Terrible Advice in Tough Times
It’s sad that terrible advice is so freely dispensed in tough times. Investors are at their most vulnerable, reeling from the market selloff. Many in the financial media see this as an opportunity to boost ratings and generate revenue for...
During Market Turmoil, Just Listen to Your Financial Plan
Every year, right around this time, all the big brokerage firms, economists and banks come out with projections of what’s supposed to happen next in the financial world. This year is no exception. Especially prominent in the news has been...
Active Underperforms In EM, Too
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal proposed that investors consider five factors before investing in emerging markets. One of these five factors was the flexibility of active funds. The author, Michael Pollock, writes: “Managers of active funds can...
Why The Stock Market Is Volatile, Why Volatility Hurts, And What To Do About It
Unless you made a resolution not to read, listen to or watch the news in 2016, you’ve likely noticed that “the market” is off to a stumbling start. Indeed, one glance at the headlines, at least the ones that don’t...
The Simple DIY Portfolio That Has Beaten The Pros
The financial industry would prefer you to believe that you can’t be a successful investor without it. That’s good for business but it’s not exactly true. In fact, it may be truer to suggest that a layperson with a reasonable...
Clarify what diversification really means, and why it matters
When you sit down with a client for the very first time, what happens when you start talking about diversification? I’m betting you talk about picking a mix of investments, like stocks and bonds, maybe even some cash or real...
10 Things You Absolutely Need to Know About Life Insurance
Life insurance is one of the pillars of personal finance, deserving of consideration by every household. I’d even go so far as to say it’s vital for most. Yet, despite its nearly universal applicability, there remains a great deal of...
Not A Stock Picker’s Market. Again.
At the end of 2014, Tom Lee, co-founder and head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, explained why only about one out of five actively managed funds were able to outperform their benchmark index that year, and why he believed...
Investor Lessons From 2015
Every year, the market provides us with important lessons on the prudent investment strategy. Many times, the market will offer investors remedial courses, covering lessons that it has already delivered in previous years. That’s why one of my favorite sayings...
More 2015 Investor Lessons
Earlier this week, we began discussing 10 important lessons that the markets taught us in 2015 about the prudent investment strategy. In lessons one through three, we explored active management as a loser’s game, the “conventional wisdom” about the correlation...
