A Wealth of Common Sense. Investor, author, and host of Animal Spirits podcast, focuses on simplifying finance for everyone; has backed over 200 companies.
My favorite CFO, Bill Sweet, joined us on the show again this week to answer questions about Roth 401ks, using margin in your portfolio, balancing retirement accounts and how a 22-year-old should save for retirement. Plus we asked Bill a bunch of tax questions to prepare for the new year.
Further Reading:
Will Home Prices Finally Fall in 2026?
1Assuming your financial institution allows it.
2It was also all we could affo...
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On today’s show, we discuss:
Smothering Heights, Eye on The Market | Outlook 2026
TED: The Economics Daily
When A.I. Took My Job, I Bought a Chain Saw
Delivering more fo...
The S&P 500 was down nearly 20% from the highs at the Liberation Day lows in early April.
The index was showing a 15% loss for the year as of April 8th.
From the lows, the market took off like a rocket ship, rising almost 40% from there through year-end. The S&P 500 finished 2025 with a gain of almost 18%.
To recap, there was a peak-to-trough drawdown of around 19% but the market still finished the year up nearly...
An old boss of mine used to say, “It’s OK to be surprised by what happens in the markets. Just don’t be surprised that you’re surprised.”
Here are some things that were surprising in 2025:
1. Just two of the Mag 7 stocks outperformed the S&P 500. Only Google and Nvidia beat the market in 2025:
Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, Apple and Meta all underperformed.
That’s pretty surprising giv...
Finance content is seasonal.
Tax stuff in the spring.
Earnings coverage is once a quarter.
Someone is contractually obligated to write a Sell in May blog post that month every year.
Right now it’s a combination of look-backs and look-forwards.
It’s outlook season for the upcoming year — biggest risks, opportunities, price targets, etc. for 2026. Now is the best time to make predictions about the next ye...
Today’s Animal Spirits is brought to you by TradePMR:
Today’s episode is sponsored by TradePMR. Details on TradePMR Asset Match Program ( https://hubs.li/Q03XS3Sj0 )
On today’s show, we discuss:
Riding the AI Revolution: How Fidelity Managers search for the potential winners of tomorrow
Family Offices Have Become the New Power Players on Wall Street
Private credit firms pile into consumer debt as risk-t...
