The results of Tuesday’s presidential election were surprising to many and concerning to some, but they’ve left pretty much everyone asking: where do we go from here? In an attempt to answer this very natural question, we now have the very same pundits, prognosticators, and seers who couldn’t predict the outcome of the election lining up to tell us exactly... Read More
What To Do With Your Company Stock: A 3-Step Plan
Barron’s recently published an article titled ‘Does Your Company Give You Stock? Great. Sell It.’ As our clients will know, this is our default advice when it comes to company stock. Sure, it makes sense to evaluate company stock holdings in light of your unique financial situation—maybe it makes sense to hold from a tax perspective or to fund future... Read More
Diversification: More Important Now Than Ever
Diversification has gotten a bad rap as of late. Over the last five years, due to the strong performance of US equities, a simple 60% US Stock / 40% US Bond portfolio would have been one of the best portfolio allocations—outperforming the majority of more diversified asset mixes, especially anything including an allocation to international stocks. Increasing correlations between asset... Read More
The Difference Between Smart Financial Advice and Smart Financial Advice For You
The best strategy in theory might not be the best strategy for you. How can this be? Recently, on the Meb Faber Show, Gerstein Fisher’s Founder and CIO Gregg Fisher said the following: Sometimes the best investment strategy isn't the right investment strategy. He continued: Probably we’d all be well off if we bought nothing but small cap value stocks... Read More
How Not To Evaluate Investment Performance
Harvard’s Endowment has been making headlines recently due to its $2 billion investment loss in the fiscal year 2016. And the Crimson (the student newspaper) is up in arms about this “unacceptable” loss. From their article The Urgency of the Present come the following gems: Harvard Management Company announced a $2 billion loss for the fiscal year 2016. Let’s not... Read More
How Concentrated is Too Concentrated? A Mistake That Costs You the Whole War
During the First World War, Britain had the greatest Navy ever assembled in world history. And yet, through most of the war, it used its Naval superiority to play defense, not offense. Dan Carlin in his excellent podcast Hardcore History describes the situation as follows: “The opportunity was there for the numerically superior British fleet to apply their numbers and... Read More
Q3 Investment Update: The Election’s Impact on Your Portfolio
After starting the year down around 10%, markets have rallied since early February (including the June Brexit blip) and through the third quarter global equities are up 6.6% for the year. But, the question on everyone’s mind is: will this continue? With an election looming five weeks away, many are expecting market volatility to pick up. And everyone is wondering what impact the... Read More
Using Buffers to Become a Better Investor
“To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” ― Lao Tzu One of the wonders of the modern world is our access to information. The answer to (or at least someone’s opinion on) every question under the sun is right at our fingertips, just a google search away. But this limitless information and the apparently continuous increase in... Read More
How much can I spend in retirement? Our Take on the 4% Rule
How much can I spend in retirement? For many, that’s the million-dollar question – literally. The first step taken of any retirement planning should be developing a baseline financial plan, and understanding the appropriate withdrawal rate is paramount to this process. During the early stages of plan development for our clients, we often get questions about the 4% withdrawal rule... Read More
Underperformance: Not a Bug, a Feature
“Most lack the courage and stamina to stand apart from the herd and tolerate short-term underperformance to reap long-term rewards.” - Seth Klarman Ask anyone off the street to name a great investor and chances are you'll hear Warren Buffett---often held up as the paragon of investing success. But what if I told you he spent more time underperforming the... Read More