“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” – Albert Einstein A recent Gallup study showed that only 30% of American workers feel engaged or inspired by their jobs. That leaves 70% who are not reaching their full potential. And about 52% said that they put in time and effort, but just don’t have energy or…

“Stocks are the thing to own over time. Productivity will increase and stocks will increase with it. There are only a few things you can do wrong. One is to buy or sell at the wrong time. Paying high fees is the other way to get killed. The best way to avoid both of these…

“I think it’s important to be diversified not only across different companies, but across different industries and, most importantly, across different countries.” – Mark Mobius

“Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies.” – Warren Buffett In Vanguard’s most recent newsletter they laid out their four timeless principles to help you reach your investing objectives. They are: 1. Goals: Create clear, appropriate investment goals. 2. Balance: Develop a suitable asset allocation using broadly diversified funds. 3. Cost: Minimize…

“A budget tells us what we can’t afford but it doesn’t keep us from buying it.” – William Feather To invest you first must be able to save.  I like to think that an investment portfolio starts out as a saving portfolio. And to save you must first be able to limit or track your…

“When clients pay attention to noise, we call it dumb. When advisors do it, we call it research.” – Carl Richards I feel that most investors should be able to manage their investments on their own. The playing field has been leveled in the past few decades, giving individual investors the ability to handle their…

“In an ideal world everyone would generate sufficient savings on their own to help fund their own retirement. However most of the data shows that Americans are simply unable to do this on their own.” – Tadas Viskanta In one of my MBA classes on leadership and organizational behavior we went over the five personality…

“We have an entire generation of investors who have never experienced a rising rate environment.” – Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs If you missed the first 5 parts in my series on bond investing be sure to read: Part 1 – Investing in Bonds Part 2 – Why Bother Investing in Bonds? Part 3 – Bond Investment…

I am excited to be featured in Larry MacDonald’s Me and My Money column this weekend in the Globe and Mail. The article includes a profile of my investment approach, some of my best and worst investments over the years and my advice for investors. Here’s the article: Analyst Puts His ‘Probability Bet’ on Index…

“If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.” – Yogi  Berra Common sense reader mailbag: What am I supposed to invest in these days? Stocks are probably overvalued or at the very least due for a severe pullback with such huge gains over the last 5 years. And bond interest rates are extremely low so they…