2022 has been a challenging year for investing, with the longest bear market since 2008. The Fed seems serious about controlling inflation, and higher interest rates are seldom good for stock performance. When the market peaked at the end of 2021, many investors were eager to invest more. At that time, if you asked investors […]
Investment Ideas
Investment Math Doesn’t Add Up
The S&P 500 reached an all-time high on February 19. Since that time, we have seen one of the fastest declines in value followed by a rapid recovery. The S&P 500 (on a daily closing basis) was down 33.9% from February 19 to the low on March 23. Then, from March 23 to April 30, […]
What is Hiding in Your Portfolio?
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 […]
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 […]
Hope Is Not a Great Investment Strategy
The US stock market (large companies) has returned approximately 10% annualized for the period from 1926 – 2017 according to data from Morningstar. Talk to almost any financial advisor or read an investment article on-line, and this number is often cited. It is no wonder that the typical investor expects their portfolio to return 10% […]