Learning Center

New Report On The Cost of Kids: Reading Between The Lines

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 read between the lines, there are three extremely important points that don’t show up in...

Smart Millennials Can Be Dumb Investors

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 and entitled. Others report they have a community spirit. A study published in 2012 in...

Why Care What Hussman Forecasts?

Date01 Sep 2014

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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) and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept...

Dealing With the ‘Personal’ in Personal Finance

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 our clients, we often struggle at the task. The main problem, as I recently wrote:...

Understanding Small Value ETFs

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 fund owns, the higher the expected returns of the portfolio are. The following table, with...

The Algorithm Scam

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 who came up with such an algorithm and published the methodology in a peer-reviewed journal...

Resist Changing Direction Because of a Single Event

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 discuss everything we’d need for the trip. We had a lot of experience hiking and...

Quick Take on Fixed Income

Date01 Sep 2014

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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 greater the expected return. However, evidence has shown that investors have not realized higher risk-adjusted...

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