Ask 100 people what they want from a financial advisor and nearly all would say, “Um, advice?” Too bad that’s not what most financial advisors do. In fact, most are not even qualified to give advice. Sure, they take exams… Continue reading →

A couple of years ago, I spent an inordinate amount of my time on Capitol Hill talking to lawmakers about a new investment rule in the works designed to expose hidden fees charged by stock brokers. Called the fiduciary rule,… Continue reading →

Nearly 10 years ago, iconic billionaire investor Warren Buffett took what seemed like a contrarian bet for a professional stock picker. He bet any comer that a simple, low-cost investment in the S&P 500 would beat a hedge fund strategy… Continue reading →

A new study of our innate human biases reinforces the value of diversification when it comes to stock investing. Short version: We just can’t help ourselves when we think we know something. Scientists call this confirmation bias, the unconscious way we… Continue reading →

An interesting new analysis of the retirement business points out that, more than ever, people are stepping away from trading and into automated, low-cost portfolios. Three cheers for that, we say, but it raises an interesting question. Once you retire,… Continue reading →

A friend of mine was complaining recently about the price of apples, specifically a variety marketed as a “Honeycrisp” apple. He would go to the grocery store to buy a bag of apples and find Honeycrisps at $7.99 a three-pound… Continue reading →

Back in the 1980s, stock picking gurus such as Peter Lynch at Fidelity offered small investors a strikingly simple mantra: “Invest in what you know.” The idea was intuitive and highly attractive for a number of reasons. Essentially, if you… Continue reading →

Every investor should read the books of John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group and tireless advocate of the ordinary retirement investor, the “little guy” faced with long odds and the hungry sharks of Wall Street. One of the best is… Continue reading →

Jack Bogle, the visionary founder of Vanguard Group and father of index investing, has this to say about rumblings that the incoming Trump administration could kill the fiduciary rule: Don’t bet on it. Far from shrinking back, the Department of… Continue reading →