“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.  I can’t recall ever once having seen the name of a market timer on Forbes’ annual list of the richest people in the world.  If it were truly possible to predict corrections,…

“There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” – Will Rogers Many of us take great joy in pointing out the ineptitude of the government. No matter which way you lean politically, you probably wouldn’t get too many arguments if you were to claim that the government…

“Instead of concentrating on the central issue of creating sensible long-term asset-allocation targets, investors too frequently focus on the unproductive diversions of security selection and market timing.” – David Swensen “One of the things you learn about asset allocation is that the unemotional defeat the emotional over time by fading their highs and lows, their…

Take a look at this really great new tool from the New York Times (click to enlarge): Like most financial calculators, you enter in your basic information (salary, % saved, salary increase, expected returns and time horizon). But, this one has the added benefit of showing you how your results would be different if you…

“Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market.  If you made it through fifth grade math, you can do it.” – Peter Lynch We often hear financial advisors and investment strategists use statistical terms like standard deviation, co-variance matrix, efficient frontier and risk-adjusted returns (I’ll even admit to using some of these terms myself…

“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…

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…

“Bart, with $10,000, we’d be millionaires.” – Homer Simpson I was recently helping a family member set up a Roth IRA because she wanted to invest a small amount of money on a periodic basis. She eventually wants to increase that amount but we all need to start somewhere. This is a situation that many…