The US stock market is the biggest in the world, but investors who ignore other globalmarkets may miss out on a wealth of opportunity. Roughly 18,500 companies trade outside the US; this represents nearly 40% ofthe world’s $88 trillion equity market.When determining where to invest, a country’s size, population, or gross domestic productmay not be…
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You are invited to attend a webcast this Friday, September 30th at 11:30 AM EST. Our friends at Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) are hosting the webcast about US elections and the investment markets. During the webcast, they will look at historical data and explain why capturing long-term returns in the capital markets does not depend…
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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…
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I recently had lunch with a friend that I met in my running group. For our purposes, his name is John. He asked me to lunch because he had some questions about financial planning. To give a quick overview, his grandmother had a sizeable estate and her investments were with a large family office. She…
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As mentioned in a previous post, Scott, Thad, and I are all training for various running events this fall. Well, my first race took place this past Sunday, and I did NOT hit my goal. I was disappointed, but, after analyzing the outcome, I am motivated to keep going. I heard someone say that “wisdom…
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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…
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This is an excerpt from an article written by David Booth, founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors. So well said! Imagine it’s 25 years ago, 1997: J.K. Rowling just published the first Harry Potter book. General Motors is releasing the EV1, an electric car with a range of 60 miles. The internet is in its infancy,…
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Scott, Thad, and I are training for different running races this fall. Our goals are either time or distance based. In order to accomplish these goals, we must train. To increase our odds of success, we need a training plan! The benefits of a training plan include: Keeps you focused Gives you confidence you are…
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If inflation remains hot, retirees may get a bigger bump to their Social Security benefits than previously estimated. Last week, the annual report from the trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs projected a 3.8% increase in the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for beneficiaries’ monthly checks next year. But since the report data was gathered in mid-February,…
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