It’s unusual for me to write an article for young investors, but over the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with a few young folks. As such, I wanted to share what I think the single best piece of advice for young investors is as they get started in their careers. What is the one thing that is entirely in their control that can most positively… Read More
Just Tell the Truth
The irony of having investment experience is the acute awareness that humility is always right around the corner ready to remind us that we’re not as smart as we think we are. When throwing out predictions for what the market is going to do next, it is only a matter of time until humility finds us. While I have written before that pundits on TV have no career risk with… Read More
Is the Market Too High Right Now?
A common theme in news articles I have been reading is the idea that the market is in a euphoric period. There is certainly some euphoria around newly minted Robinhood traders and investors of Tesla and Bitcoin, but is the main street investor euphoric? I’m not so sure. I don’t know about you, but the other investors I am talking to are feeling far from euphoric. They seem to be… Read More
Real Return Is All That Matters
Many pundits and market experts (if there is such a thing) have been forecasting below average market returns for a couple of years now. Interestingly, since this started becoming a “thing” around 2018, the market returned 31% in 2019 and 18% in 2020. It’s not important to the topic of this post, I just think it’s funny. The idea that future returns will be lower is widely accepted. I’m not… Read More
Income Report: All the Numbers Behind My Books – Update #1
There is an idea I’ve become a big fan of and that is the idea of “learning in public.” In April of 2020, I self-published a book on Amazon titled, Medicare Simplified – What Retirees Need to Know about Medicare in 100 Pages or Less. Also, an announcement! I just published my second book titled, Creating a Retirement Income Plan – What Retirees Need to Know About Creating a Retirement… Read More
Rationality in Investing
Let’s face the facts. Nobody likes to be called emotional. Nobody likes to be told they are acting irrationally. As Rory Sutherland in his book Alchemy says, “When we do put a name to non-rational behavior, it is usually a word like ’emotion’, which makes it sound like logic’s evil twin. ‘You’re being emotional’ is used as code for ‘you’re being an idiot.’” But investing exists in a world full… Read More
The 2020 Lessons of “Let’s Wait and See”
2020 offered two particularly abject lessons on why “Let’s wait and see.” is almost always a terrible strategy. COVID. The presidential election. “Let’s wait and see.” can take many forms. “I just want to get out because of the uncertainty of (insert scary event). Once things calm down and return to normal, we’ll get back in.” Statements like this typically follow a period of market decline or when there is… Read More
Nobody Saw This Coming, Part Two
Last year around this time, I wrote a post titled, Nobody Saw This Coming about the performance of the markets in 2019 when it surprised everyone. Then 2020 came along and said, “Hold my beer.” Nobody saw the global pandemic coming. Nobody could have presumed global shutdowns. Nobody saw a 34% decline over 33 days. In part, because that combination of things had never happened during the life of anyone… Read More
“Wealth is What You Don’t See”
One of my favorite books of the year was written by Morgan Housel titled, The Psychology of Money. It may be the most accessible lesson on money that I have ever read. I judge the quality of the book based on how much I highlight it, and I highlighted this book as much as any. Below, I will share a few of my favorite quotes from just two chapters. My… Read More
Time to Review Your Risk Management Plan
This fall, I conducted reviews of client risk management plans and found some interesting things I’d like to share with you in hopes that you might review your own situation to ensure you are prepared for the “what ifs” in your life. To save you some time, here are a few issues I came across on multiple occasions: Out-of-date beneficiary designations. (Most popular.) Too little liability coverage on auto &… Read More
