Author: Norman L. Macht

More than 50 years ago, Donald I. Rogers, the financial editor of a New York newspaper, wrote a book, “Teach Your Wife to be a Widow.” Even though more women are working and are financially savvy today, the latest census figures show that one in four women aged 65 to 74 are widows. How many…

In a classic cartoon by Chas. Addams, whose weird characters populated the 1960s TV show “The Addams Family,” the audience in a movie theater is shown facing the screen. Every face is sad; everyone’s eyes are teary — except one. A ghoulish little man with fangs, wearing a black cape, is grinning. There is no…

It’s a lot simpler to earn money during your lifetime than it is to pass it on to others when you die. That’s because laws are written by legislatures filled with lawyers, who are seemingly incapable of composing anything in plain, unambiguous language, which, of course, provides plenty of employment for other lawyers. I am…

Those of us who have paid the highest price for the economic recovery policies of the past eight years are the conservative savers seeking safe, dependable income. The near-zero interest rates have forced retirees to either take on more risk than they want or draw on their savings. Neither is a palatable alternative. Prudence dictates…

The business of Wall Street is to make money using other people’s money. Like other consumer industries, they continually introduce new products. Some of those products, derivatives for example, are too complicated for even their inventors to understand and should be avoided like land mines. Others, like the mortgage-backed securities that led to the disastrous…

Here’s the ancient four-word secret to getting rich in the stock market: Buy low, sell high. Simple, isn’t it? So why doesn’t everybody do it? Psychology and emotions get in the way. The only time you can buy low is when all the news is bad, the stock market is crashing, pessimism fills the airwaves,…