Get new posts by email:
  

Short Takes: New Year’s Edition

Happy New Year! Despite the reduced number of articles written over the holidays, I still found a few interesting things to read.

1. Many people advocate a “core and explore” approach to investing. This amounts to setting a solid core of investments plus a smaller amount of “play” money. When the advice comes from a financial advisor, it amounts to a core of index investments plus some explore money for active management. Larry Swedroe explains the evidence supporting this approach and then demolishes it in part 1 and part 2 of his article.

2. Preet went looking for Olympic hockey tickets to the men’s gold medal game. The price is unbelievable!

3. Big Cajun Man put together a carnival of money stories with a boxing theme.

<< Previous Post Next Post >>

Comments

  1. Big Naked ManJanuary 1, 2010 at 9:44 PM

    Thanks for the mention.

    HAPPY NUDE YEAR!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.comJanuary 2, 2010 at 2:33 AM

    Thanks for the link Michael. A few weeks ago I sent my brother tickets (five rows from the ice) for the Sens at Kings (he lives in LA) and the tickets were $75. A far cry from the Olympics, and even unheard of for Leafs tickets (against other poor teams, too).

    Humbug! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Financial Lessons from Poker

Common advice about controlling spending is to track all your purchases and add them up each week or month. I believe that this is effective, but have been fuzzy on why it seems to work so well. Why can’t people just spend less without the constant reminder of how well they are doing? I got some insight on this question from, of all places, poker. For poker players there is a certain thrill to dragging in a pot of chips. The thrill is there whether it is a $1 pot or a $10 pot. The $10 pot gives a bigger thrill, but not 10 times bigger. Similarly, losing a $10 pot feels worse than losing a $1 pot, but not 10 times worse. This leads to some players playing in such a way that they maximize happiness by taking in many small pots, but losing some big ones. As long as they don’t count their dwindling chips, they can actually be happy playing this way. Counting your chips is a lot like adding up your spending at the end of the month to see what happened. You may feel good about ...
Read more

Are Financial Advisors the Solution or the Problem for Older Investors?

As investors age, two things become increasingly apparent: they need more help with their finances and investments, and they’re more vulnerable to financial exploitation.  Depending on who you listen to, financial advisors are either the solution to these problems, or they are part of the problem. On one hand, financial advisors and their firms like to sow self-doubt in the minds of do-it-yourself investors.  “Will you know when you’re no longer competent to manage your investments?  What will happen to your less financially savvy spouse if you pass away first?  You’d better hire a financial advisor while you’re still able to make good decisions.”  This paints a picture of competent and honest financial advisors stepping in to save their clients from themselves as they age. On the other hand, we have Ken Kivenko’s Financial Self-Defense Guide for Seniors .  Ken is a tireless advocate for Canadian Investors, and his guide is largely designed to help seniors ...
Read more

Even Dimensional Fund Advisors Struggles with Inflation Statistics

Inflation is a risk we have to face in financial planning, particularly in retirement.  We need to measure inflation risk correctly to be able to make reasonable financial plans.  The best guide we have to the future takes into account past inflation statistics.  But the field of statistics is full of subtleties, and even Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) can make mistakes. DFA creates good funds, and their advisors tend to do good work for their clients.  I’d prefer to find errors in the work of a less investor-friendly investment firm, but they provided a clear example to learn from.  They misapplied a statistical rule, and as a result, they misinterpreted the history of inflation over the past century. I discussed this issue with Larry Swedroe in posts on X.  I respect Larry and have followed his work as he tirelessly explains evidence based investing to the masses. A Simple Example To explain the problem, let’s first begin with a simpler example.  So...
Read more

Archive

Show more