Some people who are about to retire make a big mistake: They keep too much of their retirement portfolio in “safe” fixed-income investments, and not enough in “risky” stocks. Some also make another mistake in retirement: They take too much money out in certain years, making it hard for the portfolio to recover from bear markets. Financial writer Paul Merriman […]
A quick period of readjustment over the last six weeks depressed portfolio returns in the second quarter, but we think the markets are now more realistically priced and may be poised to resume their upward momentum later this year. The following chart shows the 3-month, 5-year, and 10-year performance of many DFA funds (representing different asset classes) compared to the […]
In many areas of life, intense activity and constant monitoring of results represent the path to success. In investment, that approach gets turned on its head. The Chinese philosophy of Taoism has a word for it: “wuwei.” It literally means “non-doing.” In other words, the busier we are with our long-term investments and the more we tinker, the less likely […]
Even a part-time job can allow you to draw down your savings more slowly. “For a lot of people, the definition of retirement is not ‘not working,’ but not doing what they don’t like and doing some kind of work that they love,” says Christopher Jones, a certified financial planner for Sparrow Wealth Management in Las Vegas. Read the Full […]
Savings accounts and CDs are a major source of retirement income for 14 percent of retirees. A quarter of workers are hoping these FDIC-insured accounts will help fund their retirement years, including about half (49 percent) of people in their 20s. “If you put all your money in fixed income or bonds or CDs, you are guaranteeing yourself very low […]
“We are living in a world of money printing. … That is why I have to recommend gold again. … Once gold surpasses $1,800 an ounce, it will run to the low-to-mid $2,000s.” Quotation attributed to Felix Zuelauf, Zuelauf Asset Management. “Here’s What’s Cooking for 2013,” Barron’s, January 21, 2013. “Investors can choose between artificially priced financial assets or real assets like […]
The perception that day-to-day stock market volatility has increased may convince some investors that they should be trading within their portfolios frequently. Indeed, lots of stock market commentators love to talk about “the action this afternoon” and “what investors should be doing right now.” How about just sitting on their hands? It may come as a surprise but some of […]
Periodic arguments that long-term stock market returns are a thing of the past have cropped up again, with noted bond investment manager Bill Gross calling the stock market a “Ponzi scheme.” He argues that U.S. stocks returned 6.6 percent per year over inflation during the last century, while gross domestic product, a measure of changes in the country’s production of […]
When it comes to choosing the best state in which to retire, some people look beyond traditional needs like nice weather and recreational opportunities. In some cases, the deciding factors are taxes and staying close to family and friends. For some clients, that means retiring to a neighboring state. Christopher Jones, who built his advisory firm, Sparrow Wealth Management, said […]
There are two ways of learning: You can be taught how to do something correctly, or you can be shown the consequences of doing it wrong. In the world of investment, it’s a lot cheaper to learn from others’ mistakes. A recent edition of a television current affairs program1 detailed how elderly Australians, many of them with only modest nest eggs, […]
