Blog

Closed‑End Funds: The Overlooked Income Engine

A look at the long history of closed-end funds, from 1839’s Adams Express to today’s resilient income engines — with a timeline graphic and insights on compounded returns.

The Two‑Week Window: How Smart Investors Use Year‑End Strategy to Boost Returns

The last two weeks of the year offer powerful opportunities for tax‑loss harvesting, strategic rebalancing, and smart lateral moves that can improve your financial outcome for the year ahead.

Buying Dollars for 90 Cents: Why CEFs can Shine in a Market Reset

Unlocking Value in Closed-End Funds: Why Discounts Matter Imagine walking into a store and finding a $100 gift card priced at $90, or even $75..

Beyond Cash: Positioning for Yield and Growth in a "Melt-Up" Era

Navigating the New Financial Landscape: Is Your Portfolio Aligned With Reality? Stocks are hitting new highs, just weeks ago, headlines warned of looming corrections and cracks in the financial system. So what changed?

🎓 Are You Making This IRA Mistake? It Could Cost You Thousands in College Aid

🎓 Missing Records, Missing Aid If you're a parent saving for college, you might be doing everything right, but make sure you're not making this mistake..

From Cash to Conviction: Wealth Building on the Road Ahead

📊 The Everything Code + Bittel + Vissers: Investors waiting for a crash may be missing the early stages of a transformation that doesn’t follow past cycles—the start of something much bigger.

From Ion Counts to ETF Allocations: My Behavioral Finance Journey

Thinking outside the box isn’t a style—it’s a system. It’s a habit: looking past the obvious, questioning the structure, and building clarity where others see noise. It’s the kind of thinking that helps navigate uncertainty with confidence.

Is September Really THAT Bad for Stocks? Here's the Key

📆 Does September Deserve its Bearish Reputation? Every year, people say the same thing: “September is a bad month for the market.” You’ve probably heard it a lot. Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. But here’s the thing—just saying...

Is Your Advisor Future-Ready?

🧠 Does your financial strategy reflect where the world is going, or is your advisor missing the biggest economic shifts of our lifetime?

📣 Buy Buy Bye? The Cramer Indicator and Thinking for Yourself

📣 Buy Buy Bye? The Cramer Indicator, Market Soundboards, and Thinking for Yourself You’ve heard it before—Jim Cramer energetically pounding the desk, shouting “BUY BUY BUY!” as stocks spike or stumble in his wake. But what if we told...

FACTOR INVESTING FOR DUMMIES

It's not just our core investment philosophy. We actually wrote the book on it!

GOT KIDS WONDERING WHAT TO FOCUS ON IN COLLEGE?

If Nvidia CEO's Jensen Huang were a college student today, he says he’d focus on THIS

High Yield, Hidden Risk: The Tax Pitfalls of Partnerships and Alternative Assets in IRAs

High Yield, Hidden Risk: The Tax Pitfalls of Partnerships and Alternative Assets in IRAs What Every Income-Seeking Investor Needs to Know About UBTI From popular energy infrastructure names like Energy Transfer LP (ET) to certain...

Understanding "Midcurving" and the Dunning-Kruger effect

The term "midcurving" in investing comes from the idea of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which describes how people with limited knowledge often overestimate their expertise, while true experts and experienced investors recognize the...

Generating Weekly Income with the new WeePays

WeeklyPay™ ETFs are a new type of exchange-traded fund designed to provide weekly income from various indexes, sectors and stocks. These ETFs aim to deliver weekly distributions to cater to investors seeking more frequent passive...

High School JUNIORS! The Time to Maximize College Aid is Right NOW!

Navigating the FAFSA, for Juniors. Start now to maximize your financial aid!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: BUILD AUTOMATIC WEALTH

More Money Saving ideas: MONEY TO INVEST IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU! We all know that as investors it's crucial to "Pay Yourself First" and make investing a priority, a "bill" paid to our future rather than an afterthought. But WHERE to...

INFLATION COLLAPSE? Don't Overlook this Market Tailwind!

Do you remember when reporters used to pay close attention to how thick Alan Greenspan's folder was when he entered Federal Reserve meetings? Well, the top financial authority in the US is trying to be more open. Time to pay attention!

New Morningstar "Dalbar" Study Highlights Value of your BFA™

Many investors and advisors are familiar with the Dalbar Study. The 2023 Results are in, and they're not good! Investors are still their own worst enemies! We can help!

The Great Horse Manure Crisis: A Pile of History and Lessons in Innovation

"MANURE CRISIS" was the headline in Britain’s premier newspaper in 1894! Here are some lesson learned from the Great Horse Manure Crisis we can apply today.

DON'T LET "DEFAULT" SCARE YOU

Don't "Outsmart" Yourself. Stay the Course! For major investable trends, markets don't turn on good news, or even bad news. They turn on mass psychology

Gold Bugs and Dollar Bears. Get a Plan!

If you're an investor, it's likely you're  being inundated with newsletters, blogs and editorials predicting the End of the World, A Dollar Crash, and recommending massive Buying of Precious Metals.A market crash (or for that...

Successful Investors Avoid Bear Traps

Maendel Wealth sees compelling signs that this Bear Market is getting old in the tooth. Are you positioned to thrive?

Waiting for the Tech Crash, Amygdala hijacks, & Groundhog Day

If you were wondering when the Tech Crash was coming, it actually started over a year ago. Some of the pandemic's hottest names are now down 70%, 80%...

The Pearl Harbor Market Bottom

WEALTH, WAR and WISDOM. What do you think would have happened if you "took cover" or went to cash after hearing about the unprecedented Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, knowing it almost certainly meant the start of a World War?

Rising Rates: Let the Game Come to YOU!

Rising Interest Rates are dominating the headlines. Should it scare you? The market has never peaked with the same level of interests rates in history according to research by market historians.

"Hanging Ten" with the Market!

"HANGING TEN": Pulling off this classic surfing maneuver successfully requires the down pressure of a back wave. In similar manner, a bull market requires the backpressure of negative sentiment and fear from a significant portion of...

The Best-Performing Investment of the past Twelve Years?

What’s been one of the best-performing investments of the past twelve years? FANG stocks? Shanghai property? Digital assets? Up there with the best, believe it or not, are Zimbabwean 100 trillion dollar notes. A trillion, by the...

MYTHBUSTING! Setting the Record Straight on "CHEAP" STOCKS

The "Cheap Stock" Myth One of the most common questions we get from Maendel Wealth clients is "Some portfolio holdings seem so expensive, so it seems those companies and funds must not have room to grow, right? Shouldn't we want to...

Why You Shouldn't Wait to Sell Your Used Car

Why You Shouldn't Wait to Sell Your Used Car. Thinking about selling an old or unused car? Here's why you should probably do it NOW instead of next year:

Here's what the Market's Fretting About:

Are you making big, binary bets on #gold or any one asset class assuming inflation, currency depreciation or any one scenario? Why take that chance when you don't need to?

"Keeping up with the Joneses" Can be Deadly for your Wealth!

Throughout my over 20-year Wall Street investing career, I’ve seen lot of smart people do plenty of dumb things… Things like watching their neighbors make more money than they did in the markets … and then, to try...

The Worlds "Unluckiest" Investor

THE WORLD'S UNLUCKIEST INVESTOR: SOME INVESTORS constantly live in fear of a market crash. I believe the best way to address such a fear is to try to evaluate "what's the worst that can happen". While past performance is no quarantee...

SURFING THE NEW NORMAL