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Clearly, Not Everyone Is Getting Rich Off The Stock Market

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Well, the NY Fed was out today with its Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q4 2017. Clearly, Americans are in a lot of debt. Take a look. Just a couple of quick hits from the report. Total U.S. household debt rose $193 billion in the 4th quarter, to a new all-time peak of $13.15 trillion. That's 17.9% above the most recent trough in Q2 2013. Broken down by segment, what do you suppose was the largest gain in percentage terms? Credit cards, with a 3.2% increase. In the picture above, the widening gap represented by the red arrows reflects the fact that non-housing debt is rising at a faster pace than housing debt. Here's what's troubling about that. Below is a picture of the stock market, as represented by the S&P 500 index, over that same period; from the most recent credit trough in Q2 2013 to the end of 2017. And thus, the title of this article. Over that period, the S&P 500 index rose by 75%; from roughly 1,600 to 2,800. Apparently, ho...
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About Me

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As stated in the disclosure with which I end my posts, I am not a registered investment advisor or broker/dealer. In fact, my formal education stopped at high school. I do not have a college degree. I have, however, engaged in several forms of continuing education throughout my life, including online college courses in Finance.

Through a most interesting confluence of circumstances, as a young man I landed a job in the Treasury Department of a Fortune-500 company. My love of finance grew from there, inspired by some of the talented people who ultimately became my friends. That was some 30 years ago. Since that time, I have worked for three different Fortune-500 companies as well as a leading software company in a related field.

It is my hope that my work will strongly reinforce the concept that anyone who is willing to devote a little time and effort can indeed understand the basic concepts that can make them a very good investor, perhaps more successful than many of their neighbors and friends.

My final note is that I practice what I preach. It is my sincere hope that many are able to benefit from what I will share. I hope someone will look at this bio and say: "If he can do it, so can I!" 

Carpe diem!



Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 1, 2018 at 12:12 PM

    Hi ETF Monkey,

    I'm Amiya. I have really enjoyed reading ETF Monkey.

    I'm the Channel Editor at ETF Trends (www.etftrends.com) and we are looking to add one or two new contributors to feature on our site.

    Would you be okay with us republishing some of your articles on our site?

    In return, we'll create an author bio page with links to your website and social media accounts. We'll also link back to the original piece in each article we republish.

    Please let me know if you have any questions. I'd be happy to jump on a quick call.

    Best,
    Amiya Moretta
    Channel Editor
    2010 Main Street, Suite 1170 | Irvine, CA 92614
    (t) 949.794.0070 | (f) 949.794.0075
    ETFtrends.com​

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownFebruary 6, 2018 at 1:15 PM

      Hi, Amiya. Yes I would be interested in communicating a little further. Please feel free to email me at etfmonkey@outlook.com.

      Regards,

      ETF Monkey

      Delete

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