Investments

The immediate post-election trades in the markets appear to include a number of speculative trades based on expectations of what might do well now that Trump has won the presidency.

By adding a little complexity and blending a portfolio of VTI and VXUS, you create the opportunity for three layers of benefits.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending September 30, 2024, Developed Freedom Investing had a -0.29% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a -4.36% disadvantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a -1.53% disadvantage.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns using the dynamic tilt and ending June 30, 2024, Developed Freedom Investing had a -0.14% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a -0.02% disadvantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a +0.36% advantage.

We agree with Kleintop’s assessment that valuations suggest that international equities are poised for more gains.

This simple example demonstrates the importance of expense ratio.

Our recommendation is to keep money that may be needed within the next six months invested in a money market fund.

If this level of volatility isn’t your expectation, you are not yet familiar with normal volatility in the markets.

Hopefully, you didn’t bother looking, and I can be the first to tell you.

While we still cannot call the end of the Bear Market from this performance, today’s returns strongly suggest that 15 months ago, October 12, 2022 was the end of this bear market.

There is an artistry to a bond allocation, and while historical analysis can only be suggestive, it does tell a strong narrative.

Many people don’t understand how fixed income is priced, so let me take you through the math.

Return reporting can create either darker or rosier pictures depending on the dates selected.

These strategies are strong in both good times and bad.

We recommend ignoring this offer if you want more Health Care and taking this offer if you want more Consumer Staples.

If this title attracted your attention, you may be prone to viewing clickbait.

If you are expecting high inflation, it may be stocks which offer the greatest security against the diminishing dollar.

The incongruity between feeling like we are in a bear market for 61.66% of trading days and actually being in a bear market for only 24.81% of those days unfortunately makes bear markets feel longer than they really are.

In the past, we’ve shown some preference to Vanguard funds, but going forward we plan to show some preference to the cheaper Fidelity funds.

Reducing expense ratios by a theoretical 0.42% is a significant result. It is good to know that what works in theory has also worked even better in practice.

Biotechnology’s low correlation, the very thing that makes you dislike it, is specifically what gives it a place in efficient portfolios.

While it is counterintuitive, the lower the market falls, the safer it is to be invested.

The lower the market falls, the safer it is to be invested.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending September 30, 2022 our U.S. Stock Strategy had a +4.11% advantage over VTI.

If you’re thinking about buying an I Bond, make sure it fits properly into your financial plan, and you aren’t just chasing the high interest rate.

Both are U.S. debt obligations which are adjusted by the Consumer Price Index, but they do so very differently.

Home bias is the tendency of investors to invest a majority of their assets in companies domiciled in their home country.

FRDM is interesting, but using our country specific funds plus a low cost Vanguard Emerging Market fund allows us to emphasize freedom for as low a cost as possible.

Rather than trying to time your investments based on one or the other, the advice is simple. Stay the course. Invest. Rebalance.

Currently, 12-month inflation is 8.58% and the crowdsourced expected inflation is 2.88%. Here’s what to do.

Stay the course. Rebalance. Don’t peek.

Inflation is like the rain. You must prepare in advance in order to stay dry.

The S&P 500 saw an intraday bear market today, dipping over 20% down from a prior high and then correcting back before the day’s close.

We think holding your next seven years of spending in relatively safe bonds is always a good idea. But holding too much in bonds may not keep up with inflation and is not ideal for your long-term investment strategy.

Any of these ETFs or mutual funds seem like they could be a good one-fund pick for the long haul.

We anticipated Consumer Staples to have a lower expected return but a larger risk-adjusted return and we expected Biotechnology to have very volatile returns with lower correlations to the other sectors. Both of those things happened in 2021.

The estimated advantage of Franklin funds during 2021 was 0.40% or $118,955.

An initial equal weight strategy of these 26 companies implemented on January 1, 2021 and held without further buys or sells through December 31, 2021 had a +8.64% advantage over the foreign healthcare benchmark.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending December 31, 2021, Developed Freedom Investing had a -0.12% disadvantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +1.27% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a +0.21% advantage.

This quarter, we saw that in 1-year returns ending September 30, 2021, Developed Freedom Investing had a +0.70% advantage, Emerging Market Freedom Investing had a +1.64% advantage, and Overall Freedom Investing had a +0.71% advantage.

This article is part of my series where I review how Freedom Investing performs for the quarter.

While many have been following the domestic returns and recovery, fewer investors know how well foreign investments did this past year.

You are not obligated to vote just because you own shares.

The value of a stock is simply what people are willing to pay for it.

Our Gone-Fishing Portfolios are free to use portfolios that take advantage of the no-transaction-fee, low-cost ETFs or mutual funds of each major custodian. Over the years, we’ve changed the funds and the allocations as new research or securities reveal improvements.

Looking closer into each asset class, here’s how our top six asset classes performed between January 1 and December 31, 2020.

There are three clear options: future value schedule, a product array, or a large table.

When you get out of the markets, you have made a huge gamble with your retirement money, and now the stakes are high.

Individual sectors of the economy have reacted very differently to the pandemic.

“No decent planner would ever create a plan that didn’t account for frequent market drops.”