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What Investing Advice Would You Give Your 20-Year-Old Self?
Jemstep recently asked 7 personal finance bloggers a simple question: “What investing advice would you give your 20-year-old self?” Here’s what they had to say. “I would tell my 20 year-old self not...
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What Are Absolute Return Funds?
If you pay attention to the financial news, you’ll hear a great deal about the active-versus-passive fund debate: is it better to invest in passive funds that track a market index, or in active funds...
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Money Traps: How to Avoid Mutual Fund Fees
The mutual fund industry is famous for the complexity and opaqueness of its fee structure. Many investors are not even aware that they are paying fees, let alone what those fees are for or when they...
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REIT Investing 101
Real estate investment trusts (REITS) offer investors the chance to gain exposure to commercial real estate via liquid securities that effectively trade like regular common stocks. In other words,...
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August Stock Market Performance
It’s August now, the time usually known as the “dog days” of summer, due to its heat and lethargy. Does that term apply to the stock market as well? Is August stock market performance unique?...
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What Do Alpha and Beta Mean, In Finance?
One of the intimidating things about finance (for regular people) is the discipline’s apparent preoccupation with Greek words like “alpha” and “beta.” Go to a cocktail party on Wall Street, and you...
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Does Your Portfolio Have a Core-Satellite Approach?
There are two components to portfolios with a Core-Satellite approach: a large strategic allocation that changes very little from year to year (other than annual rebalancing), and a smaller allocation...
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The Basics of Fundamental Asset Valuation
Ever wonder how the people who work at the mutual funds in your portfolio spend their workdays? When a fund manager tells you that the fund’s strategy is based on a “bottom-up” process of evaluating...
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What is International Investing?
It’s hard to believe that roughly 25 years ago, the concept of “international” investing was foreign to a large percentage of the US investing public. I remember the time well: In 1986 I was assigned...
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Are Floating Rate Notes Right for You?
Since May 2013, U.S. benchmark interest rates have risen sharply. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a key benchmark for intermediate-term rates, shot up from 1.6% in early May to nearly 2.8% in...
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Tax Efficient Investing: How to Make Smart Tax Investing Choices
Taxes are an unavoidable part of our financial lives, and they influence the decisions we make about our spending, savings and investments. So when we’re planning our investment strategy for a...
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Is the Stock Market a Casino?
It’s a reasonable question: with all its wild ups and downs, is the stock market nothing more than a Wild West casino? Are people simply playing the stock market – like it’s a game? On August 21,...
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Do You Need an Investment Policy Statement?
An Investment Policy Statement is a document that most institutional investors – like charitable foundations, pension funds and insurance companies – use to set out their investment strategy goals and...
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Retirement: How Much Should I Have Saved by Age 30?
The younger you are, the less likely you are to be thinking about your golden years, and the less likely you are to be saving for those years. As tempting as it may be to put off thinking about your...
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Pay Off Debt or Save for Retirement?
Managing your personal finances is tough, no doubt about it. How much should I put aside for retirement every month? Should I pay off all my debt before I invest? How do I manage my discretionary...
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“How Do You Keep Your Retirement Portfolio Diversified?”
What is the single biggest determiner of your long-term portfolio performance? It’s not luck. It’s not the latest “hot stock.” It’s asset allocation. Spreading your portfolio among stocks, bonds and...
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Tax-Deferred Savings vs. Taxable Savings Accounts: Easy Steps to Boost Your...
Think all retirement accounts are equal? If you do, you could be losing out big on your investments. Making the mistake of ignoring the tax status of your retirement accounts and not allocating your...
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What To Do With Your 401k When Leaving a Job to Get the Most of Your Money
Wondering what to do with your 401k when leaving your job? It’s a question that’s bound to come up pretty early in the process of preparing to leave your job. Before you decide what to do with your...
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Critical Pieces of Retirement Investment Advice Every Investor Should Know
There’s no shortage of retirement investment advice these days. With some baby boomers having already reached retirement, and the even more populous millennial generation wondering how they’re going...
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How to Invest Your Extra Income And Make the Most of Your Money
There are very few workplace experiences that are more fun than finding out you’re getting extra income. Whether it’s a bonus, a few extra commissions or a promotion with a hefty salary increase,...
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