Ben Carlson

3 Reasons to Save More Money

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” – Dr. Suess Saving is by far the most important first step in any investment plan. Without a solid savings portfolio your investment decisions don’t really have much of an impact. Here are 3 additional benefits to saving more money. 1. Replace Less Current Income…

Is Your Investment Strategy Mediocre?

“Successful investing can almost be easy: Avoid harmful “accidents” and do what will achieve your own most important long-term objectives. The very human irony is that learning this lesson can take so many years that by the time we “get it,” it may be too late to use the lesson because the powers of compounding…

The Best Books I Read in 2013

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people over a broad subject matter area who didn’t read all the time – none, zero.” – Charlie Munger These are the best books I’ve read in 2013. INVESTING Backstage Wall Street by Josh Brown Brown spent a number of years working as a commissioned broker…

Professional Athletes and Their Money

“I spent 90 percent of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted.” — Manchester United and Irish soccer legend George Best Some staggering stats from Sports Illustrated on the topic of professional athletes and their money: By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL…

More Stock Bubble Talk

“It’s one of my first principles that we never know where we’re going – given the unreliability of macro forecasting – but we ought to know where we are.” – Howard Marks Reader mailbag: I read your article about stock levels (New Round Numbers! What Does it All Mean?) and I’m curious how you could…

You Should Listen to the Smart People, Right?

An old article from the New York Magazine made the rounds on Twitter last week titled “Strike up the bonds.” It was originally written in 1992 and it covered the economic uncertainty that existed at that time. Here are some excerpts: “The economy may, in fact, be stuck in a rarefied zone somewhere between recession…

Would You be Gullible Enough to Invest with Bernie Madoff?

“There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.” – Charles Cotton I was reading the book Think Twice by Michael Mauboussin recently (great book for anyone interested in behavioral psychology and how your brain processes information in a counterintuitive way) and he shared a story…