Many investors have a dark, ugly secret – they don’t have an investment plan for their portfolio. Their portfolios are often a semi-random collection of stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds purchased over a long period of time. While markets are going up, as they have for much of the last 10 years, these randomly selected securities […]
General
All or Nothing
Many times, when I talk to investors, I’m confronted with the “All or Nothing” syndrome. It’s a black and white approach to decision making. I can do choice A, or I can do choice B. There is often no thought that the investor can do a combination of A and B, and that may be […]
The Most Valuable Company in 2050
Today, the most valuable American companies (by market capitalization) are Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway, and Facebook. Five of these six companies are technology companies. Of the 5 tech companies, only two of them existed 30 years ago (Apple and Microsoft). Apple dominates high-end consumer technology products and services. Google dominates on-line paid […]
Should I Contribute to a 401(k) Roth?
Most companies offer traditional 401(k) accounts to employees. In these accounts, employees make pre-tax contributions (up to $18,500 in 2018) to save for retirement and reduce current taxable income. When funds are withdrawn (not rolled over) from the 401(k), the entire withdrawal is taxed at the taxpayer’s current tax rate. Hence, if you are in […]
Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results!
How often have you read a financial article or looked at a financial graph and noticed the warning “Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results”? Almost every one of these articles or graphs includes this warning to avoid guaranteeing performance. Yet, Morningstar, the company that provides analysis of mutual funds and ETFs, rates these investments […]