One of the talking points of financial advisors is that even if right now you’re able to handle your own investments, tax planning, and other aspects of personal finance, you may face cognitive decline later in life.  The implication is that maybe you should get a financial advisor now before it’s too late. The challenge here is that many people who hold themselves out as financial advisors are little more than sellers of expensive mutual funds.  Some might even be inclined to take advantage of your cognitive decline to churn your account and generate excess fees. What you may need is a good financial advisor.  Some financial advisors are excellent.  They range from those who charge by the hour for advice only to those who manage your investments directly for you.  However, if you’re in cognitive decline, it won’t help to just get the occasional portfolio checkup.  The advisor would have to directly manage your investments.  But it’s hard to get this ...

The best way to respond to stock market news is usually to ignore it.  This is (almost) what I do.  The exception is that I make small adjustments when stock prices are very high.  David Chilton asked me about these adjustments when he interviewed me for his podcast .  Here I give a fuller answer to his question. I hesitate to talk too much about this part of my portfolio plan, because it is a small step toward market timing, and investors get themselves into a lot of trouble with market timing.  I once described how I handle high stock prices to a friend, and he responded by selling all of his stocks.  The change in my own stock allocation percentage was barely noticeable, but he had gone to zero, mainly because I caused him to think about high stock valuations.  This was definitely not the outcome I wanted. Most sensible people avoid market timing.  I used to be one of them.  But I realized that I was against market timing unless something ...