Here’s a recent headline from Investment News: Now here’s an alternative headline and byline: DOL fiduciary rule could add $2.4 billion to retirees’ pockets Implementing the standard on retirement accounts could help investors lower their costs by more than twice the current estimates, according to new research It’s all about how you look at it. Morningstar estimates…
The Most Important Retirement Fund Right Now
There’s never been a better time to be an individual investor. Fees and commissions continue to drop. There are more options than ever for investment products, strategies and fund structures. And there’s an unbelievable amount of quality research and commentary about saving, investing, retirement and the markets available for free.
Calculated Risks From the Coach Who Never Punts
My brother has been hounding me for while now to look into the high school football coach who never punts. I finally did a deep dive by reading a few articles and watching some videos on Kevin Kelley, the head football coach at Pulaski Academy.
A Painful Year for Contrarian Trades
There’s been something of a bull market in people who consider themselves a contrarian investor in recent years. People took notice of those who called the tech bubble in the late-1990s, the the real estate bubble in the mid-2000s or the bottom of the stock market in early 2009. Everyone would now like to think…
The 2015 Financial Market Awards
With apologies to Steve Harvey, here are my financial market awards for 2015: Best Streak: The S&P 500 is up 7 years in a row.* Sure, it’s only up 3% or so this year, but think about all of the worry and doom and gloom since 2009. The fact that the broad stock market hasn’t had…
Pros & Cons of a Sideways Market
With just a few more days remaining in 2015, the market — as measured by the S&P 500 — has basically gone nowhere this year:
Two Business Lessons From Patagonia’s Yvon Chouinard
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is something of a reluctant businessman. He never set out to create one of the most well-known clothing and outdoor brands on the planet. Everything he made during the first few years of the company was gear that him and his friends could use on their expeditions when they went mountain climbing…
The Best Books I Read in 2015
This was the first year I made the transition to do the majority of my reading digitally. It takes some getting used to, but I’ve found the Kindle Paperwhite to be one of my favorite new pieces of technology. It’s lightweight and the screen quality is amazing — no glare from the sunlight, works in…
Why Long/Short Funds Have Performed So Poorly?
Long/short funds are one of those strategies that is wonderful in theory but very difficult to pull off successfully in practice. These funds go long the stocks they think are going to rise and go short the stocks they think are going to fall. So they should be able to make money in a wide…
The Passive Investing Revolution That’s Not So Passive
In the latest issue of the Financial Analysts Journal, Vanguard’s John Bogle penned quite the reflection piece on index funds. It was part history lesson and part victory lap on the rise of the low-cost investing revolution: