“Reduce decision making. Think about the routine things that can be made automatic—from what you eat for lunch to where you live.” – Dr. Michael Joyner Personal finance people love to compare losing weight and getting your financial house in order. It’s the go-to personal finance analogy and I’ve heard it hundreds of times. It…

“Projections tend to cluster around historic norms and call for only small changes…The point is, people usually expect the future to be like the past and underestimate the potential for change.” – Howard Marks In the past cycles, new stock market highs would usually be greeted with excitement and exuberance. But the experience of having…

“You can’t control what markets can do, but you can control the costs you pay. The less you pay to the purveyors of investment services, the more there will be for you. The quintessential low-cost investment vehicles are index funds, which should comprise the core of every investment portfolio. The high fees charged for active…

“Conventional valuation is established by the mass psychology of a large number of ignorant individuals…the market will be subject to waves of optimistic and pessimistic sentiment.” – John Maynard Keynes

“Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” – Mark Twain I feel like every week I read another story about the terrible state of retirement savings by individuals. Here are some of the scary retirement stats I read about…

The following guest post comes from Ed Carlson. Ed is a retired Healthcare CFO (and my father) who is spending his time during retirement helping others prepare for the financial, estate planning and healthcare issues that arise once you leave the workforce for good. Ed is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA).  The good news is…

“Heaven: Where the Police are British, Chefs are Italian, Mechanics are German, Lovers are French and, it’s all organized by the Swiss. Hell: Where the Police are German, Chefs are British, Mechanics are French, Lovers are Swiss and it’s all organized by the Italians.” – Proverb

Having a historical perspective on the markets is crucial to be able to understand the present and plan ahead for the future. Looking back on how the markets have performed in various economic, interest rate and investment cycles can give you a broader sense of how things generally function. It’s not always an exact comparison,…

“Why does this matter to me so much? Isn’t it fundamentally stupid that this matters so much?” – Bill Simmons on being a sports fan I’ve spent a lot of time learning, thinking and writing about the inherent behavioral biases that we humans all seem to share. The greatest investors of all-time don’t do things…

“Many things about investing are counterintuitive. Low-quality assets can be safer than high-quality assets. Things get richer as they become more highly respected (and thus appreciate). There can be more risk in thinking you know something than in accepting that you don’t.” – Howard Marks The stock market is the one area in life where…