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May 1, 2018 in Retirement Planning
A retiree owned too much company stock “Retirement looked pretty good until GE shares collapsed.” (Wall Street Journal, 4/22/2018) Additional Reading: We Only Get to Experience One Version of Reality (The Reformed Broker, 4/23/2018) An early retiree misses their old working life What if I’m wrong about everything? (Thriftygal, 4/18/2018) “What if happiness is more about roots and people and relationships and productivity and less about freedom and flexibility?” When life happens ...

April 25, 2018 in Family Money, Retirement Planning, Tax Management
How do you save for “retirement” if you don’t participate in a 401(k) plan? Katie Lobosco with CNN Money writes “The good news is that there are other accounts you can open yourself that offer similar benefits. For some self-employed people, the benefits can be even better than a traditional 401(k) plan's.” Roth IRA’s are great for kids with earned income Kimberly Lankford with Kiplinger’s Personal Finance notes “Contributing to a...

April 17, 2018 in Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
An Exercise in Confusion: “Tuning Out the Noise” First, take a moment to view this powerful video, just released by Dimensional Fund Advisors.  The new millennium’s biggest financial headlines Now, before you consider the substance, how did the onslaught make you feel? Nervous? Anxious? Annoyed? Confused? Maybe all of the above! This exercise captures exactly how most investors felt as the new millennium’s biggest financial headlines were playing out in real time. As...

April 12, 2018 in News
The financial crisis has shaken young people’s faith in capitalism A (financial) crisis of faith (John Paul Rollert, Chicago Booth Review, 8/10/2018) “A spring 2016 poll from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics finds that only 19 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 identified themselves as capitalists, and 51 percent of those surveyed said they did not support capitalism. Similarly, a YouGov poll commissioned late last fall finds that,...

April 9, 2018 in Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
A Quarterly Tale of Risks and Returns in Real Time For the first time in a long time, U.S. and international developed stock markets alike bled off some steam this quarter. You’ll see that expressed by the bright red arrows in Dimensional Fund Advisors’ first quarter Quarterly Market Review Market Summary (page 3). While we fully expect markets will continue delivering positive long-term returns, who knows what the rest of the year...

April 3, 2018 in Financial Life Planning, Investing, Mindful living
Ideas that change how you think about the world “You spend years trying to learn new stuff but then look back and realize that maybe like 10 big ideas truly changed how you think and drive most of what you believe.” Morgan Housel shares his list in “Ideas that Changed My Life”. What defines you? In “Ring Life’s Bell”, Tony Isola talks about his family’s personal experience with pediatric cancer and...

March 26, 2018 in Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
March 2018 Sailing with the Tides Embarking on a financial plan is like sailing around the world. The voyage won’t always go to plan, and there’ll be rough seas. But the odds of reaching your destination increase greatly if you are prepared, flexible, patient, and well-advised. Here is this week’s article from Dimensional's Jim Parker: Sailing with the Tides. SAGE Serendipity: You want to watch TV but deciding what to watch is taking more time...

March 20, 2018 in Investing
Usually, our “3 Things” include – wait for it – three things. But Warren Buffett’s 2018 annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders is filled with so many interesting things that, today, we’re featuring three insights from this one source (emphasis is ours). 1.  Sleeping Well at Night “Why the purchasing frenzy [from others]? In part, it’s because the CEO job self-selects for ‘can-do’ types. If Wall Street analysts or board members urge...

March 14, 2018 in Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
We’re back! This week, we’re following up on last week’s post on how to combine practical application and academic science to impart a wholly stronger investment strategy. It’s called evidence-based investing, and we are delighted to share excerpts of a conversation between two respected proponents of the approach: The Evidence-Based Investor journalist Robin Powell and Dimensional Fund Advisors Co-CEO Gerard O’Reilly, PhD. You can read the entire interview on Powell’s blog...

March 5, 2018 in Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
There’s little we love more than a spot-on analogy to make simple sense of investment theory – like our recent “3 Things” about how the near-term market often behaves like an unruly dog on a short leash (from “A Wealth of Common Sense” blogger Ben Carlson). That said, while informational “snacks” are nice, sometimes a more complete meal is called for. If you’ve been craving an enhanced understanding of some of...