Why Did My CD Lose Money?
with No Comments

Many people don’t understand how fixed income is priced, so let me take you through the math.

Adding an Ex-China Fund to Our Emerging Market Strategy (July 2023)
with No Comments

If China booms, it may be a mistake that we reduced the allocation. If China undergoes investment controls, it may be a mistake that we kept China at all.

Four Fidelity ETFs Cheaper Than Vanguard (2022 Analysis)
with No Comments

In the past, we’ve shown some preference to Vanguard funds, but going forward we plan to show some preference to the cheaper Fidelity funds.

Even Down, Biotechnology Still Had a Place in Efficient Portfolios (2022 Analysis)
with No Comments

Biotechnology’s low correlation, the very thing that makes you dislike it, is specifically what gives it a place in efficient portfolios.

U.S. Investing in Review (Sept 2022)
with No Comments

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending September 30, 2022 our U.S. Stock Strategy had a +4.11% advantage over VTI.

Why I-Bonds May Not Be As Great As They Seem
with No Comments

If you’re thinking about buying an I Bond, make sure it fits properly into your financial plan, and you aren’t just chasing the high interest rate.

I Bonds vs. TIPS: What is the Difference?
with No Comments

Both are U.S. debt obligations which are adjusted by the Consumer Price Index, but they do so very differently.

Home Bias or Foreign Bond Funds?
with No Comments

Home bias is the tendency of investors to invest a majority of their assets in companies domiciled in their home country.

Bond Markets: Worst Quarter in 40 Years & Not That Bad (April 2022)
with No Comments

We think holding your next seven years of spending in relatively safe bonds is always a good idea. But holding too much in bonds may not keep up with inflation and is not ideal for your long-term investment strategy.

Transaction Fees for Foreign Issues Changes Individual Foreign Strategy (January 2022)
with No Comments

At the start of the year, purchases of all of these securities had no transaction fee at Charles Schwab. However in December 2021, Schwab added a transaction fee to some of the holdings.

U.S. Investing in Review (December 2021)
with No Comments

We anticipated Consumer Staples to have a lower expected return but a larger risk-adjusted return and we expected Biotechnology to have very volatile returns with lower correlations to the other sectors. Both of those things happened in 2021.

Individual Foreign Health Care in Review (December 2021)
with No Comments

An initial equal weight strategy of these 26 companies implemented on January 1, 2021 and held without further buys or sells through December 31, 2021 had a +8.64% advantage over the foreign healthcare benchmark.

New Funds for United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Canada
with No Comments

We would expect the switch to Frankiln funds to save our clients 0.11% annually due to the lower expense ratio.

The Case for Investing in Foreign Health Care
with No Comments

When reviewing our Foreign allocations, we discovered that the foreign Health Care sector has shown high risk-adjusted performance.

We Added Individual Stocks to Our Foreign Allocations (January 2021)
with No Comments

We believe these 26 companies will be an effective weight to add foreign healthcare to our portfolios.

2020 in Review
with No Comments

Looking closer into each asset class, here’s how our top six asset classes performed between January 1 and December 31, 2020.

We Added a Sector Tilt to our Foreign Dynamic Tilt (November 2020)
with No Comments

We hope this small increased exposure to foreign healthcare will help capture some of the efficiencies we believe to have found.

This Month, We Removed the Energy Overweight from Our Allocations (October 2020)
with No Comments

We believe that holding on to Energy and waiting for it to recover might mean missing out on greater gains elsewhere.

A Market of Stocks Rather Than A Stock Market
with No Comments

Individual sectors of the economy have reacted very differently to the pandemic.

How to Use An Efficient Frontier Graph
with No Comments

While an efficient frontier graph cannot hand you a perfect asset allocation, it remains a useful tool in analyzing what the past can tell us about a wide variety of investments.

How to Cash Your Paper Treasury Bond
with No Comments

Here is a guide for how to find out what your bond is worth, decide whether you should keep it until maturity or cash out early, and how to get money for your paper.

We Added 2 New U.S. Stock Sectors to Our Allocations
with No Comments

We decided to add two new sectors after generating several hundred efficient frontier graphs of various United States classifications, industries, and sectors over a variety of time periods.

Did Gold Do Better Than The Markets? (2020)
with No Comments

Gold is extremely volatile and still doesn’t do much more than vaguely keep up with inflation. You can do better.

Energy Stocks Have Been Disappointing Recently (April 2020)
with No Comments

Diversification means always having something to complain about. Recently, it has been energy.

Q&A: Why Not Invest Only in the U.S?
with No Comments

Diversification among many different countries provides a more consistent return than investing entirely in the United States.

Schwab’s 3 Myths of Responsible Investing Are Actually True
with No Comments

In reality, all three “myths” are cause for real concern about SRI, ESG, and other so-called impact investing.

The Cost of Keeping Some Money Safe
with No Comments

Keeping $100,000 might cost you $500,000 in lost opportunity costs over 20 years.

Value Investing During Seasons of Growth
with No Comments

Generally speaking, Value stocks outperform Growth stocks. Investing based upon this finding is called “Value Investing.”

How to Use Your “World Asset Classes” Report Appropriately
with No Comments

Our intention in including this particular slide is to show the range of quarterly returns. Here is some wisdom on how to use this slide when comparing your own returns for the quarter.

Do Top-Ranked Funds Repeat?
with No Comments

Dimensional’s analysis found that top funds do not repeat.

What is the Correlation of the Asset Classes?
with No Comments

Asset classes are best defined by looking at the correlation of their returns. These four 2015 articles take a close examination at the three appreciation asset classes.

Helpful Chart Shows Why You Should Diversify Globally
with No Comments

We continue to believe that diversification among many different countries provides a more consistent return than investing entirely in the United States.

When Should I Worry About Performance?
with No Comments

Some performance is cause for concern. Other times, you need not worry. Here are 5 times you should not worry and 4 cases when you should.

Q&A: Can I Turn My Real Estate Income Into a REIT to Get the QBI Deduction?
with No Comments

You are allowed to deduct “up to 20 percent of their combined qualified real estate investment trust (REIT) dividends,” and this deduction is unlimited. So it begs the question: Is there a way I can deduct my normal real estate income?

Do Dividend Paying Stocks Make Better Investments?
with No Comments

For all of these reasons, our recommended investment strategy does not focus on dividend-paying stocks.

Should My Portfolio Asset Allocation Include Emerging Markets?
with No Comments

A blended portfolio can perform better even as some of its components under perform due to the rebalancing bonus.

Bond Basics
with No Comments

Bonds are like the iron rods put in the bottom of sailing ships. They don’t make the ship go faster, but they do keep the ship from capsizing in stormy weather.

The Value Matters in Stock Investing
with No Comments

“Think of a stock as a machine that generates cash every few months.” Smaller companies that you have never heard of usually have a better return than the better known larger companies.

First Quarter 2018 Returns for Our 6 Asset Classes
with No Comments

Although volatility is often unwelcome by investors, it can provide profitable returns.

2017 Returns for Our 6 Asset Classes
with No Comments

2017 was such a good year for the stock markets that it set a record.

Best Non-Correlated Asset Classes for the S&P 500
with No Comments

Even very volatile investments may, in moderate amounts, reduce a portfolio’s volatility if the investment is not correlated with the rest of the portfolio’s components.

Radio: Ten Attractive Investment Categories for 2018
with No Comments

On January 9, 2018, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show to discuss ten investment categories that look more attractive than the S&P 500 at the start of 2018.

Is a Home Storage Gold IRA Legal?
with No Comments

My understanding is that being the custodian of your own IRA assets is illegal. Also, we believe that investing your IRA in gold is not a good idea even if you have a third party custodian.

Your Portfolio May Be Missing Canada
with No Comments

Under weighting Canada could have the effect of diminishing your returns. If your fund under weights Canada, consider switching to a lower cost fund which properly represents it.

What Advantages Do Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Have Over Mutual Funds?
with No Comments

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have at least a dozen significant benefits over mutual funds and only a few disadvantages.

Gold’s Role In A Portfolio
with No Comments

Gold advocates will often go to great lengths to tout the advantages of owning gold.

Healthcare Stocks And Asking “Relative To What?”
with No Comments

Why do our portfolios systematically overweight healthcare stocks?

The Case for Investing in Energy Companies
with No Comments

Energy’s low correlation with nearly every other major asset class means even very conservative investors should consider over-weighting Energy stocks.

Hedge Funds and Long/Short Strategies
with No Comments

Long/short strategies use the money from the stocks they have shorted to purchase extra stocks that they hope will go up.

1 2 3 4

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter!