Should We Pay Off Our Mortgage? — Retire Mortgage, Retire Mortgage

29 Aug 2014

Should We Pay Off Our Mortgage? One of the common questions that we get is whether or not someone should pay off their mortgage before retirement. People always say, “I just want to be debt‑free,” and that’s an admirable goal. It is often an emotional issue as much as a financial issue. Some people don’t sleep well if they are carrying debt; others feel comfortable with mortgage debt and enjoy… Read More

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A New Milestone: S&P 500 Closes Above 2,000

27 Aug 2014

For the 30th time this year, the S&P 500 closed at an all-time high.  Yesterday was an even bigger deal because it crossed a big round number: 2,000.  While that shouldn’t mean anything special, it does.    Investors are humans that are subject to all kinds of psychological biases and round number attachment (my name) seems to be one of them.  If you go to Wikipedia, you can get a… Read More

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The Unique Benefits of REITs

26 Aug 2014

As the S&P 500 continues to break new records, another asset class has handily outperformed the stock market so far this year: REITs. REIT is short for Real Estate Investment Trust and refers to securities (corporations or trusts in most cases) that own and operate income-producing commercial real estate. REITs are an attractive way to build a diversified portfolio of commercial real estate since the barrier to entry for a… Read More

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Mutual Fund Fees Matter

21 Aug 2014

As I mentioned the other day, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s changed over the years here at Acropolis. Three years ago, we made our first investment in open-ended mutual funds. We were early adopters of exchange traded funds (ETFs) that operate like mutual funds in some ways but are a little more tax efficient, offer liquidity during the trading day and are often slightly less expensive. Today, we’ve… Read More

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Avoiding Risk Can Be Risky

20 Aug 2014

In my opinion, one of the most amazing stories this year is the surprise drop in interest rates. The 10-year US Treasury note started the year at three percent and nearly everyone, including me, expected interest rates to rise this year (but for the short end, which is controlled by the Fed). Today, the 10-year closed at a yield of 2.40 percent and closed as low as 2.34 percent last… Read More

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Not All Indexes Are Created Equal

19 Aug 2014

Acropolis will turn 12 in less than 10 days and I can’t help reflect on what has changed over that time and what has stayed the same. Since the beginning, we’ve used index funds, but the way we use them has changed fairly dramatically in some cases. Take small cap stocks, for example. A dozen years ago, we used exchange-traded-funds (ETFs) as the core component of our small cap allocation… Read More

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