Overall we would not quibble with the notion that international diversification is favorable when constructing a portfolio. We do take issue, however, with the method by which most financial advisors seek access to global markets.
American cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883 to 1970) was famous for his illustrations of overly engineered machines designed to perform relatively simple tasks. More often than not, today’s investment products are akin to his “self-operating napkin” illustrated above. But when it comes to investing, we do not believe that complexity yields better results than simplicity. At [...]
Since its creation in 1996, the 529 plan has become the most popular college savings vehicle for American families. However, many parents have become frustrated by their 529 plans’ lackluster performance while college tuition costs continue to skyrocket. A 529 plan is an education savings account offered by a state or an educational institution as [...]
We know that bonds, in general, offer investors perceived safety of principal, but in exchange for wretched current yields. Throw in exposure to rising interest rates, and bonds appear to be a mediocre investment at best and a dangerous mirage at worst. On the other hand, stocks appear to offer a solid value by several measures.
“You know I always wanted to pretend I was an architect.” – George Costanza It seems like the business of investing becomes more and more complicated as time passes. In a world of perplexing financial products and 24-hour streaming financial news, investing for important financial goals can seem like an incredibly daunting task, perhaps worthy [...]
Ronald Reagan once quipped, “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Today, an equally frightening pronouncement is, “I’m a financial advisor and I’m here to help.” You know this to be true. Think of yourself at a social function. When you meet a financial [...]
Over the last two years, the press has obsessed over stories about and interviews with the experts that “predicted” the financial crisis. In most cases, “predicted” is a relative term. After all, many of these forecasters were anticipating a financial crisis for five, ten or even twenty years. The analogy that “a stopped clock is [...]
Over the last several weeks, the stock market has suffered a setback. So, are we on the cusp of the dreaded double-dip recession and another market crash? History indicates that we will avoid both, and that we are on a bumpy path to a normal recovery. According to the well-regarded stock market historians at Ned [...]
The first decade of the twenty-first century was one of the worst in modern history for U.S. equity markets. Princeton University Professor Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist, who has become a perennial pessimist, summed up what many are thinking: “. . . from an economic point of view, [...]
