Investments
20 Second Advisor: TD Ameritrade Transitions to Charles Schwab
We live in a world full of change. Each day we are met with new opportunities that can help us grow. Sometimes even the simplest of changes can be uncomfortable. To demonstrate this, try crossing your arms over your chest. Easy enough, right? Now uncross your arms and try crossing them in the opposite way. …
Read More20 Second Advisor: Should I just put my money in bank CDs?
I’ve been getting a lot questions from clients on if they should keep their funds in their portfolio or just take it out and put the funds into a bank CD (now paying 4-5%). To me, the question is all about time horizon. Stocks have a much higher expected return (around 10% over the long…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Bank Troubles & Your Portfolio
Many of you have seen the headlines this week about Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse and that some other banks (namely First Republic and Credit Suisse) are in trouble. I thought it would be helpful to give you a brief overview of why SVB failed and if it has an impact on your portfolio. Without further…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Learning Guitar and Investing
I am taking guitar lessons. It’s been a goal of mine for a while, and I realized I needed the face to face instruction and accountability to give myself the best chance of success. My instructor keeps telling me…”I’d rather you practice 15 minutes a day than ONLY 2 hours on Saturday!” This made me…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Age before beauty – how older investors can outperform higher return investments (hint: it’s time!).
I’m reading a book right now that talks about Warren Buffett. Some say he is a great investor. Others say that perhaps he has just been extremely lucky. Or perhaps he is just an old investor (he’s been investing for a long time!). I think Buffett has a good bit of all three: Investment skill,…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Is focusing your investments solely on dividend paying stocks a reliable strategy?
Some income-oriented investors are attracted to dividends because they view these stocks as less risky, and perhaps more stable. While dividends are one way to generate income, they are not the only way to produce cash, and investors should be aware of the potential tradeoffs that accompany a focus on dividends. For example, prioritizing dividends…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Secret to staying wealthy? Fear.
I just finished reading a fascinating excerpt from the book “The Psychology of Money.” In the article, the author, Morgan Housel, lays out the argument that the skills needed to gain vast sums of money are very different than the skills needed to retain and protect wealth. Specifically, Housel says: Capitalism is hard. But part…
Read More20 Second Advisor: Just leave it alone
Many investors are concerned with the effect of election results. Do past results suggest a useful strategy to deal with election-year uncertainty? The answer is yes. For the 96-year period ending in 2021, the S&P 500 Index (with dividends reinvested) posted an average return of 12.33% for all calendar years and results were negative in…
Read More20 Second Advisor: The cost of trying to time the market
On Thursday November 10, stocks mounted their biggest one-day rally since 2020. The S&P jumped 5.54% in a single day! The Nasdaq surged 7.35%! The impact of being out of the market for a short time can be profound, as shown by this hypothetical investment in the stocks that make up the Russell 3000 Index,…
Read More20 Second Advisor: 5th academic tied to Dimensional receives Nobel Prize
We seek to utilize the very best solutions for our clients! As you might know, we use Dimensional Fund Advisors’ (DFA) investment funds to help build our portfolios. They do everything with excellence. To that end, Douglas Diamond, DFA’s lead independent director of the boards of the firm’s US Mutual Funds and ETFs, was recently…
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