Investment Planning Topics
The Low-Risk Anomaly
I ran across an interesting article this week that was published in early 2011 in the Financial Analysts Journal (FAJ). The article is an academic study on the long term returns of investing in high-risk versus low-risk stocks. The study was conducted by three professors of finance/economics who are also asset managers. If you have […]
Recency Bias
Recency bias is not a term you often hear in the investment world, but I have read about it and seen other people experience this thought process when it comes to investing in the markets. I believe recency bias is one of the causes of why so many people sabotage their investments by “buying high […]
A Tool to Help Monitor Your Investments
If you are like me, after years of working and saving money, you have several retirement related accounts spread around different financial institutions. In this post I will introduce you to a free online software tool that can help make monitoring your investments much easier.
My First Real Estate Investment in 13 Years
In a recent post I described in detail a real estate investment of a single family home I have owned for 20 years. In my opinion it has been a pretty good investment for us. In this post I will describe my first real estate purchase in 13 years.
The impact of Stock Dividends on Total Return
In many posts I have stressed the importance of the income an investment provides as much as any capital appreciation you may hope to gain from the investment. In my last post I described a real estate investment I have held for the past 20 years and the income it provides. The importance of income […]
Paying for Investment Advice
Generally, I believe the average person does not need to pay for any investment advisory services to achieve their retirement goals. The most important steps to reach your retirement goals is to be disciplined in your saving and investing over a long period of time as discussed in the posts in this blog. However, some […]
Is Your Bank and Your Insurance Company Financially Healthy?
If you remember back a few years ago, the three large credit rating agencies, S&P, Moody’s, and Fitch, completely missed the 2008-2009 financial crisis. They each gave several companies investment-grade credit ratings just a few months before they went bankrupt. The most famous “rating miss” was a “AAA rating” that one of the agencies’ still […]
When will the Secular Bear Market End?
The US stock market has been in a secular bear market since 2000. It will be difficult to make any money in stocks until this long term bear market ends. So, the question is when will the secular bear market we are currently experiencing end?
Pay Down Debt or Increase Savings
A friend of mine who is early in his career recently told me that he had finally paid off his car. He wanted to know whether he should use his newly available cash flow to pay down other outstanding debt or use the funds to increase his retirement savings. This is a good question. In […]
Should You Use a Financial Advisor
I am often asked if I use a financial advisor. Financial advisors can be very helpful. In this post I will give my thoughts on whether you should use a financial advisor.
