A podcast listener asks: I work at a pension fund steadily losing performance chasing members (we were positioned too conservatively through the bull market) – and now the investment committee wants to be more “peer-aware”. I tend to think now is not the time to make a more aggressive allocation, but part of me also…
Ben Carlson
The Life Cycle of Wealth
In his book The Ages of the Investor, William Bernstein describes a mythical employer named Uncle Fred who offers investors a retirement savings scheme determined by the flip of the coin. One side of the coin results in a +30% annual gain while the other side gives you a -10% loss in a given year. Since the…
Animal Spirits Episode 76: Money Makes Money
This week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben is sponsored by YCharts: Mention Animal Spirits and receive 20% off your subscription price when you initially sign up for the service. We discuss: Is the retirement crisis overblown? Or is it worse than most people assume? What do we do today that will seem crazy in 50 years? Pay…
The Stories We Tell Ourselves to Sell Ourselves
Marc Andreessen recently told Brian Koppelman venture capitalists seem to have an unlimited amount of ideas to pick from these days. Ideas are the easy part. The hard part is executing on those ideas. Andreessen said his venture firm a16z is more interested in founders with great ideas who can also sell those ideas to…
RWM is Hiring!
My firm is in the market for a new trader. See the details here: Ritholtz Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor headquartered in New York City with advisors and clients across the country. The firm launched in 2013 and in just over five years amassed more than $1 billion in client assets under management,…
Dividends Don’t Matter As Much As They Used To
In his excellent market history book, It Was a Very Good Year, Martin Fridson tells the story of the year that was in the market in 1915. It remains one of the strongest years on record for the stock market, which was up more than 50%, even though World War I was well underway at the time….
The Stocks Manage Themselves
Professor, investor, and researcher Roger Ibbotson made an excellent point about investing in stocks in a recent sit-down with Barry for MIB: As a portfolio manager, you could do nothing and you might do fine. You don’t have to literally trade every day to make things work. You only want to trade when you really…
7 Benefits of Writing
One of the reasons I prioritize writing is because I’ve seen so many benefits from the process, both personally and professionally. Here are some that come to mind: 1. The learning process. There are a dozen iterations of the quote that goes something like this: “I write to learn what it is I think.” I…
Animal Spirits Episode 75: The Netflix of Financial Advice
On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: How to pay for college on the cheap Why is financial literacy in the U.S. so low? Is there ever going to be a solution for the retirement savings crisis? The Netflix model for financial advice Why the financial services industry is like the…
So I Tried Cutting the Cord…
It’s estimated the average American spends nearly 3 hours a day watching TV. Many bemoan the fact that people waste so much time with mindless entertainment like this but I don’t really have a problem with it as long as you take care of business elsewhere in your life. We all need some time to…
