Successful wealth management requires us to construct diverse investment portfolios made up of different asset classes, including stocks. In choosing our investments we often have biases that unknowingly create challenges as market cycles change. For many investors, what they know best are the stocks of their own country. They often ignore the opportunities that exist […]
Experience is not the same as expertise. Confusing the two creates the potential for mistakes as smart investors approach retirement. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of experience to become an expert in a particular field. Smart investors spend thousands of hours saving and investing during their […]
A brokerage statement can be a neat, orderly presentation of chaos if we focus on the wrong things. What if we had a sense of what our investments should be doing, not just what they did? What if we made a thoughtful investment process the norm? Case in point: Compare your statements from the end […]
No doubt you have heard of annuities. Maybe you have even kicked the tires on an annuity before, wondering about the downside to something that sounds so good. If you are curious about what annuities are, if you are unsure if they make sense for you, and especially if an insurance agent who isn’t a […]
“Perhaps with a bias, I don’t believe anyone knows what the market is going to do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. I know America’s going to move forward over time, but I don’t know for sure and we learned this on Sept. 10, 2001. And we learned it a few months ago in […]
“The three stages of a bull market: the first stage, when only a few unusually perceptive people believe things will get better, the second stage, when most investors realize that improvement is actually taking place, and the third stage, when everyone concludes things will get better forever.” The entire market cycle, in three months. Those feelings […]
We all feel caught off guard. The financial professional, the Do-It-Yourself investor, and the 401(k) participant three years from retiring. You might feel like only a few weeks ago you “coulda, woulda, shoulda” done something different with your investments. There is never enough safety when fear takes hold. If we had 10% in stocks a […]
I watched a lot of high school basketball as a kid. On Friday nights and Sunday afternoons, my father would take me to gyms throughout Baltimore to watch up-and-coming players. In one game, I remember seeing a point guard miss his first dozen shots before taking over and scoring 20 points. My father’s comment was: “He has […]
If you owned stocks or a stock mutual fund last year, you are probably pretty happy with the results, but you may also be breathing a sigh of relief. If you are anything like the many we have spoken with over the last 18 months, there is a sense that this market has been and […]
The closing weeks of 2019 gave us plenty to celebrate and plan for as investors. In contrast to 2018, where it was nearly impossible to find growth in stocks, bonds, or any asset for that matter, 2019 provided plenty of opportunity for returns. There was volatility in the mix, however, as trade talks, domestic politics, and […]