Eight best/worst investment strategies during the coronavirus
The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time. — Michel de Montaigne For better or worse, many of us have had more time than usual to engage in new or different pursuits in 2020. Even if you’re as busy as ever, you may well be revisiting […]
Roth conversions
Roth IRA conversions can be an important potential tool for implementing a tax efficient retirement plan. At its core, a Roth conversion involves prepaying a deferred tax liability in exchange for tax free growth going forward. Conversions are ideal for people who are in lower tax bracket today than they are likely to be in […]
Assessing market volatility
In the last quarter of 2018, the market was down 20% from previous highs and we had many clients reaching out concerned about declines and high volatility. But when we examined the market’s movements, we found the volatility to be higher than normal but far from extraordinary. Recently, we have gotten similar questions from clients […]
Rebalancing – why buy stocks now?
Rebalancing the allocation among risky assets in your investment portfolio is an important discipline. It provides a structured way to maintain consistent risk exposure over time and forces us to “buy low and sell high” when it is not always the comfortable thing to do. This quarter is a good example, in the midst of […]
Market commentary: Q1 2020
Stock Markets The damage to stocks from the Coronavirus pandemic is shown in the chart below as all markets are down dramatically. The domestic large cap stock market (S&P 500), driven by the largest tech companies, held up a little better. Except for this market, this quarter’s falloff brought the five-year returns to essentially breakeven […]
Three upside-down investment insights
Often, all you need to be an excellent investor is a healthy dose of common sense: A penny saved is a penny earned. Buy low, sell high. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. That said, the best way to achieve these simple goals isn’t always as obvious. In fact, many of our favorite […]
Active vs. passive fund management
Every six months, Morningstar releases their “Active/Passive Barometer.” We feel Morningstar is a good source of data as they tend to be unbiased. While Vanguard or Dimensional Fund Advisors will always tell you passive is better, and active fund managers will always mine data that trumpets the benefits of active management, Morningstar is close to […]
The value of a financial plan
It’s common for investors to feel nervous when looking at investments by themselves. Are you saving enough? Are you saving in the right place? Are you holding the right mix of investments? Should you own individual stocks or funds? Are you paying too much in fees? What are you actually paying in fees? For the […]
Market Timing – A Losing Game
The stock market crash of 2008-2009 is a very recent memory for many investors who still bear the scars from the experience. At Rockbridge, we also have prospective clients who walk into our offices saying that they haven’t recovered yet from the financial pain their portfolio endured over those several months. Why? It’s usually a […]
The Problem With Diversification – Emerging Markets
One of the tenets of successful long-term investing is the practice of portfolio diversification. Through diversification, investors can increase their expected long-term return for a given level of risk (volatility). This is accomplished by investing in assets that are not perfectly correlated to one another, but each asset individually has a positive expected return. This […]