Market Valuations
Are the Markets’ New Highs the Current Worry?
There are a handful of times a year when certain events precipitate a market drop. So much so, that we feel it is helpful to provide perspective on why investing in the stock market is a great way to help you build…
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What Makes the Markets Move
Financial markets are constantly on the move, and those moves can have serious implications for what your retirement will look like. Still, most people don’t really have any clue as to why the markets move the way they do.
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What Risks Are Worth Taking
Risk drives everything about your investments, but all risk is not created equal. For most investors (and most of the financial industry) dealing with risk is a lot like making sausage. People want what it gets them, the investment returns, but they…
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What are Market Valuations? (Part 2)
Taking distributions from an investment portfolio amplifies the impacts of portfolio volatility, making retirement income planning particularly tricky as distributions tend to be the primary income source for retirees. We can use Monte Carlo simulations to show the increase of money-weighted investment returns in retirement, which has important implications about the choice for a fixed portfolio return assumption.
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What are Market Valuations? (Part 1)
Taking distributions from an investment portfolio amplifies the impacts of portfolio volatility, making retirement income planning particularly tricky as distributions tend to be the primary income source for retirees. We can use Monte Carlo simulations to show the increase of money-weighted investment returns in retirement, which has important implications about the choice for a fixed portfolio return assumption.
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5 Companies Comprise One-Third of S&P 500 Returns – Is This the Death of Diversification?
Everyone is always eager to declare the death of diversification. They say it fails in a crisis, that correlations are going up throughout the markets, or that building a diversified portfolio is just too dang time-consuming and expensive (seriously). Now people are…
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US Markets Are Outperforming Global Markets, What Should You Do?
To say international stocks haven’t been doing great relative to US stocks is a massive understatement. What does that mean for your portfolio?
Most of the investment advice you get is (or should be) conditional. Advisors tend to steer clear of definitive, blanket statements, but this is one that I’m pretty comfortable making if you have stocks in your portfolio, you should probably own both domestic and international st
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The Perks Of Being A Flexible Spender In Retirement
William Bengen’s 1994 article introduced the concept of the 4% rule for retirement withdrawals. He defined the sustainable spending rate as the percentage of retirement date assets which can be withdrawn, with this amount adjusted for inflation in subsequent years, such that the retirement portfolio is not depleted for at least thirty years.
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A Safer Approach To Retirement Income Planning
The relationship between stock market valuations and sustainable spending rates has great implications for retirement planning when we consider how the pre-retirement savings phase and the post-retirement withdrawal phase can be linked through the stock market valuation level at retirement.
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Don’t Bet Your Retirement On History Repeating Itself
People nearing retirement should take note of the fact that U.S. financial markets have entered uncharted waters now in regards to the low bond yields and high stock market valuations facing investors.
Read MoreIs a High CAPE Cause for Alarm? Part 1: CAPE’s Relationship to Stock Returns
Market predictors have taken many forms over the years, but no formula or person has ever gotten it completely right. The market is unpredictable. That’s just the way it is. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying, and it doesn’t necessarily mean we should ignore them all.
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