The Wisdom of Breaking Away
In February 2012, a group of experienced skiers headed into the backcountry near the Stevens Pass resort in Washington State to look for untracked powder. It was a beautiful day, and everyone expected to have a great time skiing...
Let Go of the Money Worries
How many times have you had a conversation when you or the other person said something like: “I’m so worried about the stock market.” “I’m so worried about retirement.” “I’m so worried about the value of my home.” Assuming you...
Gen X, Y investors see fiscal hopes sink in real estate quagmire
Throughout the course of my career, I’ve heard a lot of financial horror stories. The majority of these stories are told by baby boomers whose aggressive stock market strategies went bust, often at the behest of a transaction-oriented “advisor.” The...
A Sad Cautionary Tale of Fraud
Recently, an adviser told me how one of his clients was scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by his son. Let’s call the client “Bill,” the son “Robert,” the adviser “Phil” and the advisory firm “Registered.” Phil works on...
A Cheap Investment That Could Return Millions
In 2006, I wrote The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read. Prior to that time, many investment books were long and mind-numbing, filled with charts, and intended to make investing so complex that readers would be incentivized to consult with the...
The Other Side of the Advisor Fees Discussion
A recent article by Motley Fool took dead aim at the cost of working with a financial advisor. The title says it all: “The Invisible and Brutal Cost of Using a Financial Advisor.” The premise of the article can be summarized as...
This Mantra Will Change How You Invest
Few can forget the iconic phrase in the movie “Jerry Maguire,” when Tom Cruise says, “Show me the money!” Here’s a similar mantra that will change the way you invest: “Show me the evidence!” A cursory review of what passes...
The Problems With Index Funds
An overwhelming body of evidence demonstrates that the majority of investors would be better off if they adopted indexed investment strategies. And while a total-stock-market index is fine for many investors, indexed investors who desire certain types of exposure face...
International Diversification Is Free
Today concludes our discussion on international stocks and whether investors should consider them in their portfolios. Negative tracking error has resulted in my receiving an increasing amount of calls questioning the wisdom of investing in international stocks. To help you...
Go International To Be Diversified
Today begins a two-part series on investing in international stocks. Over the past four years, international investments have done poorly relative to domestic investments. For example, from 2010 through 2013, while the S&P 500 Index returned 15.9 percent per year,...
