In the last post we saw that market returns (the mean) are higher than average fund returns (the median) because the majority of mutual funds under-perform the market average. We also saw that mutual funds are packaged investment strategies, which are actively managed bets designed to beat market returns. And finally we saw that the […]
I’ve been busy the last few months enhancing the planning tool I’ve developed, R-Map Planner, and building a home for it on the web where planners and civilians alike can find out about it and license it. So I’ve been a bit absent here from posts recently (no cheering!), part of the time division that […]
With it’s recent awards to economists Gene Fama, Robert Shiller, and Lars Peter Hansen, the Nobel committee appears to have come to a conclusion, of sorts, that the markets are irrationally efficient. F. Scott Fitzgerald suggested the ability to hold two opposite ideas in mind at the same time and still be able to function […]
In the last few posts, we have been discussing the investment phases of a lifetime financial plan. In the first we discussed the retirement income phase and in the second, the savings phase. In this post I will discuss how to create a low-cost, broadly diversified portfolio that is invested in the global economy to […]
In part one I discussed the four phases of a lifetime savings and investment plan and how investing during the retirement income phase is driven by the strength of your household balance sheet, not by the need to beat the market or stretch for yield. The stronger your balance sheet, the more risk capacity you […]
All time high. And for whatever reason you’re sitting on a lot of cash, maybe you pulled out of the market during the dark days of 2009 (ouch), or have accumulated some savings, an inheritance, or other windfall. Or maybe you have a bunch of scattered investments and cash in money markets that got thrown […]
Learning about finance and investing is probably not high on your list of leisure activities, maybe ranking somewhere between watching curling and vacuuming the dust behind the refrigerator. Check out this series of eight short broadcast-quality videos at SensibleInvesting.tv. Though not quite Downton Abbey, they’re (mildly) entertaining for their British lilt while providing an easy […]
With the market within hailing distance of a new all-time high, on top of a 12% gain in the past three months, snake-bit investors and savers are beginning to think about equities again. The Atlantic recently posted “Smart Investing is Easier Than You Think,” making some good points about fund costs and asset allocations. One […]
The emerging middle class referenced last week is both the effect and the cause of the continuing evolution of global markets. Thomas Friedman notes that the most highly evolved global businesses no longer talk about ‘outsourcing.’ That’s so 42 seconds ago in a 4G world. Instead, he posits, there is no in- or out- anymore. […]
A couple recent reports give some indication that the world of investing continues to change. Investment News reports that while total assets under management in the advisory industry has recovered above re-2008 crash levels to $11.2 trillion, four big brokerages, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wells Fargo, have lost a trillion dollars in client assets […]