20
Oct
2017
Participant Insights 3Q 2017
Click here to view Participant Insights 3Q 2017
9
Oct
2017
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 Forecasting Expected Returns Retirement Rules of Thumb Click here to read the issue: 2017 Q3 Portfolio Insights
2
Oct
2017
Trump’s Tax Principles
Following the election last November, I outlined what we could reasonably expect from the Trump administration (you can find the article here). The article may have been a little tough to follow because I was trying to meld what Trump had said on the campaign trail and two proposals floating around the House. At this point, the picture is a little more clear as President Trump and GOP leaders outlined their… Read More
25
Sep
2017
Changes to the Missouri Most 529 Plan
I received a package from Missouri Most last week highlighting a change to the college savings plan. For those investors, like me, that use the age-based options, Vanguard is expanding the stock/bond options to make the journey a little smoother for investors. Currently, there are five age categories, starting with zero to five years old, then six to ten years old, 11-15 years old, 16-18 years old and for 19-year… Read More
18
Sep
2017
The Equifax Breach: What to do Now
As soon as Equifax announced that they had been hacked and that 143 million consumers were affected, I assumed that I was one of them – and not just because nearly one out of every two Americans was impacted. I use www.mint.com to track my monthly income and expenses and one of the features that they offer is information about your credit score once per month. It’s a great feature because… Read More
11
Sep
2017
Cliff Asness Says, Fire Your Mechanic
This article was originally published on June 3, 2014. In my humble opinion, it holds up well; although I am disappointed that value stocks still haven’t turned around more than three years later. As much as I don’t like that fact, however, the central thesis of my article is that these strategies can underperform for long periods of time. One of my favorite people in our industry is Cliff Asness,… Read More
5
Sep
2017
New and Improved: The Shiller PE Ratio
Longtime Daily Insights readers are no strangers to the Shiller PE-ratio, a valuation metric that uses ten years of inflation-adjusted earnings to evaluate the cheapness or richness of the stock market – a search of the term on our website yields more than a dozen results. I’m very proud to say that our understanding of the Shiller PE is now greatly expanded, thanks to our own Ryan Craft. In the past,… Read More
29
Aug
2017
Forecasting Expected Returns
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” -Warren Buffet How can investors know the value of an investment? Bond yields remain very low and stocks continue to climb higher across the globe. Using typical valuation measures, markets everywhere look very expensive. However, investors continue to pour money into them, so they must see value. The value of an investment is subject to an uncertain future, so how… Read More
28
Aug
2017
What the Hell is Bitcoin, Anyway?
In 2013, when Bitcoin prices were surging, a few readers asked me to write about Bitcoin. I didn’t know much about it and didn’t write the article because I thought that Bitcoins didn’t seem legitimate, but they’re on a tear, so I’m giving it a shot. Bitcoin is the first, largest and best-known crypto-currency. But what is a crypto-currency? That’s a harder question. To answer it for myself, I thought… Read More
21
Aug
2017
Is Volatility Too High? Goldilocks Says it’s Just Right
Well, I am fresh back from vacation in Northern Michigan. I had the pleasure of driving over the Upper Peninsula twice during this trip to pick up one of my daughter’s from camp. That’s three trips over the UP this summer, but, sadly, only one pasty. From my perch up north, the big story for me was seeing volatility spike up for the first time in what seems like forever…. Read More