3 Questions to Ask When Planning Your Financial Future

Not only do many people not have a financial plan, many of them don't understand what such a plan should involve. One way to deal with this is to engage a qualified financial planner. Whether you take this route or go it alone, a financial plan should be the answer to issues raised by key questions about your future.

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Invest Like Norway, Not Yale

David Swenson, the chief investment officer of the Yale endowment fund, has gained notoriety over the past several decades to manage the Yale endowment fund.  In the early 1990s, he decided to place a gigantic chunk of the endowment into alternative assets like real estate, hedge funds, and private equity.  The results were spectacular.

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WISE Money – Stubborn Bulls and Stubborn Bears are Both Wrong

Some people—perma‐bulls—are always predicting that the stock market will go up, and others—perma‐bears—are always predicting that it will go down

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WISE Money – Wedding To-do List: Give Yourself a Money Checkup

Amid an engagement, it's easy for couples to overlook key financial points that can affect their financial security and their relationship. As couples plan their wedding, it's a good idea to do some foundational financial planning, as well.

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“Fight The Fights That Are Worth Fighting”

Do you work with a financial advisor? If so, is that advisor required to put your interest ahead of his/her own? If you are like 99% of other investors out there, you probably don’t know for sure. The vast majority of advisors are brokers or have the option to operate as a broker, and therefore don’t have to act in their client’s best interest.

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You Are Not A Contrarian

It seems like every investor (amateur or professional) bills themselves as a contrarian.  They will tell you that they tend to buy unloved or unwanted companies when they are trading for a great bargain.  The simple fact is that this is very hard.  The Motley Fool has a great article on this very topic.

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What Is The Best Vehicle To Accumulate Wealth?

What is the best vehicle for accumulating long-term wealth?  This is a question worth thinking about as an investor, and a recent Gallup poll shows that only 37% of those surveyed believed that stocks were a good method for accumulating wealth.

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The Predictive Power (Or Lack Thereof) Of Stock Market Indicators

There is really no indicator that we know of that can predict stock market performance.  If there ever were, it would very quickly be arbitraged away since markets tend to be fairly efficient.  Merrill Lynch uses a metric they call the “Sell Side Indicator” to determine future stock performance.

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Beating The Market: Luck Or Skill?

There is a great post at the Big Picture blog about whether luck or skill is the determining factor to outperforming the market. The short answer: luck. Research has shown this to be the case, but some other points in the article are worth reviewing.

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