understand. In general, when interest rates rise, existing bond prices fall, and vice versa. Why? Imagine you own a bond paying 3% interest, but new bonds are now being issued at 5%. Your 3% bond becomes…
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How to Protect Your Portfolio From Inflation: 5 Strategies That Actually Work
Imagine checking your investment account and seeing that your portfolio is up 5%. It sounds like a good year, until you realize inflation was 6%. Your portfolio grew on paper, but in reality your purchasing power declined. That’s the difference between a nominal return, which measures how much investments gained, and a real return, which…
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How to Evaluate a Stock Beyond the P/E Ratio
The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, also known as the price-to-earnings multiple, is probably the most quoted number in stock investing. A low P/E can make a company look cheap, while many shy away from high-P/E stocks because they think they’re too expensive. But the P/E ratio doesn’t tell you why the stock trades at that price.…
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How to Create a Retirement Income Strategy (Beyond Just Saving)
Most people spend their working years trying to save as much as possible for retirement. They believe that if they contribute to their 401(k) or IRA for enough years and build a healthy investment portfolio, they’ll be ready. It’s the right instinct, but somewhere along the way, the question changes from how to grow their…
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Roth Conversion Strategies: When Does It Make Sense?
You’ve probably heard the term “Roth IRA conversion” in conversations about retirement planning, but many investors aren’t entirely sure what it means, or whether it applies to them. In fact, a common misconception is that Roth conversion strategies are only for high-income retirees or wealthy investors. That’s not necessarily the case. A traditional individual retirement…
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Real Estate vs. Stocks: Which Builds More Wealth Long-Term?
Key Takeaways: Ask ten people whether real estate or stocks build more wealth, and you’ll get ten confident, mostly different, answers. One friend swears by their rental property that doubled in value, while another points to someone who made “easy money” with twenty years of index funds. Neither is wrong, exactly. They’re just describing different…
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How the AI Bubble Has Impacted the Stock Market
Key Takeaways: The dot-com era is one that investors in the late 1990s will never forget. The internet was new and exciting, and clearly going to change the world. Both the public and markets knew it. Back then, tech companies didn’t need much more than a website and a big promise to go public. And…
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How Tariffs Cause a Stock Market Reaction
There’s been plenty of debate about tariffs since the so-called “Trump trade war” began in February 2025 and reached a boiling point on April 2, when President Trump announced a sweeping set of new tariffs. But of all the headlines around the world, few hit harder than the ripple effects felt on Wall Street. Tariffs…
