Ali Malito at MarketWatch kicked a hornet’s nest this week with her piece on how much money people in their 30s should have saved for retirement. This tweet and headline went viral (if you have a sense of humor or are a glutton for Internet punishment, check out the comments and replies to this one): The…

On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Are ETFs causing a market bubble? How the millionaire secretary became a multi-millionaire (and it wasn’t through stock picks). The pros & cons of the lack of visibility in private investment market values. The massive business that is airline credit cards. Worldly wisdom from Jim…

Trend-following is a strategy that got a lot of attention following the financial crisis. It’s something my views have evolved on over the years. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about what the typical trend-following signals actually mean. There’s much more nuance involved than simply looking at the moving average of the price…

Compound interest may be considered the 8th wonder of the world, but it’s the kind of sight that’s going to take a long time to see in person. The problem for most people is the majority of the gains from compounding come at the end and very few have the patience necessary to get to…

I do a lot of reading and research during the week which brings me into contact with lots of graphs, charts and tables. Here are four that stood out this week along with some comments. This chart from Goldman Sachs (h/t Sam Ro) shows how ownership of the U.S. stock market has evolved over the…

In 2001, Enron was the 7th largest company by revenue (close to $50 billion) before declaring the largest bankruptcy in the U.S. (at that time). Fortune magazine named it “the most innovative company” six years running from 1995-2000, right before they blew up. They were also named the 7th “most admired” company in 2001, the…

On this week’s Animal Spirits with Michael & Ben we discuss: Community-adjusted EBITDA. Elon Musk trolling Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger. Berkshire Hathaway underperforming the S&P 500 over the past 10 years. Why David Swensen thinks Buffett is wrong about college endowments. Why don’t more college endowments invest in index funds? Why owning a home is…

There a plenty of topics that seem to get investors all worked up — active vs. passive, individual bonds vs. bond funds, and of course, shareholder buybacks. Depending on who you ask, buybacks are either a signal that capitalism has gone too far or the greatest thing to ever happen to investors. As with most…

The S&P 500 hasn’t had a negative return for nine years now. There’s been some volatility in 2018 but overall things have been going pretty well for a while now. When things are going well in the markets it can become easier for investors to focus on the minutiae. Instead of focusing on the big…

I was on What’d You Miss? again Friday afternoon chatting with Scarlet, Julia, and Joe. I always have a good time talking with these three. We touched on two recent pieces I wrote — one about the 200-day moving average and the other about the lump sum vs. dollar cost averaging decision when investing cash in…