Blog

The Real Risk in Investing? Inflation!

People always focus on the "risk" of the stock market. The reality is that the market is volatile—but NOT risky. In this week's blog post I focus on the real risk in investing.

Monday Morning Motivation - Persistence

Do you have the necessary persistence to go through, over, or around any walls that you encounter?

The Death of Factor Investing - True or False?

Rumor alert! The death of factor investing has been greatly exaggerated (i.e., Fama's not going to have his Nobel Prize taken away any time soon).

Monday Morning Motivation - Recognized

Would you be recognized by your peers as a professional?

Does the Market Hate Uncertainty—Or Do You?

Personifying "The Market" feels good, but does it really make sense to do so? In my opinion, the market is rational and certain—it's not an entity with thoughts and feelings. But people hate uncertainty! It's people who act strangely when they perceive things as uncertain. How does the Uncertainty Paradox affect YOU?

Monday Morning Motivation - Limitations

9 Key Questions for the Long-Term Investor

Monday Morning Motivation - Self-Validating

How would your relationship with your profession change if you developed the ability to self-validate?

Financial Pornography – Why Your TV is Bad for You

Monday Morning Motivation - Adversity

The Sky is Not Falling! - Avoiding Chicken Little Behavior in Investing

Index Funds - What's Inside & Why You Need to Know

I often tell people that I think using index funds to construct your portfolio is a very solid approach. However, it is NOT without some costs and trade-offs.

Monday Morning Motivation - Hesitating

Markets - So You Think You Are Smarter Than the Rest of the World?

Are you interested in finding out how to ignore the market while investing very wisely in the market?

Monday Morning Motivation - Showing

Are you more interested in getting things done or in showing off?

Socially Responsible Investing: Doing Well While Doing Good

While there are certainly those CEOs that act irresponsibly, there are many who lead organizations down socially responsible paths. To date, there has been quite some success in weighting socially responsible companies more highly to build portfolios that mirror the performance of the broader market.

Quarterly Market Review - First Quarter 2018

While we believe that investors should always focus on the long term, we recognize that there is always a great deal of interest in happenings in the marketplace.  With that in mind, we publish a brief market update each quarter. Here you will find updates for the first quarter of 2018.

Why Paying Attention to Interest Rates is Pointless for Investors

I am 99.9% certain that there are other financial advisors who will see this title and think I am absolutely nuts. They will opine, "Of course interest rates are important!". Yeah, they are wrong. At least when it comes to using interest rates as a predictor on investment returns.

Monday Morning Motivation - Breaks

Are you making your own breaks and rejecting the concept of bad breaks?

Quarterly Market Review – First Quarter 2017

Monday Morning Motivation - Excuses

Are you ready to stop making excuses?

No More Chasing Returns--Why I am a Global Investor

If you look at the numbers, US equities have done incredibly well over the past decade. Comparatively, international developed equities have NOT done nearly as well. As a result, you will see many in the financial services space over-weighting (compared to their historical holdings) the US equities.

Monday Morning Motivation – Facing

Are you facing the reality in your life?

One Commonsense Insight That Can Improve Your Investment Returns

Approach investing by using theories that are backed up by the data AND have a good common-sense/intuitive explanation. One theory that has both is this: Invest in companies that have a track record of producing profitable results.

Monday Morning Motivation - Silver Bullets

Would you be better off putting aside your search for silver bullets and doing the work?

Are You Using Your Head When It Comes to Investing?

When it comes to investing, we often struggle with using our mind versus our heart/emotions. The result is often catastrophic when we fall into this trap. To be effective investors, we need to do two things.

Monday Morning Motivation - Disciplined

Do you have routines, motivations, and accountability partners in place to ensure that you remain disciplined?

To Bit or Not to Bit - What Should Investors Make of Bitcoin Mania?

Bitcoin has been established as a new currency. And I freely concede that you can use it to conduct commerce at this point in time. However, I am unconvinced that it will be viable in the long term. Furthermore, the volatility associated with it is mind boggling.

Monday Morning Motivation - Gratification

Are you willing to delay gratification to receive the blessings that are likely to come by doing so?

When Rates Go Up, Do Stocks Go Down?

After a rocky few weeks, stock prices have settled down; HOWEVER, you can always count on the media to raise some new crisis to get investors riled up. I am quite confident that sometime in the next few months you will hear one of the talking heads on one of the cable networks opine that the stock market is at risk.

Monday Morning Motivation – Game

What would it take to switch your focus from the love of money to the love of the game?

New Market Highs and Positive Expected Returns

The past few weeks have brought quite a bit of volatility to the stock market.  Many wonder whether the market will continue to rise as it achieves new highs; or, if the recent downward movements are the new normal.

Monday Morning Motivation – Recover

Are you taking enough time to recover emotionally, physically and spiritually?

Recent Market Volatility

If you are going to invest, you are going to experience volatility. Volatility is EXACTLY the reason that we are able to capitalize financially on the stock market. It is also the reason that we MUST be disciplined if we wish to capture the market returns that are available.

Monday Morning Motivation – Choice

Is there a choice that you need to make in your life?

New Year, New Market Highs

Do you think the market is too high? Folks, it has been proven time and time again YOU CANNOT TIME THE MARKET

Monday Morning Motivation – Idols

Are you ready to stop idolizing and start making an impact on the lives of others?

Monday Morning Motivation – "Of"

Are you in an "in spite of" or a "because of" life?

Quarterly Market Review – Q4 2017

Quarterly Market Review - Q4 2017 It's NOT about the money. It's about how the money supports your goals!

As Goes January, So Goes the Year?

No doubt more than a few individuals have heard one of the talking heads on the cable channels speak of "the January effect" or some other similar phenomenon that you can exploit to get rich quick. Are you really buying into what they are selling?

Monday Morning Motivation – Exercise

Would you feel better if you were to exercise each morning?

Monday Morning Motivation – Visualization

What is keeping you from visualizing the reality you want to create?

Monday Morning Motivation – Scribing

What is keeping you from journaling (scribing)?

Monday Morning Motivation – Silence

How healthy is it to deprive your mind of a daily time for silence?

Monday Morning Motivation - Social Skills

What are you doing to focus on improving your social skills?

The Uncommon Average

When your boat is sinking, would you swim along the current or fight it? "The Uncommon Average" lets you see how long-term focus can yield positive returns.

Quit Monkeying Around!

We are lucky to be living in this age and time, where there is someone we can trust our investments with. We don't let the monkeys decide for us. We let the experts in.

Monday Morning Motivation – Empathy

Are you comfortable enough with your own feelings to be empathetic to others?

Monday Morning Motivation – "Motivation"

What floats your boat – what's your why – what's your motivation?

Key Questions for the Long-Term Investor

Key Questions for the Long-Term Investor. The reality is that the principles of successful long term investing are much different than most people think. Successful, long term investing" is EXTREMELY redundant

Monday Morning Motivation – Self-regulation

Are you willing to ask the tough questions about your feelings, thoughts, and actions and regulate your behavior accordingly?