Bob French

CFA
Director of Investment Analysis

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Featured Articles

How Often Should I Rebalance My Portfolio?

The market is going to drag your portfolio through every mud puddle it finds. It’s your job to pick your portfolio up, dust it off, and point it back in the right direction. Rebalancing brings your portfolio back into line, and ensures that you are taking the right amount of risk through time.

How Long is the Long Term?

Everyone always talks about investing (and planning) for the long term. But they’re usually vague about what the “long term” actually means. Does that mean 5 years? 10 years? More? (Spoiler: the answer is definitely more). And frankly, talking about how you…

Occam’s – Do the Midterm Elections Matter to the Market?

The 2022 midterm elections are coming up (remember to vote on November 8th). With every election, there’s always a lot of talk about how important it is to vote (true), and that if the other side wins it means the end of…

Occam’s – How Buffer Assets Might Be Able to Help Your Retirement

WHAT IS OCCAM’S RAZOR? Occam’s Razor is a principle attributed to William Occam, a 14th century philosopher. He stressed that explanations must not be multiplied beyond what is necessary. Thus, Occam’s Razor is a term used to “shave off” or dismiss superfluous explanations for…

Introduction

I’m Bob French, the investments guy at Retirement Researcher. I’m also the Director of Investment Analysis at McLean Asset Management. My goal here is to help you use your investments to meet your retirement goals.

Prior to joining Retirement Researcher and McLean Asset Management, I was in charge of designing the analytical engine for instream – a financial planning tool that financial advisors use with their clients. I became a CFA Charterholder in 2010.

Before instream, I was at Dimensional Fund Advisors, and I was in charge of a data analysis tool that they provided to their financial advisor clients. Aside from helping people with the mechanics of the tool, most of my time was spent helping them understand how to interpret and explain the results to their clients. And it’s this piece – just writ a little larger – that I’m excited to have the opportunity to do here at Retirement Researcher. All of the information that you need to invest well is out there (somewhere), but I want to help give you the context and understanding to use that information to reach the retirement that you deserve.

A Diversified Portfolio is a Healthy Portfolio

By Bob French, CFA

The following excerpt is from our ebook “12 Principles of Intelligent Investors,” which you can download here. Want to get better at investing? Are you looking for simple, approachable ways to deepen your knowledge of the keys that create financial success? Using…

Consistently Successful Active Managers Are 'Rarer Than Rare'

By Bob French, CFA

How Do Presidential Elections Affect The Markets?

By Bob French, CFA

With the presidential election coming up, people are naturally curious about what the elections mean for the stock market – and, more importantly, for their investments (and everything those investments represent).

A World of Opportunities: The Benefits of Global Diversification

By Bob French, CFA

It’s obvious why a U.S.‑based investor may think it’s better to stay away from international investing, but you don’t get the full story by just looking at the short-term returns of different asset classes in isolation. You need to take a long-term perspective and think about how everything affects your total portfolio.

Are Oil Prices Lower Because of the Stock Market?

By Bob French, CFA

Is the volatility of oil a result of the volatility of the markets? Or vice versa? Or neither?

How Should an Overvalued Market Affect Your Investment Plan?

By Bob French, CFA

Markets don’t move capriciously. They move because something new has happened – new information has arisen. The tricky part is that we don’t know what new information will arise.

The Market Is Risky These Days, but Hasn’t It Always Been?

By Bob French, CFA

Lately people have been focusing on how the market has become more volatile. A lot of talking heads throw this out as if it were a proven fact and use it to justify whatever their call of the day happens to be. I decided to look at the numbers and see if the doomsayers are right.

I decided to look at the numbers and see if the doomsayers are right. And while what they’re saying is technically correct (the best kind of correct), we’re simply seeing a return to long-term averages.

Maintaining Your Portfolio Is a Rebalancing Act

By Bob French, CFA

Markets bounce around, which means your portfolio will eventually look different than it did when you started. You’ll be taking the wrong amount of risk. We want to bring your portfolio back to where it should be through a process we call “rebalancing.”