Over the years we have covered the distressing difference between how mutual funds’ perform and the poorer results investors in those same funds get. We call it the underperformance gap. It’s not just fees, trading costs and taxes that explain the difference: a huge factor is investor behavior. The moral to this story is: if […]
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FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH IMMEDIATE ANNUITIES
Payouts are still much higher than what you can get on long term U.S. treasuries. Mary Beth Franklin recommends pre-retirees check out deferred income annuities: you pay a lump sum to the insurance company and you determine the date future payments begin.
MAKE SURE YOU OWN SOME STOCKS
As far as inflation beating returns, preserving your purchasing power, U.S. stocks beat U.S. government bonds hands down.
CONSIDER INVESTING IN CHINA
China’s economy and markets have reached such a level of size, power, diversity and complexity that it deserves to be treated as a distinct asset class, requiring different investment approaches, as investors have had for years in the U.S. market
BEWARE THE CONSENSUS VIEW
With market volatility is near multi-year lows and investors are becoming much more bullish towards stocks, don’t abandon your insurance policies of cash, treasuries and gold. As WEALTHTRACK guest Andy Lo reminded us recently, it won’t take much of a scare to shake the market up. Watch this Episode
CONSIDER PUTTING SOME MONEY INTO HIGH QUALITY COMPANIES WITH A HISTORY OF PAYING AND INCREASING DIVIDENDS
A Morningstar favorite with quality dividends: Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) VIG data by YCharts Watch this Episode