German, Brazilian, English, Argentine, and Spanish football fans, take heart. Football (or in American vernacular - soccer) is quantifiably the least predictable major sport. In no other sport is luck such a critical determinant of the outcome. So you have that going for you the next time you sit down with a Frenchman to discuss [...]
On October 1, 2013, the United States government officially ran out of money and was forced to shutdown all non-essential operations as the result of a budget impasse. For the next 16 days, national parks closed, 800,000 federal workers were furloughed without pay, and Veterans Affairs stopped sending benefit checks. In the less historically significant [...]
The following paraphrases a conversation that I have had many times before with friends and clients. It is obviously never the same dialogue but the underlying advice is the same - that you should generally not own your favorite investment or can't-miss stock idea in a traditional IRA. Me: Did you buy this stock because [...]
Brokerage statements are almost universally uninformative, misleading, and confusing. They are largely a means for custodians to fulfill their legal reporting requirements as well as a legacy of yesteryear when we didn't have access to real-time data. They often neglect important information that would be helpful for investors. In many ways, these statements do far [...]
Last week, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed House Bill 769, expanding a Georgia tax credit that supports rural hospital organizations across Georgia. We explained the value of the rural hospital tax credit in this 2017 Astute Angle post but the recently expanded tax credit under HB 769 combined with provisions of the Tax Cuts and [...]
A respected portfolio manager presented recently at an investment symposium where she explained an investment strategy that has consistently maintained zero correlation to stocks. Several times during her presentation, she described why the strategy should be expected to maintain a near-zero correlation to stock markets in the future. During the break that followed, financial advisors [...]
All three of time, interest or passion, and knowledge are required to be successful at anything. I might have the knowledge of how to mow my grass properly and I might enjoy mowing my grass but if I don’t have the time to mow my grass, then my lawn eventually becomes a mess. Alternatively, I [...]
What do Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Tyler, Stevie Nicks, Billy Crystal, and my father all have in common? At least two things. They will, God willing, all celebrate their 70 1/2 birthdays in 2018 and join the ranks of approximately 25 million others in the United States over this age (assuming, of course, that they all [...]
On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most important speeches of his presidency at the foot of the recently-built Berlin Wall. During this speech, viewed as a turning point in the Cold War, Kennedy spoke the now famous words, "Ich bin ein Berliner." His intent was to express solidarity with [...]
1) Turn off the financial noise machine. Information overload is the norm in today’s world. We demand it. We expect it. Your mind, my mind, and all of our minds are wired to digest information, emotionally respond to the information, and then to do something as a result. This is why and how advertising works. [...]
