Mulling Over Maybe

Some of the more common characteristics of recessions include increased unemployment, reduced consumer spending, decreased real estate values, and low interest rates. Similar to stocks, you may have the opportunity to buy real estate at a much lower price than you would be able to in a strong economy. Moreover, recessions tend to coincide with lower interest rates, which will also ultimately reduce the cost of your investment property. (Real Estate Investment Trusts), using SEC vetted online real estate investment platforms, and flipping properties are just a few options worth mentioning.

For example, the S&P 500 is an index made up of 500 US large-cap stocks (companies valued ≥ $10 billion) traded on the American Stock Exchange. Market fluctuation in the S&P 500 occurs as a result of the continuously changing stock prices of those 500 companies. All sorts of news topics including political events, social unrest, government policies, industry changes, and consumer spending trends have an impact on stock market fluctuation and the individual prices of certain stocks. For example, Intel experienced its highest stock price of all time on August 31, 2000, at $74.88 despite a great deal of market fluctuation as a result of Y2K. Market fluctuation can be incredibly intimidating to investors.

For example, if your monthly mortgage payment is $1400, then you could pay $1500, meaning you’re prepaying an additional $100 towards your principal each month. Why prepaying your mortgage might not be in your best interest Overall financial stability is more important To start with, many of us don’t have the flexibility to dole out an additional $100 a month towards our mortgage. Recall the almost $29,000 you would save by prepaying your mortgage by $100 each month. So, refinancing to lock in a better interest rate only makes sense if what you save will offset the cost you’ll pay to refinance your mortgage.

The 80/20 rule, also called the Pareto Principle, was founded by Vilfredo Pareto. If you find that 80% of your attention is being diverted to the 20% of your employees who are problem starters, it should worry you that the measly remaining 20% of your attention is going towards your rockstar employees. It’s likely that if those bosses instead prioritized giving attention to their beneficial employees, rather than their problem employees, they’d be able to retain the talent that’s driving their organizations forward. If instead, you were to follow the 80/20 rule to work smarter, and not harder, you likely could have had the 80% solution necessary for your meeting by calling it quits after the first hour.