Robert Shiller had a great piece in the New York Times this week about real estate as an investment. He lays out some great points about real estate from a historical perspective that I thought were worth looking into. The data for home prices has been pretty good in the past year and it has…

“Simplicity is the master key to financial success. When there are multiple solutions to a problem, choose the simplest one.” – John Bogle, Founder of Vanguard One of the most overwhelming parts about the investment process is the fact that there are so many choices that you have to make just to get started. You…

When making any financial decision you need to be able to see both sides before you act. This could be for an investment, a savings decision, debt payoff or even how you allocate your monthly budget. The reason it makes sense to look at alternatives is because we have a tendency to gather facts that…

The unemployment numbers are widely watched by market observers. Last Friday’s report had some conflicting results. On the positive side the unemployment rate fell to 7.6% (down from the 2009 high of almost 10%).

“First I was bullish, then bearish, then brokish.” – Milton Berle Common Sense Reader Mailbag: I completely sold out of the stock market. Now I’m scared I made the wrong decision and I’m going to miss out on future gains. What should I do now? This is a question I’ve heard a lot over the last…

“More money has been lost reaching for yield than at the point of a gun.” – Raymond DeVoe Jr. In his article this week for the Wall Street Journal, Brett Arends goes over some of the dumbest money moves that people routinely make. One of them is reaching for yield. It’s hard to find high…

While most investors have the ability and common sense to create their own investment plan, many of us simply have better things to do with our time than paying significant attention to our investment portfolio.  It does take time and effort.  Plus, really smart people know their limitations. As I’ve touched on before, the biggest risk we…

“Risk is what is left over…after you have thought of everything.” – Carl Richards “Risk is low when investors behave prudently and high when they don’t.” – Howard Marks In the world of high finance, risk is a word you hear on a daily basis. Risk measurement, risk parity, risk controls, risk tolerance, risk-adjusted returns….

In my post that looked at housing as an investment I showed historical data going all the way back to 1880 on the investment returns in the housing sector. Then I looked at some of the investment characteristics on housing including the net expenses you pay and its low liquidity when you need to sell. I…

If you have been following the financial news this week you have seen more mentions of the tiny country of Cyprus than ever before. This is a tale of debt, bailouts, bank deposits and rich Russians looking for a tax haven. I won’t bore you with the details (feel free to read here and here…