My Top 9 + 1 from Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money
Category: Investing
Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, spent some time with us last month. Here are my takeaways.
Barbell Portfolios Can Be Hard To Hold On To
Category: Investing
Barbells work great at the gym because they put weight on a bar in such a way that it’s balanced, leaving room in the middle for someone to use it to workout. We often see portfolios that are designed like a barbell at the gym: lots of risk in one account and lots of cash or very short-term securities in another. In aggregate, it might produce some balance, but the reality is that it can create some real challenges.
The Influence of Trust
Category: Financial Planning » Behavioral Finance
A good relationship with our clients comes down to a handful of things. One of those things is whether a client trusts that we know more than they do about the type of investing we do at Foster Group.
Investment Policy Statement – Why Is It Important?
Category: Investing
It is important for all investors, whether an individual, family, retirement plan, or nonprofit, to plan their investment approach around their goals and objectives. Investment Policy Statements (IPS) often document these items. Here are four reasons why it is important to have a clearly articulated IPS.
An Investment Portfolio Is Like a Good Smoothie
Category: Investing
Recently, I rediscovered the benefits of homemade smoothies for breakfast. They are nutritious, natural, easy to make, efficient, and delicious! This morning, I was thinking about how a good investment portfolio is like a good smoothie!
DraftKings Knows More About You Than You Know About You
Category: Investing
For 12 seconds, consider what a company knows about you and their own profitability if they are willing to offer you a $500 risk-free bet to get started. That’s what DraftKings just promised me in a commercial. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? OK, the 12 seconds are up. What did you come up with?
Equilibrium Markets in the Time of COVID
Category: Investing
Over the years, Foster Group has utilized a number of mutual funds and exchange traded funds managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). DFA was founded in 1981 on the idea of making academic investment research and empirically based portfolio management accessible to investors. In this article, Professor Kenneth French describes how markets responded to the events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two Dimensional Mutual Funds Will Be Converted to Exchange Traded Funds on September 10th
Category: Investing
Two Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) mutual funds that are held in after-tax accounts managed by Foster Group at Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade will be converted by DFA to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on Friday, September 10th.
Two Dimensional Mutual Funds Will Be Converted to Exchange Traded Funds on September 10th
Category: Investing
Two Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) mutual funds that are held in after-tax accounts managed by Foster Group at Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade will be converted by DFA to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on Friday, September 10th.
Cloudy Markets Still Have a Silver (Tax) Lining
Category: Investing » Diversification
During negative market cycles, there are some planning and investment strategies that might strengthen your financial plans. One such opportunity is tax-loss harvesting
Do Simple Better
Category: Investing
A focus on the fundamentals is not just good advice for the sports world. It applies to many areas of our lives and certainly our finances.
Good News About Portfolio Costs from DFA
Category: Investing
Investors will benefit from a reduction in investment costs associated with funds managed by Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), effective February 28, 2020.
Webinar Replay: Prediction, Expectation, Speculation, & Preparation
Category: Investing
Foster Group's Chief Investment Officer, Kent Kramer, explains how to position both your investments and your thinking to better avoid predictable disappointments.
10 Mistakes Investors Make Without Advisors
Category: Investing
Everyone wants to cut out the middleman. When the market does well, many people think: “Anyone can do what an advisor does.” Human nature often delivers a different story.
How Elections Affect the Market
Category: Investing
A bit of history helps bring some perspective to trying to read too much into the influence of elections on stock markets.
Coronavirus Worries Drive Economic Uncertainty and Stock Market Declines
Category: Investing
Investment markets around the world have been declining sharply this week in response to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Recent Market Volatility: Coronavirus Worries Are Only Part of the Story
Category: Investing
In addition to the coronavirus, other sources of investor uncertainty include global economic growth, the UK finalizing their Brexit negotiations, trade negotiations between Europe and the US, President TrumpÆs impeachment and ongoing Senate trial, and 20
$1 Trillion!
Four companies have reached a market cap of $1 Trillion. What does this mean for your portfolio?
Embrace Uncertainty!
Category: Investing
We may not like uncertainty, but we need to understand and embrace it to keep ourselves positioned for both survival and success.
An Executive’s Financial Guide
Category: Financial Planning » Estate & Transfer Planning
Our eBook, An Executive's Financial Guide, can help with your road map to retirement, as we show you new ways to make use of your wealth for purposes important to you.
Selecting the Best Ingredients for Your Portfolio
Category: Investing
In this third piece of our series on building a better portfolio by thinking of it in terms of tastes, recipes, and ingredients, we’ll focus on the benefits of selecting better ingredients.