Diversification Is the Sane Alternative to Betting Big on One Investment
You made a huge mistake last year with your money. You know this now, right? The only investments in your portfolio that did very well were probably United States stocks. Bonds may have held their own, but everything else was...
A Mystery in Hedge Fund Investing
When I look at hedge funds, there are three data points that keep bothering me. They create a pattern that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I hope you can help me understand what I’m missing. 1. Hedge fund performance...
Deflation and Stock and Bond Returns
Overview: With expected inflation rates very low, there will be significant attention on the possibility of deflation causing the stock market to fall. This blog examines the relationship between the rate of inflation and stock and bond returns. Generally, the research...
Rethinking Money, Not as Good or Bad but as a Tool
Almost everything we’re taught about money is focused on spending it and saving it. Parents, teachers and even personal finance books discuss saving money as keeping it, increasing it and controlling it. Saving money involves figuring out ways to get...
How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life
Author Russ Roberts takes an interesting tack in his new book, “How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life.” While Smith’s most famous tome, “The Wealth of Nations,” has been most popular in economic and investor circles, his other volume, “The...
What are the risks of alternative yield-seeking strategies?
Q: What are the risks of alternative yield-seeking strategies? A: Replacing a portion of your high-quality bond or bond mutual fund holdings with strategies ranging from high-dividend stocks to oil-and-gas master limited partnerships because “rates are low” involves taking on...
Are you aware of the hidden costs in municipal bonds?
Q: Are you aware of the hidden costs in municipal bonds? A: A markup is the difference between the price paid by a broker/dealer and the price a bond was sold to a client. Broker/dealers are permitted to charge fair...
A 4-Step Process to Integrating Money and Life
Once you’ve abandoned the pursuit of balancing money and life in favor of integrating the two, the question still remains: Now what? How the heck do I better integrate money and life? Like most personal finance dilemmas, the answer is simple, but not easy. It’s simple because...
The Consistency of Inconsistency, and How to Adapt Your Financial Goals
When my children took their first steps, they were tentative. They were quick to grab the nearest object to keep their balance. However, it didn’t take long before they started acting like they were invincible. Seemingly overnight, my children went...
Making the Most of Resolution
You’ve heard that New Year’s resolutions have a horrendous success rate, right? One source suggests the number is as low as 8 percent … 8 stinking percent. But why? Is it for a lack of resolve? Somehow, I don’t think that’s it....
