I always find that it’s easier to use the process of elimination to figure out what works by first figuring out what doesn’t work in the hopes that all that remains is the good stuff. As Charlie Munger famously says, “Invert, always invert.” I have an entire section of my book devoted to negative knowledge…

Last month I opened things up to my email subscribers by asking for any suggestions for future writing topics that I’ve yet to cover here. By far the most popular and repeated question came from parents and grandparents who would like to know how to instill good financial habits into their children and grandchildren. It’s…

Some of my writing and ideas here and on other media outlets have been called into question lately by some well-known trend following investors. I’m all about casting a skeptical eye on your own ideas because I think it’s important to be willing to admit your limitations, so I’m all about having a healthy debate. Challenging…

Stocks have been on an absolute tear since they bottomed out in 2009: But since the market peaked in early 2000, U.S. stocks haven’t really done much for investors as we’ve gone through a series of booms and busts: On the other hand, interest rates around the globe are at historically low levels: Nevertheless, it’s hard…

The Barclays Aggregate Index is basically the S&P 500 of the bond markets. Formerly the Lehman Brothers Aggregate Index before 2008 (you can thank Dick Fuld for that), the Barclays Agg is the bond index that all total U.S. bond market index funds are benchmarked to for tracking purposes. The biggest bond fund in the…

As discussed a couple weeks ago, it’s been over nine years since the Fed has raised interest rates. ZIRP has also now been in place since late-2008. Anyone who’s tried to earn interest in a money market fund, savings account or CD should understand the impact that these zero interest rate policies have had, as…

Gold is one of those investments that attracts extreme viewpoints and ideological arguments that favor narratives over substance. I think the reason for this is because the U.S. was once on the gold standard, which was more or less replaced by the Federal Reserve as a form of monetary policy. Anytime politics and government is…

One of the outcomes from the recent financial crisis is what I consider to be a hypersensitivity to risk by many investors who were caught flat-footed during the market crash. While managing and understanding risk is one of the most important jobs an investor has, I think many have taken things a step too far…

In a post earlier this week I wrote about famed hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt’s impressive track record from the late-1960s to the late-1970s. A few readers commented to me that nothing could be discerned from Steinhardt’s track record because it’s nearly impossible to separate luck from skill when making these types of historical performance…

Every retiree’s dream investment is to find safety in principal and earn enough income to not have to touch that principal. In a world of zero percent short-term interest rates, this is easier said than done. These days there’s no such thing as living off the interest income anymore. In the understatement of the year,…