“We have long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune-tellers look good.  Even now, Charlie (Munger) and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like…

“The best investors make a habit of putting procedures in place, in advance, that help inhibit the hot reactions of the emotional brain.” – Jason Zweig Neuroeconomics is the study of how we make decisions using brain activity (neuroscience), economics and psychology. Think of it as the behavioral finance of our intuition and reactions. In…

“It may seem counterintuitive, but if you have something in your portfolio that you’re complaining about, it’s a good sign you’ve built a diversified portfolio.” – Carl Richards Common sense reader mailbag: I live in Canada and currently have about 20-25% of my portfolio invested in Canada with the rest spread over other global markets. Do…

“If you understand that the role of fixed income is to be the boring part of your portfolio, then you’re buying short- to intermediate-term bonds and you’re holding on to them. That’s always been the role of fixed income and that’ll always be the role of fixed income.” – Carl Richards Bond investors have had…

“Whether you take a risk depends not just on the probability that you are right but also on the consequences if you are wrong.” – Peter Bernstein Common sense reader mailbag: You write a lot about investing in index funds. Are these truly the best investment option or are there alternatives that I should be…

Goals-based financial planning within your investment plan is a topic I have been wanting to write about for a while now. It’s very difficult to come up with a comprehensive investment plan if you don’t know why you are saving or what your long-term goals are.

“I skate to where the puck is going not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretsky I just wanted to share a few pieces of interesting data I came across this week to put the current state of the markets into context.

“Gifted, determined, ambitious professionals have come into investment management in such large numbers during the past 30 years that it may no longer be feasible for any of them to profit from the errors of all the other sufficiently often and by sufficient magnitude to beat market averages.” – Charles Ellis, 1975 Ted Williams is…

“The bad news is that reaching for yield rarely ends well.” – James Montier “Now, if you’re chasing yield, and you’re trying to make your fixed income “do” better, then all bets are off. That’s a dangerous game.” – Carl Richards I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about peer to peer lending as…

“The key to happiness is low overhead and no debt.” – Lynda Barry Since average credit card rates are much higher than average financial market returns, taking on more debt is an easy route to creating a negative net worth. There are many strategies focused on saving more but not a whole lot gets written…