“How do you pick the funds you use?” This is a frequently asked question, and a fair one. Out of the thousands of contenders, how do we pick the right funds for you and your investment portfolio? Our selection process is a bit like a highly personalized, sudden-death tournament. We still consider the entire mutual fund universe of possibilities, but it’s relatively easy to eliminate the vast majority of them in...

October,  2015 Which Hat Are You Wearing? By Jim Parker Vice President  “Most of us have multiple roles—as business owners, professionals, workers, consumers, citizens, students, parents and investors. So our views of the world can differ according to whatever hat we’re wearing at any one time. This complexity of people and their range of motivations, depending on their circumstances, highlight the inadequacy of cookie-cutter or automated investment solutions." To read more: OPEN PDF  ...

As my niece Jessica and many of her peers get up and running in their new careers, they face one more important financial challenge. In school, there are the three Rs: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Post-graduation, most young adults must manage one or more of the three Cs: College loans, car payments and credit cards. This can get in the way of your otherwise-solid head start on saving and investing...

When my niece Jessica arrived home recently from her first day in her first career as a journalist, she brought a bounteous stack of “homework” along with her. Nope, this wasn’t her first writing assignment. It was the enrollment forms for a variety of employee-sponsored insurance plans. Let’s review some of the advice I offered her on how to make the most of the benefits now available to her. HEALTH INSURANCE: Resources:...

I’m so proud of my niece Jessica Iannetta.  She graduated from Syracuse University’s S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in May 2015 with degrees in newspaper and online journalism, and political science. She is now working as a reporter and photographer at the Cecil Whig, a newspaper in Elkton, Maryland.  Today I helped her enroll in her company’s benefits plans, which got me thinking that some of my advice to her...

September 2015 Should Investors Sell After a “Correction”? By Weston Wellington Vice President Dimensional Fund Advisors "Stock prices in markets around the world fluctuated dramatically for the week ended August 27. On Monday, August 24, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,089 points—a larger loss than the “Flash Crash” in May 2010—before rallying to close down 588. Prices fell further on Tuesday before recovering sharply on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Although the S&P 500 and Dow Jones...

This blog post was authored by SAGEbroadview Principal, Larry Annello. Recently I had the joy of bringing a new Golden Retriever puppy named Colbie into our home. Stretching the interpretation of the Family Medical Leave Act, I decided to spend a week at home with Colbie to acclimate her to the new surroundings. What I learned during our time together was that there are behaviors in a puppy that are similar to...

While summer isn’t officially over yet, once those big yellow school busses reappear, it’s hard to not consider it a wrap. Likewise, we’re ready to wrap our summer series of investment basics. We hope that doesn’t mean you stop learning how to invest in ways that bring the greatest meaning to you and your family. After all, to circle back to the beginning, that is what investing is really all about. To...

How do I decide whether to invest in individual bonds, bond funds or both? In our last post, we addressed why we typically advise using stock funds instead of individual stocks to implement your investment strategy. Today, let’s talk about why we usually recommend the same for bonds. For bond and stock investing alike, turning to low-cost, well-managed funds instead of trying to juggle individual securities is a relatively straightforward way...