I recently came across a calculator developed by Morningstar to help families estimate future college costs and to determine whether they are on track with saving to meet the future costs of higher education. Let’s have a look at what this tool can and cannot do and how such a tool may be useful. The [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Calculating the Cost of a College Education
Posted in 401(k), Active Investing, Diversification, financial planning, Tools, Uncategorized, Wealth, tagged college, college education, saving for college, Tuition on February 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Dividend Stocks vs. Bonds: Are They Worth the Risk?
Posted in 401(k), Active Investing, Asset Allocation, Diversification, Dividends, financial planning, Income Investing, Investors, retirement income, retirement planning, Uncategorized, Volatility, tagged Bogleheads, bonds, Burton Malkiel, Dividend Stocks, income, Treasury bonds on February 10, 2012 | 2 Comments »
One of the recurring themes in the financial press in recent years is a warning to income-oriented investors not to pile into dividend-paying stocks to boost portfolio income. The Wall Street Journal has a recent article on this topic titled, “Why Dividend Stocks Aren’t the New Bonds.” This article is motivated by the fact that [...]
From the Portfolioist Book Shelf: Risk Less and Prosper by Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu
Posted in Asset Allocation, Behavioral Finance, book review, Books, Diversification, financial planning, Long-term investing, Low Cost Investing, Rebalancing, Regular Investing, Retirement, retirement income, retirement planning, Stock Investing, Uncategorized, Volatility, tagged bonds, Risk Less and Prosper, TIPS, Worry Free Investing, ZVI Bodie on January 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The recently-published book by Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu, Risk Less and Prosper: Your Guide to Safer Investing, provides a unique perspective on how to meet the challenge of long-term financial planning. The book is well-organized into a number of steps required for identifying and organizing long-term goals and thinking through how to meet these [...]
What is Your Risk Appetite?
Posted in 401(k), Diversification, financial planning, Income Investing, Investors, Long-term investing, Market Outlook, Market Timing, Markets, pension plans, pensions, Retirement, retirement income, retirement planning, Risk, Uncategorized, Volatility, tagged quicken, retirement planning on January 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Guest Blog from Quicken.com. Only one thing always happens in the financial markets: Values fluctuate. Before investing in any market, at any price, in any climate, prudent investors think about how much fluctuation they can handle. In other words, how much can your portfolio go down before you start to lose sleep? We all have [...]
Understanding France’s Credit Rating Downgrade
Posted in Bonds, debt, Dividends, Global Investing, Income Investing, Investors, Uncategorized, Volatility, tagged AA, AAA, bonds, downgrade, economy, France, income, S&P, yield on January 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Standard and Poor’s downgraded France’s credit rating last week from AAA to AA+. While this downgrade has gotten a lot of press coverage, there are a number of topics surrounding the downgrade that are worth noting. First, France now has the same credit rating from S&P as the United States. As you’ll remember, S&P downgraded [...]
Can You Create a 7% Yield Portfolio Focusing on Munis and Dividend Stocks?
Posted in Active Investing, Dividends, financial planning, Leverage, Long-term investing, Uncategorized, Volatility, Wealth, tagged bonds, Burton Malkiel, closed end funds, Income Investing, MLP, Munis, Target Date Funds, VIX Index on January 11, 2012 | 4 Comments »
In “Can You Get 7% Per Year in Income with Only Moderate Risk?” a blog I wrote back in the beginning of December, I analyzed a portfolio with 7% yield and “moderate” risk. My analysis suggested that it was possible to create a portfolio with 7% yield and about the same level of risk as [...]
3 Stock Picking Strategies for 2012
Posted in Investors, Long-term investing, Low Cost Investing, Market Outlook, Portfolio Investing 101, Risk, Stock Investing, Uncategorized, tagged asset allocation, Income Investing, stock investing, stocks, volatility on January 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Guest Blog by Kip Robbins, CFA, Zacks.com. Having worked in the equity markets for awhile now with a primary focus on finding profitable stock-picking strategies, I sometimes feel like the keeper of great stock picking ideas. That being said, as the New Year is upon us, I’m in a giving mood and would like to [...]
Is Your Brain a Barrier to Smart Investing?
Posted in 401(k), Active Investing, Asset Allocation, Behavioral Finance, Books, Diversification, ETFs, Financial Advisors, financial planning, Income Investing, Investors, Long-term investing, Markets, Mutual Funds, Personalization, retirement income, Risk, Uncategorized, tagged asset allocation, Behavioral Finance, Daniel Kahneman, David Swensen, Fees, investing, management fees, mutual funds, rebalancing, retirement planning, volatility on January 5, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Guest blog by Daniel Solin, Mint.com. The evidence showing that most individual investors significantly underperform the market is compelling. A study done by Dalbar, a leading financial services market research firm, found that, during the 20 years from 1991 through 2010, the average stock fund investor earned returns of only 3.83% per year, while the [...]

