diversification

Not everyone has the time or inclination to master the subject of personal finance. Luckily, it is not always necessary to master it. In the same way you can hire an electrician without understanding the inner workings of home wiring, you can hire a financial advisor to get your money in order. There are all [...]

Financial security is a common pursuit.  Whether you’re just starting out in the working world or you’re looking to retire, financial security or the pursuit of financial security is of large importance for you.  Unfortunately, a generation of Americans have been led to believe that the contributing factors to financial security come from anywhere but [...]

A common lesson from a children’s story book has become one of the guiding principles for investing: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” But lately, I’ve come across a few articles where people are questioning the wisdom of diversification. Today, we are going to ask the question – could you make more money [...]

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 [...]

Investment advisers and the investment industry has continuously stressed the importance of diversification and asset allocation, however investors have often ignored this, as they were too busy chasing high returns. Since the market meltdown over a year ago investors have learned a hard lesson that asset allocation is vital to an investment portfolio. In this [...]

Most financial advisors will recommend against any attempts to time the market. It can’t be done, they will tell you, and I agree. Timing the market or specifically identifying market tops or bottoms as opportunities to buy or sell is usually a futile effort. What financial advisors fail to tell you, however, is that market [...]

Up until about 10 years ago, there was one type of IRA, the traditional IRA which was deducted from your taxable income, grows tax deferred, and upon withdrawal, is taxed at whatever rate you find yourself. Its cousin, the Roth IRA is the mirror image, the money you put in is after tax money, but [...]

We hear a lot about diversifying across asset classes — owning stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. We also hear a lot about diversifying within asset classes — owning mutual funds of hundreds of stocks rather than owning a few individual stocks. But there’s another, lesser-known form of diversification from which you could benefit: Tax diversification. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]