“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…

“The biggest factor impacting investors is no longer our knowledge base, but rather our behavioral elements.” – Barry Ritholtz There are many factors that we can look at when trying to figure out why the stock market went up or down on any given day. We can search the economic data for clues. We can…

“In spite of promising lower returns than most other investment classes, bonds earn inclusion in portfolios by providing protection against the extraordinary circumstances of a financial crisis or economic deflation.” – David Swensen If you missed Part 1 of my common sense series on bonds please read Investing in Bonds to learn about the different…

“Do not be puffed up because of your knowledge nor overconfident because you are a learned person.  Take counsel with the ignorant as well as with the wise, for the limits of proficiency cannot be reached, and no person is ever fully skilled.” – Egyptian Magistrate Ptah-Hotep, 2400 B.C. Warren Buffett and Bill Gross are…