small cap stock index

With the recent stock market crash, many people are understandably wary about investing. Concerns about the volatility of the stock market, and the prospect of losses during downturn, have convinced many that stock investing is not for them. However, “safer” investments like cash and bonds may not provide the needed returns for your portfolio to [...]

I am thrilled with the announcement made by the New York’s 529 College Savings Program today. They finally decided to add an international investment option to their 529 Direct Plan. This new investment is called the Developed Markets Index Portfolio, which invest 100% in Vanguard Institutional Developed Markets Index Fund.

I think this is a really good [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This is the 11th issue of the Ask The Expert column by Larry Swedroe. You can see Larry’s full biography and important disclaimer below. If you are interested in having your question answered by Larry, please send me an email via the contact page.
Now, let’s get to the questions and answers (please note that the [...]

Looks like another another miscue in the Carnival Land.  Sorry the carnival didn’t go out as planned this morning at the host site, so here’s an emergency edition of the Money Hacks Carnival #39.  Before I begin, just want to say thank you to everyone for your participation.

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Credit and Debt

Five Ways [...]

The DOW is down at 8,000 level from its peak at 14,000 level.  The daily ups and downs is so extreme that the index can move over 100 points in just a few minutes.  This can make any investor — new or experienced — nervous and doubtful.

Should I get out of the stock market?
Should I [...]

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 [...]

This is the second part of Financial Risks And Personal Finance Risk Management series. In the first part, we looked at financial risks and risk management as they relate to your income and expenses. In this part, we will be looking at risks pertaining to your assets and credit.

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Asset Risks
Your assets [...]