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Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 6)

Key Points

  • Over long periods, a passive investing approach in index funds is more likely to lead to an outcome that falls in line with a given benchmark.
  • With an active investing approach, where mutual fund fees are higher, outcomes are far less certain.
  • As such, the long-term opportunity cost of an active approach can be significant, and perhaps even disastrous.

Continue reading → Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 6)

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Do Not Let This Hobby Ruin Your Retirement.

The World’s Most Expensive Hobby (Part 1)

Key Points

  • Hobbies can provide lasting benefit by allowing individuals to refocus their efforts away from their careers towards alternative forms of enjoyment.
  • Nevertheless, active investing as a hobby might not be the best use of one’s free time.
  • Not only are the chances of adding value from this endeavor very slim, but also, the costs associated with investing unwisely can profoundly impact one’s long-term goals and aspirations.
  • As an example, most investors often overlook opportunity cost when making investment decisions even though this particular expense can be significant.

Continue reading → Do Not Let This Hobby Ruin Your Retirement.

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Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 5)

Key Points

  • The fee differential between active and passive mutual funds may not appear to be significant at first sight.
  • However, over long periods, the impact of higher fees associated with active investing through mutual funds can be considerable, as compared to passive alternatives.
  • As such, over an investment lifetime of 45 years, excessive fees could wipe out a large percentage of your potential wealth.
  • Therefore, going with a passive approach has the potential to mitigate this particular concern.

Continue reading → Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 5)

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Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 4)

Key Points

  • Higher fees tend to correlate with worse investment performance, as suggested by research from Vanguard based upon the historical analysis of active and passive large-cap mutual funds.
  • Research suggests that the lower the fees, the less likely that a fund will underperform its benchmark (which is good for the investor).
  • Sound investing comes down to being able to differentiate between what you can control and what you can’t, and then doing your best to focus on the former while still maintaining a solid understanding the risks associated with the latter.
  • Given that you can control how much you pay in fees, but not whether a fund will outperform, a passive approach has strong merit over an active one.

Continue reading → Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 4)

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Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 3)

Key Points

  • There may be strong psychological reasons why financial firms can command such high fees.
  • Ultimately, these high fees can lead to the systematic transfer of wealth away from investors’ pockets.
  • The Efficient Market Hypothesis suggests that actively invested mutual funds face an impossible challenge in outperforming their passively invested counterparts.
  • Nevertheless, the fees for actively managed funds are much higher than those of passively managed funds.

Continue reading → Passive is the New Aggressive (Part 3)