Balancing Your Fixed Income Decisions
Fixed income can play an important role in a portfolio. But its role may vary according to an investor’s financial needs and concerns. For example, many investors look to fixed income for safety, income, and more stability in their portfolios. They must weigh these priorities against their concerns over future interest rates, inflation, government debt, and other factors that might affect fixed income returns.
Is the 4% Withdrawal Rule Still Viable?
Morningstar has a short video that is a good introduction into withdrawal rate research and the factors that should affect one's decisions in retirement.
A Note on Market Timing
Greg Mankiw of Harvard University has a short post today that highlights one of the tenets of our investing philosphy...Don't time the market!
Top Six Tax Tips for Retirees
Good Morningstar video: "Top Six Tax Tips for Retirees."
Does Past Performance Matter?
One of the many pitfalls to investing is chasing performance. Investors generally gravitate towards funds that have done well in the recent past. But how likely are they to do well in the future? The most recent S&P Persistence Scorecard sheds some light on this question.
What's "New" about a New Normal?
The 2008 global market crisis and the struggling economy have left many investors fatigued. Despite two years of strong equity returns, some investors have been slow to regain market confidence. Many are accepting the talk about a “new normal” in which stocks offer lower returns in the future.1
Economic Growth and Market Performance
Economic growth and stock market performance are not related. The market is a great equalizer.
Father of Modern Finance Weighs In
Eugene Fama, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago, was internviewd about the recent financial crisis, capitalism, efficent markets and financial regulatory reform. The video is worth watching to get past the hype and back to the basics.
Curtain Call
Is the Opera on Wall Street drawing near to the Final Curtain? Last year Wall Street grabbed many of the headlines and it wasn't pretty. All the while, investors have been drifting away toward independent advisors. With increasing focus on objective investment advice, Wall Street seems to be losing out. Read more in Wealthy Investors Weary of Wallstreet
What Should Investors Do Now?
Weston Wellington of Dimensional Fund Advisors (http://www.dfaus.com/) puts the current financial crisis into perspective with his six part series of videos, “What Should investors Do Now?” (http://www.dfaus.com/share/whatshou/). His use of historical materials and articles are both interesting and essential to understanding the psychology of investing.