27 Apr 2016

Corporate Bond Risks and Returns in the News

Yesterday, I was in the middle of updating a chart about the basic risk and return characteristics of corporate bonds when Standard and Poor’s announced they were downgrading bonds issued by Exxon-Mobile from AAA to AA+. It’s a shame to see another company lose their prime rating – there are now only two companies that have an AAA-rating.  Exxon had held the prime rating since 1930, if you include predecessor entities,… Read More

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18 Apr 2016

Portfolio Insights

We are pleased to provide a digital copy of Portfolio Insights, our quarterly newsletter. Table of Contents: Stock Market Summary Bond Market Review Healthy Aging Strategies Drawdowns:  A New Perspective Is Value Investing Dead? The Big Picture and Fast Facts Click here to read the issue:  2016 Q1 Portfolio Insights

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18 Apr 2016

Tax Trivia to Ease the Pain

Although we all know that ‘tax day’ is April 15th, a holiday in Washington DC pushed back the due date until today.  Here are some fun facts from efile.com to help ease the pain: In 1705, Russian emperor Peter the Great taxed beards in the hopes that more men would adopt a clean shaven look. Playing cards and dice were taxed in England going back to 1710 and rose to… Read More

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15 Apr 2016

Yale Bets Big Overseas

One of my favorite reads of the year is from the Yale Investments Office, which manages their $25.6 billion endowment.  You can find the report by clicking here. Yale is routinely the best-performing endowment in the world and has earned a remarkable 13.9 percent return over the last 30 years – well above the 10.7 percent return for US stocks, 8.7 percent return for foreign stocks and 7.1 percent return… Read More

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8 Apr 2016

Healthy Aging: Building Your Social Network

This is the third part in a series on the successful transition to retirement. The first article addressed The Challenge of Leisure and was followed by Why Put Family First.  This one will expand from family to your broader social network. As a reminder, researchers have shown that strong social relationships keep us younger, healthier, and lower our mortality risk.  In addition to living longer, healthy people lead happier lives in… Read More

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6 Apr 2016

Yield Curve Madness

Bond yields continued their downward march and fell to a five-week low yesterday as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury hit 1.73 percent.  After starting the year at 2.24 percent, the benchmark yield dropped to 1.63 percent when the stock market bottomed out on February 11th and then climbed to 1.98 percent before falling again. As low as your yields are today, they are among the highest in the… Read More

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