How much do I need to retire? Start building your retirement plan today. In order to calculate how much money you need to retire you first need to answer four questions. 1) What are your estimated future annual living expenses? For most people, this is a surprisingly difficult question to […]
How Often Does the Stock Market Crash? In an informative podcast by Option Alpha they explain that the market has, on average, plummeted 30% once every 10 years! Some would argue that this means we may be due for a market crash any day now. However, others would remark that “this time is different” due to the severity of […]
There are two main reasons to include international stocks and bonds in your investment portfolio – performance and diversification. Studies have shown that globally diversified portfolios yield better returns. In one article by Forbes, researchers compared the results of a strictly domestic portfolio to a globally diversified portfolio over rolling 3-year periods between 1999 […]
You may have noticed that your retirement account provider allows you to make contributions to either a Traditional retirement account or a Roth retirement account, but you may be wondering “what’s the difference between retirement accounts?” The main difference is the timing of when you pay taxes. With a Roth, you contribute after-tax dollars […]
Asset allocation is how you divide up your investments among three broad categories – cash, bonds, and stocks. Stocks are ownership of a company, bonds are loans to a company, and cash is cash. The reason you should care about asset allocation is because it is the most significant factor in determining the future […]
You may have noticed that your bond funds almost always mention four key metrics: (1) credit quality, (2) average maturity, (3) interest rate, and (4) average duration. Credit quality measures the likelihood of a company defaulting on their debt. Average maturity is the time left before the bonds become due (pay their face value). Interest […]
Warren Buffett once summarized our thoughts on this topic perfectly when he said, “gold gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.” To expand […]
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