What the experts say

Minding ‘me-flation’

Wondering whether to brace for inflation or deflation? said Jason Zweig in The Wall Street Journal. Don’t worry about what the pundits are saying. “No one knows how to predict, with any degree of reliability, whether the cost of living is going to go up or down.” So instead focus on “me-flation”—that is, think about which of the two opposing threats would be most worrisome to you. If you’re a young professional with a steady job, a fixed-rate mortgage, and a portfolio full of stocks, a little inflation is actually good for you; deflation, meanwhile, could hurt your investment portfolio and increase your mortgage’s real cost. On the other hand, if you’re a retiree whose main sources of income are Social Security and a pension, the opposite is true: Deflation would simply boost your spending power.

Investing like an insider

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These days, very few promising companies are coming onto the stock market with initial public offerings, said Sarah Morgan in SmartMoney. What’s an intrepid investor to do? If you have a net worth of at least $1 million—excluding your home—and two years of $200,000 income under your belt, you may be eligible to invest in venture capital funds. But such funds aren’t your only options. If you’re interested in chipping in $25,000 to $100,000, you can buy into private deals via an angel investing group. Finally, websites such as SharesPost or SecondMarket can match you with employees from, say, Facebook who are interested in selling their private stash.

Is Apple overpicked?

“Apple is simply the most influential company in the world today,” said Scott Cendrowski in Fortune. During the past decade, it has transformed the music and cell phone industries, and seen profits rise an “astounding” 59 percent a year in the past five years alone. Over that same period, its stock is up 428 percent—making Apple the third most valuable company, by market capitalization, on the planet. So “what do universal adulation, a soaring stock price, and near-unanimous Wall Street support” mean for investors going forward? Unless you think the company will continue doubling its earnings—a tough feat to keep up—don’t buy now. The company “faces a nemesis that can paralyze any stock: the tyranny of high expectations.”