Mutual Funds and ETFs: What’s the Difference?
Category: Investing
There are structural differences between an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and a mutual fund that can create advantages to using one over the other.
More Than Just the Turkey
Category: Investing
In both meals and investments, balance is key. A diversified portfolio can weather market fluctuations just as a well planned Thanksgiving dinner can satisfy almost everyone’s appetite.
Minor Decisions, Major Effect
Category: Investing
Media Drama: Facts or Fiction?
Category: Investing
The dramatic nature and slant that the media add to their stories to get us interested in reading the page. Do a quick self-check to see through the production and into the facts.
Markets Move. So Should You.
Category: Investing
The primary reason for portfolio rebalancing is to maintain the risk profile of the policy portfolio that the client has chosen. However, periodic rebalancing has the added benefit of ?buying low? and ?selling high?.
Market Madness
There is just something about the NCAA Men’s and Women’s College Basketball Tournament. There is tremendous excitement in many families and workplaces as tournament brackets are filled in with predictions about the outcomes of 67 games over a three-week period.
Making the Most of a Bear Market
Category: Investing
If you’re a young professional, negative market returns can carry less weight than you might think. Let’s use 2022 as an example.
Keep Your Eyes on the Horizon and Wings Level
Category: Investing » Alternative Investments
We often get asked by clients about different ideas they heard from a friend, a new exclusive deal they got invited into, or, most frequently, a specific company or stock that a friend gave them the scoop on. The reality is that a lot of the “great ideas and deals” never amount to any real return, and many end up going to zero.
How to Construct a Good Investment Policy Statement
Category: Investing
I wrote in a previous blog about the importance of having a well-written Investment Policy Statement (IPS). What should be in a well-written document?
How to Avoid Tyrannically Urgent Yet Unimportant Investment Ideas
Category: Investing
As we’ll see, each of these are real risks, because if they are unmanaged or unanticipated, they may cause investors to focus on the wrong things at the wrong times and lead to actions that may sabotage goals and portfolios.
How the “Little Guy” Really Wins in the Market
Category: Investing
Don’t believe the lie that you don’t belong or that the keys belong to someone who won’t give them to you.
How Should an Investor Position Their Overall Investment Portfolio Now and in the Future?
Category: Investing
Right after, “What will the stock market do next?” the positioning question may be the most asked and re-asked question by investors of all types.
How Should a Nonprofit Allocate its Investment Portfolio?
Category: Investing
Let's review two industry studies, the NACUBO Study of Endowments and the Association Investment Policies, Practices and Performance. Each organization is different and has its own set of unique goals and challenges. Although this is the case, learning how other nonprofits invest can help ignite a meaningful conversation within your own organization.
How Much Should Associations Hold in Reserve Assets?
Category: Investing
A common question among nonprofit associations is how much they should hold in reserve assets. There is a “rule of thumb” that associations should hold six months of operating expenses in reserve. Is this common rule of thumb common practice?
How is COVID-19 Impacting Real Estate Investment Trusts?
Category: Investing
How have real estate investments been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent global lockdown?
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.
Home Sweet Home, or an Investment?
Category: Financial Planning » Behavioral Finance
Homes are commonly thought of as investments. It’s easy to see why. For most of us, it’s the single biggest thing on our balance sheets for years.
High Profit vs Low Profit: The Returns Are In!
Category: Investing
If higher returns are offered to riskier investments, why is it that companies with higher profits generate better returns? Aren�t these companies less risky?
Having Faith When It’s Scary
Category: Investing
Market volatility can sometimes be downright scary. The other day, I read that the quarter ending June 30th was the 16th worst quarter in the history of the stock market. Even worse, the first quarter was bad too, making it one of the very worst six-month periods in nearly a century. How does an investor respond?
Have You Come to Terms with the Reality of Your Retirement?
Category: Investing
People come to terms with the fact they will one day retire. Maybe not in the next year or two but sometime in the next five. Often, it’s a reality they’ve been denying.