​What exactly is the “sequence of returns”? The phrase simply describes the yearly variation in an investment portfolio’s rate of return. Across 20 or 30 years of saving and investing for the future, what kind of impact do these deviations from the average return have on a portfolio’s final value?
 
The answer: no impact at all.
 
Once an investor retires, however, these ups and downs can have a major effect on portfolio value – and retirement income. 

​What is the yield curve, and why is the financial media writing about it? Here is a brief explanation, starting with a clarification.
 
A yield curve is really an X-Y graph projecting expected rates of return for equivalent-quality bonds with different maturity dates. But it is not just any yield curve that matters. When investors, commentators, and economists talk about “the yield curve,” they are talking about the graph plotting the interest rates of Treasuries: 3-month, 2-year, 5-year, 10-year, and 30-year notes. The “curve” is the line connecting their projected future yields. This Treasury yields snapshot is authoritatively referred to as: “the yield curve.”1,2

The Federal Reserve has hiked the benchmark interest rate twice this year, and it expects to make two more hikes before 2019 arrives. It projects the federal funds rate will approach 3.5% by 2020.1
 
What could these rate hikes mean for you?
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