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December 6, 2016 in Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
December 2016 Prediction Season Predictions about future price movements come in all shapes and sizes, but most of them tempt the investor into playing a game of outguessing the market. “The close of each calendar year brings with it the holidays as well as a chance to look forward to the year ahead. In the coming weeks, investors are likely to be bombarded with predictions about what the future, and specifically the next year,...

November 29, 2016 in Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
As Nobel laureate Eugene Fama once said, “Investment theory simplifies things that are otherwise shrouded in mystery and confusion.” We couldn’t agree more … but sustaining that level of simplification is a way of life, not a one-time task. That’s why we regularly attend educational forums that allow us to expand our knowledge base and sharpen our critical thinking. In fact, as members of National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA),...

October 3, 2016 in Dimensional, Investing
October 2016 Presidential Elections and the Stock Market Over the long run, the market has provided substantial returns regardless of who controlled the executive branch. Making investment decisions based on the outcome of presidential elections is unlikely to result in reliable excess returns for investors. At best, any positive outcome will likely be the result of random luck. At worst, it can lead to costly mistakes. To Read More: OPEN PDF ...

September 3, 2016 in Articles, College Planning, Dimensional, Investing
September 2016 Back to School Higher education may come with a high and increasing price tag, so it makes sense to plan well in advance. With school back in session in most of the country, many parents are likely thinking about how best to prepare for their children’s future college expenses. Now is a good time to sharpen one’s pencil for a few important lessons before heading back into the investing classroom to...

August 30, 2016 in Evidence-Based Investing, Investing, Money Management, Summer Refresher Series
Today we revisit one of the most refreshing investment ideas we know: the randomness of near-term market returns. Pick a year, any year. If you’re ever tempted to guess how capital markets are going to fare in the year following, all you have to do is take a look at this crazy quilt chart, updated here to reflect 2015 year-end data. That should quickly refresh your memory on how impossible it is...

August 17, 2016 in Advisor Role, Expenses, Fiduciary, Investing, Summer Refresher Series
In some respects, we wish this piece weren’t worth re-posting. We’d prefer it if today’s investors no longer needed to be on the look-out for the opaque fees and conflicts of interest described. Unfortunately, with only a few minor updates, the information is still as relevant today as it’s ever been. So even if you’ve read this before, we recommend revisiting this important message again. For extra credit, you may also...

August 9, 2016 in Estate Planning, Investing, Summer Refresher Series, Tax Management
One favorite guest re-post deserves another. This next one originally arrived just in time for Halloween. Authored by Larry Annello (shortly before our two firms merged into SAGEbroadview), the witching season went well with the theme of the then-new, potential 3.8% Medicare surtax on portions of an investor’s income. At least for the foreseeable future, the Medicare surtax remains alive and well. Fail to plan for it in any given tax...

June 22, 2016 in Articles, Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index has been negative in 13 of the past 28 calendar years while the S&P 500 Index has only been negative 5 of the past 28 years. Which index had a higher rate of return in this 28 year time period? If you’re catching on to the tricky questions we’ve been posing in our last post and the one before that you might guess that, despite the considerably higher...

June 15, 2016 in Articles, Dimensional, Evidence-Based Investing, Investing
In our last post, we shared the first in a trio of videos illustrating the important insights we can draw from Dimensional Fund Advisors’ Matrix Book of historical returns. When viewed close up, the data points found in the Matrix Book may look like just an endless array of random numbers. But just as random dots of paint can generate a bigger picture when viewed from a distance, so can individual...