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.
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.
Georgia, Political Majorities, & Markets
Category: Investing
Unprecedented! That word had been used ad nauseam in 2020.
Four Ways to Connect with Foster Group
How can you stay connected financially during this time?
Four Dimensional Mutual Funds Will Be Converted to Exchange Traded Funds on June 11th
Category: Investing
Four Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) mutual funds that are held in after-tax accounts managed by Foster Group at Schwab and TD Ameritrade will be converted by DFA to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on Friday, June 11th.
Fitch Downgrade – A Closer Look
Category: Investing
Fitch, downgraded US government debt from its pristine AAA rating to one notch lower at AA+. The Fitch downgrade serves as a reminder of the necessity of diversification, as no investment is entirely risk-free.
Financial Risks That Are Not in the News
Stock market risk is the primary focus of the financial news. The reason is simple. The scarier the headline, the more eyes are attracted to it.
Fantasy Football and Financial Planning: What is your strategy?
Making good decisions and ultimately avoiding costly mistakes can be life-changing. Note that it does not start and end with picking the best player or hot stock but rather goals and a plan.
ESG Investing. What Does It Mean to be a Responsible Investor?
Category: Investing
ESG investing is growing in popularity and public interest. The values being expressed through ESG related portfolio decisions are as diverse as the universe of investors participating in global markets today.
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.
Embracing Uncertainty
Category: Investing
Embracing Uncertainty
Category: Investing
Educated optimism is an antidote for anxious uncertainty, and it can be of great help in enabling investors to embrace the uncertainty that is with us all the time.
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.