What should investors be watching during the COVID-19 crisis? Schwab analysts discuss the factors most likely to shape the economic recovery. Getting a mortgage from your local bank might be a mistake right now. Diana Olick looks into how to find the best rates in the current market. Should you take a distribution from your IRA this year? Required minimum distributions are suspended for 2020, but there may be tax advantages to taking them anyway, as Morningstar reports.
Waiting For The Coronavirus Peak — While many economists agree that we are in a recession, there is disagreement about how deep and long the contraction will be. Economic growth in the second quarter is expected to fall sharply, resulting in the largest contraction in real GDP in the post-WWII era. Meanwhile, corporate earnings estimates are more of a guess than anything. While risks still remain, analysts at Schwab are becoming more optimistic that the worst of the fixed income market decline may be behind us. Read more…
Here’s Why Mortgage Rates Are All Over The Place — And How To Find A Good One — As the economy went into free fall from the coronavirus, the risk for lenders only increased, and that risk is necessarily priced into mortgage loans. A lot of borrowers tend to refinance with their local bank, where they have other accounts, or with the same lender several times because they know them. This may not be the time for that. Read more…
FAQ On the RMD Suspension For 2020 — The CARES Act suspends required minimum distributions that would otherwise be due for 2020. As was the case in 2009, when RMDs were last suspended, the goal of this latest RMD pause is to keep investors from having to tap their tax-deferred accounts when they’re down, leaving fewer assets in place to recover when the market eventually does. But there may be reasons to take a distribution anyway, as Christine Benz writes for Morningstar. Read more…
John R. Day, Bill Ennis, Stephanie Hall, and Matt Heller
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