investment portfolios

Seems these days everyone has an opinion on how to make money in the stock market. Only now it’s not just the stock market, there is options, foreign exchange, commodities and bonds. And it’s no longer just investing or trading. There’s swing trading, position trading, income investing and dividend investing. Yet I’ve barely scratched the [...]

There are two rules often cited by investors that sound similar but that in fact make very different claims. In this article, I’ll describe the differences between the two rules — the Multiply-by-25 Rule and the 4-Percent Rule.

The Multiply-by-25 Rule
The purpose of The Multiply-by-25 Rule is to tell an investor how much he needs to [...]

In this Ask the Expert with Larry Swedroe article, Rob observed that none of the alternative investments provided sufficient risk reduction to soften the impact of the current Bear Market. Diversification doesn’t seem to be working. What went wrong? Here’s the question from Randy:

Dear Larry,
I’m reading your book, The Only Guide to Alternative Investments You’ll [...]

In this Ask The Expert With Larry Swedroe article, the reader, Murali, is wondering if she could use the Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (VT) to simplify and diversify her investment portfolio.  Vanguard is known for its high quality and low cost investment products, and the Total World Stock ETF should provide most of the [...]

Net Worth Review
The S&P 500 gained +0.8% in December and went from 896.24 to 903.25. But for a full year, the S&P 500 dropped -38.5% from 1468.36 to 903.25 — ouch!  According to NetworthIQ, my net worth rose +3.44% and my net investable assets increased +6.54%.

Highlights

Home value actually went up slightly in December, but for [...]

My company made Vanguard Target Retirement Funds available for our 401k accounts about two years ago. However, I have not used them preferring to manually manage my own portfolio using traditional funds that include bond, large-cap, small-cap, international stock, and REIT funds. However, Target Retirement Funds are not without merits — in fact, I’ve been [...]

I stumbled upon a site today called, Wall Street Survivor.  The premise seems to be the same as UpDown, but it looks like you could potentially earn more money since Wall Street Survivor touts $250,000 in prizes.  I am not a trader by nature, but if there’s an opportunity to earn money without risk — [...]

Retirement is just around the corner.  You think you’ve saved enough; but with the recent market drop, you are just not sure. Your retirement accounts have taken drastic blows and now you’re in doubt if you will ever retire. You decide it’s time to sit down with a Certified Financial PlannerTM to see if you [...]

First, let me start off by saying that there are several advantages of investing in mutual funds and I do use mutual funds in my portfolios.  However, there are several disadvantages of investing in mutual funds that may not be obvious to new investors.  In this article, I’ll review some of the problems with mutual [...]

Net Worth Review
September was a rough month! The U.S. economy suffered from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Major failures in our financial system forced the U.S. government to take over Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and AIG. On top of that we saw the end of Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, and Wachovia. All [...]