If diversification is a free lunch, use the full buffet. In a recent article that highlighted the perils of owning individual stocks, I offered the historical evidence demonstrating how only a small percentage of stocks have accounted for all the gains provided by the market—with the vast majority earning a big, fat zero in aggregate cumulative…
Tim Maurer in Forbes on parent student loans. Parents have sacrificed their financial futures on the altar of their children’s education. Fueled by easy federal money and self-interested colleges, the result is a student loan crisis that appears already to be eclipsing the catastrophic proportions of mortgage indebtedness leading up to the financial collapse of 2008….
Larry Swedroe unpacks new SPIVA data on institutional managed account performance. Vanguard founder John Bogle’s “cost matters hypothesis” explains why, after subtracting fees, returns from active management tend to be smaller than returns from passive management, as the latter costs less. However, retail investors tend to pay higher advisory and management fees than institutional investors….
Timing your Social Security retirement benefits: Tim Maurer on saving them for later, when you need them most. Tim Maurer, Director of Personal Finance, The BAM Alliance I think we’ve been looking at Social Security retirement benefits all wrong. In the long-running debate about when to take Social Security — as early as age 62…
Larry Swedroe on data that reveals the disappointing accuracy of market forecasts. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance The financial media tends to focus much of its attention on stock market forecasts by so-called gurus. They do so because they know that it gets the investing public’s attention. Investors must believe such forecasts…
Market forecasters capitalize on our desire to know the unknowable. Tim Maurer, Director of Personal Finance, The BAM Alliance Just for fun, Google the words “market pullback.” There are over 2.2 million results–most of them market predictions–and the first page of results is dominated by calls for an imminent market reversal that the simple desk…
New research shows that “portfolio pumping” still occurs at mutual fund families. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Portfolio pumping—also known as “painting the tape” or “leaning for the tape”—is a market-manipulative strategy that mutual fund and hedge fund managers use to mark up their holdings at the end of the quarter by…
Larry Swedroe unpacks the data in his latest review of hedge funds’ lagging performance. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Hedge funds entered 2017 coming off their eighth-straight year of trailing U.S. stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) by significant margins. And for the 10-year period ending 2016, one that included…
How will you spend your tolerance for risk? Tim Maurer, Director of Personal Finance, The BAM Alliance “I just really wish I’d taken more risk in my investment portfolio,” said no one–ever–on their deathbed. That may seem like an odd observation, unless you consider the fact that I had the privilege of spending a couple…
Larry Swedroe looks at new data on active funds’ persistent underperformance. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Each year, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) analyzes the returns from a large sample of U.S.-based mutual funds. And each year, the results are basically the same, with the evidence showing a large majority of fund managers…
Larry Swedroe explains how to build a successful family wealth transfer plan. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Prepare your assets for transition to your heirs, but also prepare your heirs to receive your assets. Larry Swedroe explains why the success of an estate plan may depend on preparing families for the transfer…
Outperforming active funds rarely manage to repeat their success. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Since 2002, S&P Dow Jones Indices has published its biannual S&P Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) scorecards, which compare the performance of actively managed equity funds to their appropriate index benchmarks. Its midyear reports focus on the question of…
Hope vs. wisdom and investors’ failure to diversify. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Individual stock ownership offers both the hope of great returns (finding the next Google, for instance) and the potential for disastrous results (ending up with the next Lehman). Because investors are not compensated for taking the risk that their…
Bill Kaiser explores some financial tasks to consider before sending your child off to college. Bill Kaiser, Wealth Advisor, Bland Garvey Wealth Advisors As the high school graduation parties wind down and your child begins counting up their gift money, now is the time to get a few things in order before they head off…
Larry Swedroe breaks down Europe’s SPIVA results to show active strategies aren’t likely to outperform. Larry Swedroe, Director of Research, The BAM Alliance Earlier this week, I provided some highlights of from the S&P Dow Jones Indices Versus Active (SPIVA) 2016 U.S. Scorecard. Today we’ll look at the SPIVA Europe Scorecard, which compares the performance of actively…
Whatever your views of the candidates on the ballot next week, given the length and pervasiveness of election coverage this cycle, it’s natural to have a sense of uncertainty regarding how the outcome of the election will affect your life and, in particular, your financial plan. In times like these, when the “stomach acid test”…
