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What Can We Learn from the Market Disasters of the 1970s?
Throughout history, when bad news and events touched the daily lives of investors and caused
Sustainable Retirement Spending and Market Returns
What happens to sustainable spending rates as the planning horizon extends, or
if we build in a constraint to preserve wealth and avoid portfolio depletion?
Business Owners: Did You Know You Are a Fiduciary?
Employer-sponsored retirement plans — such as 401(k)s or 403(b)s — are one of the primary sources of retirement savings for Americans. If you are an employer who has set up such a plan, you might not be aware of the responsibilities that come with your role as a plan sponsor.
With Retirement Longer Than Ever, What Is the New 4% Rule?
One of the most hotly contested debates in personal finance is over the safe withdrawal rate for retirement. How much can you expect to spend sustainably from your investments during retirement? What do we need to do to be safe?
The Hidden High Costs of Index Funds
Here we cover the basics of index funds. Today, many investors use index funds because they provide an easy way to gain cheap, diversified exposure to specific areas of the market. The question is this: Is an index a precise representation of the sector of the market it describes?
Are You Paying Too Much For Your Retirement Plan Advisor?
This post will dive deeper into what you should expect from your retirement plan advisor and how they should be compensated.
Understanding How Financial Advisors Are Compensated
With the value provided by good financial decision making and the impediments people face to achieve good financial outcomes for themselves, it is worthwhile discussing more about the advisory profession and understanding how advisors are paid, if for no other reason than in the interest of increased transparency.
Does Your Mindset Affect How You Make Retirement Income Decisions?
The fields of behavioral finance and behavioral economics have uncovered various biases humans have which are great for day-to-day survival, but somewhat maladaptive for long-term investing.
Common Investor Behaviors That Hurt Investments
In my post from last week, “behavioral coaching” was suggested to have the biggest impact on real-world investor returns. In Vanguard’s analysis, being able to overcome your own behavioral quirks could add more than 1.5% to your returns, as opposed to falling victim to your own human tendencies.
Does Your Retirement Plan Account For Your Own Cognitive Decline?
When it comes to financial planning, Vanguard’s “Alpha” and Morningstar’s “Gamma” are really just the tip of the iceberg.
The Value of Sound Financial Decisions: From Alpha to Gamma
David Blanchett and Paul Kaplan at Morningstar created a similar study about the value of good decision making. Their results and approach are different from those of Vanguard, but the goal is the same: to quantify the costs of poor and good decision making. Naturally, many assumptions must be made regarding good financial decisions and the impact of poor financial decisions.
A Diversified Portfolio is a Healthy Portfolio
Diversification is one of your most important financial tools. This one strategy can simultaneously limit
