10 Obstacles to Investing – and How to Overcome Them
In the following article David draws on his years of experience talking with investors and academics alike to address some common hesitations all investors face from time to time.
My Top 9 + 1 from Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money
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
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.
Investment Policy Statement – Why Is It Important?
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
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 » Foster Group Investment Principles
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
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
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.
What’s Your Best Buy: Firm Foundation or Castle In the Air?
If an investor could discover the true worth of a company, a piece of real estate or even an idea, where “true worth” equated to the future value or price that others would pay, success would be almost certain to follow. Those opportunities that were priced significantly lower than the future value would be automatic buys. The one’s with higher prices today than the future price would be ones to avoid. If only it were that simple!
Are You Afraid of (Market) Heights?
Investors have been experiencing some fear of heights recently. Many stocks and stock markets are at or near all-time highs. So, here’s the question investors need to ask themselves today, ”Do you think that stock markets 26 years from now will be higher or lower than they are currently, even if today is an all-time high?”
What This Year Reminds Us About Fixed Income
Category: Investing » Asset Allocation
This year has reminded us of the many important roles that fixed income can play in portfolios.
Stock Markets Are Positive This Year?
As this year exemplifies, stock markets have the tendency to do things we would never expect.
The Biggest Risk to Investors Remaining in 2020?
Aside from COVID-19, what represents the biggest risk for investors in the second half of what is turning out to be a historic 2020?
Elections and Your Money Q&A
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
Since we were unable to answer all of the questions asked during the live webinar, we'd like to share some of the questions and answers in written form.
2020: A Predictor’s Kryptonite
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
At the end of 2019, Foster Group’s Investment Strategy Group wanted to create an object lesson to illustrate how hard it is to predict what will happen in financial markets and the world in general.
Diversification: Preparing for the Next Surprise
Probably only one thing is certain: The world is still full of surprises yet to be revealed. Is your portfolio diversified in preparation for the next one?
ESG Investing. What Does It Mean to be a Responsible Investor?
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.
What I Think About When Working From Home
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
In the blink of an eye, it seems, our lives have taken a major turn, because of a sneaky, harmful, invisible germ. The concept of uncertainty is real and palpable.
Grow Through What You Go Through
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
While this time has been incredibly difficult for so many, I hope that people look back on this time and remember the lessons they learned rather than the struggles they suffered.
Mutual Funds and ETFs: What’s the Difference?
There are structural differences between an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) and a mutual fund that can create advantages to using one over the other.
Four Ways to Connect with Foster Group
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
How can you stay connected financially during this time?
Do Simple Better
Category: Investing » Foster Group Investment Principles
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.