Weekend roundup: The Netflix ‘warning’ | A real mid-year investing strategy | Is maxing out your 401(k) enough?

MarketWatch rounds up 10 of its most interesting topics over the past week.

Shares of Netflix NFLX, -0.92% were down 12% through July 19 from a week earlier after the video-streaming pioneer failed to meet its own projections for subscriber growth. This has happened before, after which the high-flying stock has recovered. But here’s why things may turn out differently this time.

More Netflix and related coverage:

• Netflix’s junk bonds were also hammered by its weaker-than-expected numbers

• Trading action showed some investors expected disappointment from Netflix

• More than 5 million U.S. consumers are expected to cut the cord in 2018

Forget all those headlines predicting what’s in store for the second half of 2018. The passing of six months of a calendar year is “completely meaningless,” according to Mitch Tuchman, who explains how to avoid making terrible mistakes and provides the only mid-year investing strategy you need.

If you are fortunate enough to have an employer-sponsored, tax-deferred retirement plan, you might be able to maximize your annual contributions by slowly building them up as your salary increases. But even maximizing the contributions may not be enough to fund your retirement.

Here’s a clear explanation of rules and strategies of Roth IRAs, which can open up a lot of possibilities as you plan for retirement.

Also see: When is the best time to convert my traditional IRA to a Roth?

President Trump’s comments about NATO, the European Union and his aggressive stance on international trade have not rattled U.S. stocks — at least not yet. But investors need to think about bad economic scenarios and structure their portfolios accordingly.

You might be tempted to invest in a company’s stock because you love its products. Here’s why that might be a very bad idea.

Believe it or not, this concentration of investors’ wealth is typical.

Thomas Kee says President Trump has trained stock market investors.

Bryan Hinmon of the Motley Fool Global Opportunities Fund names companies whose CEOs are heavily involved in growth, innovation and making money for shareholders.

Here’s a list of classic books about investing that can entertain as well as inform.

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