Nails In The Hedge Fund Coffin
The combination of the S&P 500 Index losing about 1 percent per year during the decade from 2000-2009 and a rising tide of obligations caused a “perfect storm” for public workers’ pension funds across the country. These funds increasingly began...
5 Investing Myths May Stop You From Retiring On Time
Investors are battered daily with an avalanche of financial information. Much of it is wrong. The securities industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually sponsoring all forms of financial media, a great portion of which is little more than...
New Report On The Cost of Kids: Reading Between The Lines
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released its annual “Cost of Raising a Child” report. The news from it is really no news at all to us parents—kids are stinking expensive and growing even more so. However, if you...
Smart Millennials Can Be Dumb Investors
Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are an interesting group of people. The term typically refers to those born between the early 1980s and 2000. The general perception of this generation is mixed. Some articles portray them as selfish, lazy...
Why Care What Hussman Forecasts?
In my book, “Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett,” I noted that the Oracle of Omaha advised investors: “We have long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune-tellers look good. Even now, Charlie (Munger)...
Dealing With the ‘Personal’ in Personal Finance
To really help people, financial planners have to delve into the the feelings and emotions that drive their clients’ financial decisions. One planner explains why that’s so hard. While most of us financial advisers want to do the best for...
Understanding Small Value ETFs
As a continuation of our previous discussion earlier this month on small value mutual funds, today I’d like to review the metrics of some popular small value ETFs. As a reminder, the smaller and more “valuey” the stocks that a...
The Algorithm Scam
An algorithm is defined as a set of detailed instructions that result in a predictable end-state from a known beginning. The discovery of an algorithm that would consistently generate outsized returns would be the holy grail of investing. The individual...
Resist Changing Direction Because of a Single Event
I recently went backpacking in the Uinta Mountains. It’s a range of gorgeous peaks close to my home in Park City, Utah. A group of friends planned to spend a few days in the backcountry, so we got together to...
Quick Take on Fixed Income
Q: Can you capture higher returns on a municipal portfolio by lowering its credit quality? A: Investors generally demand a higher yield when purchasing lower-credit-quality municipal bonds due to their greater risk. The assumption is the greater the risk, the...
