Secure Document SharingSecure Document Sharing

November 13, 2018 in Investing
Three incredible time lapses to watch on past and future trends 1. Trends & Time Lapses (A Wealth of Common Sense, Ben Carlson, 11/11/2018) Forward-looking population distribution in the U.S. How stock market valuations have changed by country since 2007 The change in the top 10 countries by GDP every year from 1960 to 2017 ‘Buy and Hold’ (and Rebalance) is still your best bet – here’s why  2. Why You Should Stick With ‘Buy and...

November 2, 2018 in Dimensional, Investing
Midterm Elections—What Do They Mean for Markets? NOVEMBER 01, 2018 For the upcoming midterms, commentators are likely to offer opinions on who will win and what impact the vote will have on markets. Looking at returns since 1926 shows that months when midterm elections took place did not tend to have returns that different than any other month. OPEN PDF: Midterm Elections—What Do They Mean for Markets SAGE Serendipity: If you don't need the latest...

October 29, 2018 in Investing, Real Estate, SAGE Reads
Investing Stuff: A Matter of Perspective (Sam Ro, Managing Editor of @YahooFinance) Same chart, two lenses pic.twitter.com/JfoOyRF1VI — Sam Ro (@bySamRo) October 26, 2018   The Psychology of Sitting in Cash, Part Deux (A Wealth of Common Sense, Ben Carlson, 10/28/2018) Some considerations for those who are sitting on a big pile of cash or are thinking about raising cash now that we’re in the midst of another correction.  Calendar Years are Arbitrary (The Belle Curve, Blair Duquesnay,...

October 16, 2018 in Behavior/Psychology, Investing
The market meltdown everyone saw coming 1.  Explaining the Correction with Perfect Hindsight (Barry Ritholtz, 10/15/2018) “We interrupt this regularly scheduled correction to bring you an after the fact narrative explaining in great detail and with utter certainty what just occurred in the markets, and why.”  A bright side to last week’s pain  2.  Who Benefits From a Market Correction? (A Wealth of Common Sense, Ben Carlson, 10/12/2018) “The swift market sell-off we’ve experienced this week is painful for anyone in...

October 10, 2018 in Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
Are you speed-dating or in an ideal marriage with your investment portfolio? As Dimensional Fund Advisors’ Quarterly Market Review reveals on its summary page, investors have much to appreciate this quarter, with positive returns from U.S. and international developed stocks. Still, “appreciation” is relative; there’s always some asset class outperforming its counterparts – and some underperforming. So, let’s address a question I’ve been hearing: “My globally diversified portfolio has been underperforming the...

October 3, 2018 in Investing, Young Adult Series
Generation Fret  1. Psychic Trauma (The Reformed Broker, 9/10/2018) “…our experience during formative years in the market can have a tendency to shape our attitudes, biases and prejudices forever. If your first ten years investing in the stock market ran from 2000 to 2009, then you watched two 50% crashes for the S&P 500, a lost decade in which the index gained 0% while the cost of living rose, a government bailout of...

September 25, 2018 in Dimensional, Investing, Mindful living
The Happiness Equation         As Brad Steiman of Dimensional fund Advisors writes in this article: Mo Gawdat, a serial entrepreneur and Chief Business Officer at Google X, tried to engineer a path to joy in his book, Solve for Happy, by expressing happiness as an equation. HAPPINESS ≥ Your Perception of the EVENTS of your life − Your EXPECTATIONS of how life should behave According to Gawdat’s model, if you perceive events as equal to...

September 18, 2018 in Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
Do Mutual Funds Outperform Benchmarks? Dimensional's analysis of US-based mutual funds shows that only a small percentage of funds have outperformed industry benchmarks after costs—and among top-ranked funds based on past results, only a small percentage have repeated their success. Here's the short (2:36 minutes) video for your viewing pleasure. SAGE Serendipity: The New York Times has a great collection of 2-3 minute video's called SCIENCETAKE.  Presented by science writer James Gorman, these...

September 4, 2018 in Insurance, Investing, Young Adult Series
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...

August 8, 2018 in Financial Life Planning, Investing
Where are you on this scale? 1. In “The Three Levels of Wealth,” Ben Carlson tries to determine where most Americans might find themselves on Stewart Butterfield’s scale: Level 1. I’m not stressed out about debt: People who no longer have to worry about their credit card debt or student loans. Level 2. I don’t care what stuff costs in restaurants: How much you spend on a particular meal isn’t impacted by your finances. Level 3. I don’t care...