Posts by Thad Gilliam, CFA, CFP®
20 Second Advisor: 6% vs 2.5% Mortgage – The impact of rising rates on home affordability
If you’re looking for a prediction on when interest rates will rise or fall, alas, I cannot give you that info as I left my crystal ball at home this morning. But, I want to point out how much the recent rise in interest rates affect the monthly payments homeowners must pay when refinancing or…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Concentrated Wealth – A good thing until it’s not.
I was in a meeting last week with a group of other local financial advisors. One of the advisors shared a story about a prospect (from long ago) that was a Yahoo executive. At the time, Yahoo stock was soaring. The advisor begged the prospect to diversify and engage in a strategy that would reduce…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Your Accounts & TD’s transition to the Schwab platform
As many of you know, TD Ameritrade was purchased by Charles Schwab in Q3 2020. We think that Charles Schwab is a great company and we look forward to migrating to their platform in the coming months. The two companies have been working behind the scenes to integrate their two platforms for the past 2…
Read More20 Second Advisor: The Weight of Decades vs The Opinion of Weeks
Benjamin Graham – one of the fathers of value investing is credited with the following quote: In the short-run, the market is a voting machine – reflecting a voter-registration test that requires only money, not intelligence or emotional stability – but in the long-run, the market is a weighing machine. Benjamin Graham, as Quoted in…
Read More20 Second Advisor: My Bike Ride Across GA & Investments
This past weekend, I got to take part in BRAG (Bicycle Race Across GA). A friend and I chose to ride for 3 of the 7 days (from Columbus GA to Dublin GA). Some interesting lessons learned (and that apply to investments are): The power of groups (ie drafting). A lot of the time, my…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Investor vs Speculator?
I’m a firm believer that investments should have expected future cash flow. True investors should “expect” to be compensated for delaying gratification and taking risk (ie uncertainty). If an “investment” doesn’t have future expected cash flow, it is not an investment. Rather, it is a speculative guess. These speculative guesses are based purely on the…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Are negative years normal?
This past quarter has been a tough time to be in an investor. In the first quarter of 2022, all major asset classes had negative returns. See here for a recap of Q1 2022 returns. However, during the last 13 years (2009-2021), US stock returns have been pretty good – the S&P 500 had positive…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Then & Now – Returns During WWII
The events in Ukraine over the last few weeks have left many of us speechless. We haven’t seen a land invasion of this kind in Europe since WWII. Many clients and investors are grappling with how to handle their investments given the conflict; many worry of the effects if the conflict broadens. Here are some…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Keeping Up With The Steinbergs
Last week, our family took a trip for our kids’ winter break from school. On the long drive, I had the chance to listen to a podcast, The Just Enough Family. It details the rise and fall of Saul Steinberg, an American businessman that rose to great wealth by the age of 30 only to…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Facebook & Value/Growth Valuations
Facebook’s stock declined by more than 20% in trading on Thursday this week. A stock’s price can seem random at times, but (hopefully) it aligns with the underlying financials over time. Unfortunately, a lot of investors don’t actually understand what they’re buying when they purchase stock. By this I mean a lot of people buy…
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