Purpose Before Portfolio
Category: Investing
Are you making investment decisions in light of the game you really want to win?
Prepare to Win
Category: Investing
Positives About the Market
Category: Investing
2022 was a historically painful year as an investor with stock markets experiencing a bear market, and bond markets having one of their worst years ever. However, as we enter 2023, I’d like to consider the positives.
Past Performance is Not Indicative of Future Results
Category: Foster Group
“Past performance is not indicative of future results.” Most people think of investing when they hear or read the sentence above, the ultimate statement of caution. What do you think of this statement when it comes to baseball?
Nervous About the Market? Maybe You Need a Lifeboat.
Category: Investing
Market volatility tends to unnerve even the calmest of investors. How do we know what to hold and how much to hold at any particular time? That’s a crucial question, but the answer does not need to be complicated.
Navigating the Noise: A Reality Check on Fearful Headlines
Sometimes headlines are right, but remember they are created to get your attention, not necessarily to provide you with helpful information.
Navigating the Course of Retirement Planning
Like in golf, planning for retirement is a game that requires strategy, focus, and a bit of finesse.
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.
Keep Three Buckets in Your Retirement Boat
Category: Investing
One way to improve your investment experience is to walk through our lifeboat drill. Brad Rempe shares three 'buckets' to include.
It’s Worth the Trip!
We had completed our hike successfully, and the challenges made it more memorable and satisfying. The same is true for all of us as investors.
Is Your Portfolio Tailored to Fit Your Needs, or Just ‘Off-The-Rack’?
Category: Investing
While the alterations may be small and subtle, they make a big difference when it comes to comfort and fit. Our experience is better. For an investment thought experiment, think of the “off the rack suit” as the broad market; we simply take what we get off the shelf with no alteration. Now think of Foster Group as the tailor and the alterations as portfolio personalizations called factor allocations.
Is the Stock Market a Glass Half Full?
Category: Investing
The month of January was marked by negative returns for global stock markets. But, as the well-worn phrase, “Is your glass half full or half empty?” implies, our view of, or the way we feel about the state of markets as investors, may be more related to our personal dispositions than what the numbers indicate.
Is a Recession Around the Curve?
Category: Investing
Investors Must Be Present to Win
Category: Investing
For weeks, the major indices had been declining but in mid-March, we saw a very abrupt reversal. I’m often reminded of the familiar saying “Investors must be present to win.” In other words, the price (or cost) of admission to the investment experience is market volatility.
Investments Are Long-Term; Brackets Are Short-Term.
Category: Investing
As the NCAA tournament wraps up, many sports fans are reflecting on their brackets, winning their office pools, and bragging rights with friends. Similarly, others focus on their investments and trying to predict which stocks will perform the best. We may think of these as two separate worlds, but there are numerous similarities between the two.
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.
Inflation Aware Investing
Category: Investing
You know the old saying, “What goes up must come down.” Currently everything seems to be going up at the same time.
Identify Your Why
Category: Investing
I Bonds Pay Almost 10%, What’s the Catch?
Category: Investing
Investors are always on the lookout, it seems, for new and profitable ways to help make their dollars work for them. One that has come up quite often on our clients’ radars recently is Series I Bonds (or just I Bonds).