Wealth Management News & Insights
It’s All Relative, Ted Pick New Morgan Stanley CEO, There’s Never Been a Worse Time to Buy Instead of Rent
Our Work
Investment Insights – Keith R. Schicker, CFA, Partner & Portfolio Manager
- It’s All Relative: How can good news sometimes be bad and bad news sometimes be good? [Investment Insights]
Primary Sources
- Speech By Chair Powell On The Economic Outlook: Incoming data over recent months show ongoing progress toward both of our dual mandate goals—maximum employment and stable prices. [FRB]
Financial Markets
- Ted Pick Is a Math Whiz Among Math Whizzes. He’s the New Morgan Stanley CEO: The company lifer will have to keep the wealth-management unit happy, while doing the same for investment banking and trading. [WSJ]
- What’s Happening At The Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: FTX founder takes the stand without a jury present. [WSJ]
- Amazon Beats Q3 Earning Estimates, Touts AI As The Future: Shares of the e-commerce beast surged more than 7% early Friday after reporting above-consensus earnings on Thursday, supported by bullish comments around artificial intelligence. [Yahoo]
The chart on the left shows the increase in Amazon’s US eCommerce marketshare since 2005. The chart on the right shows Apple’s share of North American cellphone shipments since 2006. It is evident both Amazon and Apple are formidable forces in US eCommerce and cellphone sales.
Financial Planning
- Picking Health Insurance Can Be Tricky – 6 Key Terms To Know As Open Enrollment Starts: Millions of people pick their health insurance during open enrollment. Consumers are generally locked into their choice for a year. [CNBC]
- There’s Never Been A Worse Time To Buy Instead Of Rent: It is now 52% more expensive to buy a home than to rent one because of climbing mortgage rates. [WSJ]
Source: Wall Street Journal
The above chart shows the premium/discount to buy a US home vs. renting it. Since 1996, the cost of buying a home vs. renting one is at its most extreme. The average monthly new mortgage payment is 52% higher than the average apartment rent.
Retirement Planning
- Retirement Withdrawal Rules Are ‘Crazy’ This Year, IRA Expert Says. Here’s What You Need To Know: There have been complex changes to required minimum distributions over the past few years. [CNBC]
- There’s A Connection Between Workers’ Mental Health And Retirement, Emergency Savings, Research Finds: Planning for your financial future can be difficult if you’re struggling to get through the day. [CNBC]
- The Big Mistakes People Make In Medicare—And How To Avoid Them: Seniors choosing Medicare plans can be left with higher costs or fewer doctors than they expected; ‘I was so stupid’. [WSJ]
Business Strategy
- Sweetgreen Hires Kale-Shooting Robots To Speed Up Service: Chipotle, Kura Sushi also dabble with automation as restaurant labor costs remain high. [WSJ]
- Netflix Raises Prices For Its Premium Plan: In an effort to bring in even more revenue, Netflix also announced it’s raising the price for its most expensive streaming service by $2 to $23 per month in the U.S. [NPR]
Kastle Systems, the country’s largest managed security services provider to commercial businesses, shows data to summarize the RTO since the COVID-19 pandemic. The data tells the story of the nation quickly sheltering in place in March and April and now slowly venturing back to the workplace.
Life & Work
- Business Travel Would Be Booming—If Flying Weren’t So Miserable: More-frequent airline delays have changed how road warriors plan their trips, and how often. [WSJ]
- M.B.A. Job Offers In Short Supply as Tech, Finance, Consulting Dial Back Recruiting: Students try to break into industries that have had a rocky year. [WSJ]
- 37 Iconic Pop Culture Halloween Costumes Inspired By 2023’s Biggest Moments: These easy ideas for guys and girls will have all of your friends wondering how you pulled it off on October 31. [Good Housekeeping]
- Selling A Haunted Home? That’s Between You And The Ghosts: Buyers might be terrified to find that just four states address paranormal activity when it comes to the sale of a home. [WSJ]