If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been on a blog roll lately, explaining common mishaps investors face when assessing how their investments are performing in ever-turbulent markets. We’ve covered Time-Weighted vs. Internal Rates of Return and Confusing Cost Basis with Fund Performance. Today, we’ve got one more area to explore: Comparing your returns to popular benchmarks such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) or the S&P 500 indexes. Compared to What? “How...

In our last post, we introduced two investment terms that are a little more technical than we normally prefer, but worth knowing when you want to accurately measure your portfolio’s performance:  Time-Weighted Rate of Return (TWR) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Since calculating rates of return and portfolio performance requires complex formulas and computer software that may not be readily available, we often see investors turning to an investment’s cost basis...

USAToday.com via AdviceIQ.com published Sheri Cupo’s post "Is It Better to Buy or Rent Your First House?" "Spring – a time for fresh starts and, for some, a new home. Before you head out to open houses, your first question should be: Should I own a home at this time? Your second: Or should I remain a renter?" Read the full article here: USAToday.com ...

If you’ve been reading our blog posts for a while, you know that we try to avoid financial-speak whenever possible. But until the rest of the world follows our lead, sage investors are best served by familiarizing themselves with two weird, but worthy terms: Time-Weighted Rates of Return (TWR) vs. Internal Rates of Return (IRR). We’ll explain what we’re talking about in a moment. But first let’s talk about why it...

  As a follow up to our recent blog post, “Five Warning Signs That It’s NOT the IRS Calling,” a handful of SAGEbroadview clients and others have let us know that they have experienced another form of fraud. Some have received mailings from the IRS (the real IRS), alerting them that they may have fallen victim to identity fraud in the form of a bogus tax return being filed in their name....

If you are keeping an eye on the financial press, you may be noticing a flurry of commentary of late, with respect to a financial advisor’s duties and obligations to his or her clients. The White House recently released its report, “The Effects of Conflicted Investment Advice on Retirement Savings.” Shortly after, the Department of Labor reignited its own efforts to raise the bar on retirement plan advisory stewardship. Much of...

While the Internal Revenue Service may not be your favorite Federal agency, criminals falsely posing as IRS representatives are unquestionably the much greater enemy. As time and technology march on, scammers have been setting increasingly treacherous traps for swindling taxpayers’ assets, identities or both. To make matters worse, their favorite targets are those most likely to succumb to the trickery and least able to afford the assault – such as...

Never mind winter. If the heat is on for you to purchase your first home, you may be warmed by the excitement even as you find yourself frozen by indecision. This is not surprising. Finding your first home can be as enormously gratifying, but funding it can be dramatically daunting. A little financial life planning can go a long way toward making sound choices you can live with about the...

February 2015 Weather vs. Climate By Jim Parker Vice President DFA Australia Limited "Notice how TV news bulletins put finance next to the weather report? In each, talking heads point at charts and intone about intraday events that are quickly forgotten. Meanwhile, the long-term wealth building story gets overlooked." To read more: OPEN PDF: Weather vs. Climate...