“One of the most important things I’ve learnt over the years is to remember that if you don’t know what is going to happen, don’t structure your portfolio as through you do.” – James Montier According to a recent survey by Edward Jones, 63 % of Americans don’t know how rising interest rates will impact their…

“The secret to building a successful common-stock portfolio isn’t to “beat the stock market” over the next two years, it is to capture its entire return over the next two decades.” – Bill Schulteis I’m always interested in finding simple ways to explain the complex topics that are involved in the world of finance. My…

“To make reliable decisions you must always weigh how right you think you are against how sorry you will be if you turn out to be mistaken.” – Jason Zweig One of the most difficult financial planning questions to answer is: How much do I need to retire? According to BlackRock’s Annual Retirement Survey, 50% of…

“Much of Wall Street is a succession of fashions. But fashion-hitting never has been successfully maintained, to my knowledge.” – Warren Buffett Warren Buffett’s advice is worth listening to not just because he is one of the richest men in the world and the greatest investor of all-time. These reasons do carry weight, but the…

“An investor should be aiming primarily at long period results and judged solely by those.” – John Maynard Keynes Mebane Faber, of Cambria Investment Management, recently created an interesting table on his website that has some important implications for investors.

“I’m in debt. I am a true American!” – Balki Bartokomous, Perfect Strangers Debt plays a large role on our lives. Housing, transportation, education, and even daily spending needs are all financed with debt by a large number of people. According to the Federal Reserve, consumer credit (excluding mortgages) in the US stands at $2.8…

“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…

“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…

“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…

“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.