Every January, I put together a list of predictions that financial “gurus” have made for the upcoming year, especially the ones that gain consensus as “sure things.” I then keep track of whether these “sure thing” forecasts actually came to pass, through a series of periodic updates. The inevitable turn of the calendar into October…
My book, “Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make and How to Avoid Them,” covered 77 common errors I believe investors commit all too often. I know today there’s at least one more I should have included: discussing individual stock buys or sells at the water cooler. Evidence from the field of psychology emphasizes the strength…
Imagine a hypothetical guy who lives a responsible financial life. He’s focused on meeting his obligations, even though he doesn’t have a big cushion when it comes to his take-home pay. Things are tight. He’s not quite living paycheck-to-paycheck, but it’s close. Then one day, an external shock completely outside his control occurs, and it…
If anyone could demonstrate expertise in “beating the market,” you would think it would be hedge fund managers. They get paid hefty fees (often 2 percent of assets under management plus 20 percent of profits) to generate “alpha.” Successful hedge fund managers make obscene amounts of money. The top hedge fund managers earned in excess…
The market has been experiencing gut-wrenching volatility recently. Monday, Aug. 24 was a particularly unsettling day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) lost 1,089 points before rallying to close down 588. This kind of roller coaster ride creates understandable anxiety among investors. Should you sell and sit on the sidelines, waiting for the market to…
“It was totally worth it.” In this case, “it” referred to a Vitamix blender that a friend recently had purchased. He wasn’t the first. Indeed, I don’t know anyone who has purchased a Vitamix blender and didn’t share my friend’s effusive sentiment, even after spending between $429 and $719 (for the new line of G-Series…
Looking to avail yourself of a financial advisor’s services but stumped as to how to pick one? Who better to tell you what to look for than a financial advisor himself? “I believe there are four minimum requirements for anyone you’re considering working with,” said Tim Maurer, certified financial planner and director of personal finance…
The midyear S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) domestic scorecard provides another example of why (at least when it comes to the overall results of active management relative to appropriate benchmarks) the past is, in fact, prologue. Let’s review some of the highlights from the June 2015 scorecard. The table below shows the percentage of active…
Investing is a unique business. After all, you wouldn’t think of buying any commercial item (like a car) without first negotiating for the lowest price. And few people would consider buying a product if they had no information about its price tag. Yet that is precisely what most investors do. They have no idea how…
As I observe in my book, “Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett,” one of the great anomalies in investing is that while investors idolize Warren Buffett, they tend to ignore his advice, especially when it comes to efforts to time the market. The following are just a few of his many “words of wisdom”…
How financial advisors are compensated doesn’t determine their character, but it does influence their behavior. As the debate over regulatory standards of conduct for financial advisors plays out in Washington, the issue for investors boils down to how their advisors are paid and how well the arrangement aligns the interests of the advisor with their…
Tim Maurer, director of personal finance for Buckingham and The BAM Alliance, discusses the four key criteria consumers should use to select the most qualified financial advisor for… Read the rest of the article on CNBC.
Anthony Anderson is a funny dude. The Emmy-nominated actor has been making people laugh on television and in film for 20 years. But now he’s bringing his sense of humor to a surprisingly unfunny topic—the need for life insurance. The big question I had for him was: Why? Why, with your career exploding and recent…
A few years ago, a friend of mine who happens to be a really well-known journalist had a conversation with a really well-known academic. Because the conversation was private, I’m not mentioning names. But I did want to share one fascinating part of their discussion. They were talking about cognitive biases. A cognitive bias is…
Contrary to what most investors believe, empirical studies of corporate bond premia have found that only a small fraction of observed credit spreads can be explained by expected losses from defaults. For example, research has found that the contemporaneous return of the S&P 500 Index is highly significant when determining the changes in credit spreads…
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