Recent Articles |
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2021-05-01
The first quarter of 2021 played out roughly as expected with continued stimulus and low interest rates.
Vaccinations have facilitated reopenings and an increase in travel.
Most financial asset prices continued their climb, but at a faster rate than we expected.
Value stocks... read more
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2021-03-16
In this article, we discuss pros and cons of diversification.
We make the case that broad diversification within equities, while preventing extremely positive returns,
is the best option for most people. We discuss some exceptions to this rule.
However, we believe that... read more
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2021-02-28
Value investing and growth investing are two approaches for selecting stocks.
Value investing is generally attributed to an approach used by Ben Graham and his apprentice Warren Buffett.
They sifted through Moody's manuals and other reports to find companies trading below an... read more
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2021-01-16
In 2020 the US government increased spending by almost 50% without increasing revenue.
It spent over 6.5 trillion USD, with 3.1 trillion in deficit spending in the fiscal year!
Meanwhile, the government offered almost a trillion dollars of tax relief.
(See this link... read more
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2021-01-10
In this article we provide our example portfolio for for 2021. It's
aimed at investors planning to save for at least 10 more years, and may be too risky
for someone needing their money back sooner. We've kept prior portfolios... read more
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2020-12-25
It’s been an interesting year. On the investing front, we saw a quick, short recession
bring the S&P 500 down over 30% in just 30 days. Fast forward a few months and,
despite worsening health conditions, equities were at all... read more
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2020-11-21
It’s been a while since we wrote an article on Bitcoin.
Now that Bitcoin's price is within striking distance of the all-time high, we figured we'd
provide another one of our historical price comparisons.
Our past comparisons
have proved very useful - the subsequent... read more
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2020-11-13
When it comes to investing, experts believe that psychology is more important than IQ.
Warren Buffett once said "Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with the 130 IQ.”
Isaac Newton, one of... read more
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2020-10-11
Polls show that investors are planning to be more active due to the 2020 presidential election.
For example, a
survey by Hartford funds found 45% of investors are planning to make portfolio changes before the election and 62% in... read more
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2020-09-08
This article discusses a recent policy change by the US Federal Reserve.
We’ll focus on how this change may impact your investments.... read more
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2020-08-05
At the time of this writing, the US government is considering a second COVID-19
stimulus package, likely amounting to 1-3 trillion USD. Such spending has prompted
fears of runaway inflation in much of the general public. This and other developments
have... read more
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2020-06-23
Investments are doing well. The curve was flattened, restrictions are easing, and many companies are reopening.
The US jobs report for May
beat all expectations I’m aware of.
The S&P 500 has recovered to within a... read more
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2020-05-22
This article includes a simple, high-level discussion of financial assets.
From just this view, one can see the benefits and risks associated with various assets, and why they hold or increase value.
Most of us know these things, but it's helpful to... read more
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2020-04-03
Studies indicate that over half of workers fail to estimate their retirement needs until their 60s,
leading many to delay retirement or live an overly frugal retirement.
Why not spend a few minutes now to better understand how much you need to... read more
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2020-03-23
Since our last article COVID-19 has spread quickly across the world, mostly
in line with expert predictions. Extreme measures have been enacted to slow
the spread of the disease, hopefully enough to prevent overruns at most hospitals.
Unfortunately, these safety measures come... read more
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2020-02-28
First, we extend our thoughts and best wishes to those affected by the coronavirus.
We hope nations around the world work together and take swift action to stop or slow the spread of this disease.
... read more
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2020-02-06
While Tesla shares are up over 60% in the last month, Ford and GM have taken a beating, down 12% and 3.5% respectively.
We have serious respect for Tesla and the low cost of ownership reportedly achieved for the Model 3,... read more
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2020-01-10
How many funds do you need for good diversification? Many experts will tell you just one.
If you want more control, then you can have a pretty good amount with just 3 or 4. For most of us,
juggling dozens... read more
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2019-11-21
There are many good articles describing 401(k)s
online (e.g. this one).
We won't try to duplicate them here.
However, we've received questions from readers wanting to quantify the difference between using a traditional 401(k), Roth 401(k) or... read more
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2019-11-12
In this article we explain a safer way to buy individual stocks.
Unless your education, passion, and career are devoted to it, we recommend against buying individual stocks (we recommend index funds).
However, many of us can't resist... read more
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2019-10-26
This article could save you a lot of time. We want to show you that attempting to beat the returns of a market (e.g. the S&P 500) is mostly futile.
Most of you know someone who claims to beat the... read more
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2019-10-09
The intent of this article is to help you better handle dire economic news you will likely encounter.
Ever since I've read investing news on the internet, a significant percentage of it has been from "experts" predicting doom and gloom in... read more
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2019-08-07
An index fund tracks the returns of a market index, which is a collection of securities like the S&P 500 or Russell 2000.
It does this by investing in those securities, generally in a passive fashion (automatically buying shares via a... read more
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2019-08-01
Although this is not new, we wanted to share the details of a bet Warren Buffett made with Protégé Partners in late 2007.
The intent is to provide our readers with another warning about high fee, actively managed funds.
Warren made a... read more
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2019-06-25
Although I’m a fan of Ethereum I wanted to warn potential investors to think carefully before buying Ether at 350+ USD prices.
While Bitcoin is apparently becoming a store of value like gold (which is very hard to price), many believe... read more
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2019-05-07
In a November 2018 article we pointed out that Bitcoin historically fell about 85% from long-term highs to subsequent long-term lows. We said that, from a historical viewpoint, the price of Bitcoin should bottom within three months... read more
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2019-03-29
This article explains a path to financial freedom that doesn't require extraordinary skill or effort. This is mostly based on a book entitled "Set for Life" by Scott Trench. Starting in your low or mid 20's with... read more
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2019-03-21
This article provides concise instructions to invest saved money efficiently. The reasoning for this approach is mostly excluded to keep this as concise as possible (other articles like this are available for that). ... read more
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2019-03-16
It’s mostly been a great start to 2019 for stocks. The S&P 500 rose 12% in less than 3 months. What should we expect for the remainder of this year and subsequent years? We stick to our... read more
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2019-02-25
I normally don’t have much brand loyalty.
I’ll buy an iPhone, but my next phone is just as likely to be a Samsung.
One of the few companies I do respect is Vanguard.
They have a long history of helping those of us... read more
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2019-01-16
ETFs that are actively managed by automated algorithms,
such as the AI powered AIEQ, quickly gathered over $100M of capital after their birth in October of 2017.
They were considered a sexy new investment vehicle in their... read more
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2018-12-11
Joe Davis spoke on December 10, 2018 about his team’s global economic outlook. While I don’t believe anyone can give very definitive predictions in this realm, he and his team are among the few that I believe are worth... read more
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2018-11-25
At the time of this writing Bitcoin trades for about 3,700 USD. This is about 80% down from the peak in mid-December 2017. Analysts studying the charts will tell you there’s been a lot of panic selling recently.... read more
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2018-10-24
At the time of this writing the S&P 500 has lost over 9% of its value in the last month (3% today alone). Many people are asking if they need to sell to avoid further losses. A few... read more
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2018-08-16
One of the easiest ways to maximize investment returns is to avoid excessive fees. Data clearly shows that high fees do NOT imply better returns. Most people underestimate the compounding of fees over time. Table 1 below... read more
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2018-07-04
This article explains what you need to know to get started investing. It has been made as concise as possible. Links are given where you may want additional information.... read more
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2018-01-02
In 2017 Bitcoin increased 1400%. However, there was a 25% drop after Bitcoin futures began trading in the US, late in the year. So, what’s the forecast for 2018? I won’t attempt to make a prediction myself... read more
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2017-12-24
The purpose of this article is to warn readers about actively managed mutual funds. In the last 10 years many prominent investors including Warren Buffet, Jack Bogle and Ray Dalio have warned about this. We’re re-broadcasting the message... read more
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2017-12-20
It's no secret that there's a significant amount of fake news and misleading information on the internet.
However, this is more prevalent when it comes to cryptocurrency-related information, including websites near the top of major search engines.
There's a lot of... read more
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