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Don’t Miss Out, You’ll Regret It (Part 1)

Key Points

  • Tax planning is not just about figuring out how much to pay the government, it’s also about ensuring that your investment plan is tax efficient based upon your short-term and long-term goals.
  • Investments typically generate income from three different sources: interest, dividends, and capital gains; and each source is taxed differently.
  • These differences should be taken into consideration when forming an investment plan, as federal taxes can range from 0% to upwards of 37%. Continue reading → Don’t Miss Out, You’ll Regret It (Part 1)
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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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Why invest in one thing over another? (Part 4)

Key Points

  • The Efficient Market Hypothesis has plenty of criticisms that are not only important to understand, but also have strong validity, and therefore should not be dismissed.
  • Boom and bust cycles provide strong evidence of pervasive market irrationality; nevertheless, this is not the same as knowing when irrationally exists and knowing when it will go away.
  • It is not enough to be able to spot irrationality because, “the markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent”.
  • Rational and irrational investors may be unduly influenced by behavioral biases leading to the sustained, yet unpredictable mispricings of securities.

Continue reading → Why invest in one thing over another? (Part 4)

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Why invest in one thing over another? (Part 2)

Key Points

  • Whether you agree with it or not, having a sound understanding of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) is critical.
  • Making active investment decisions requires factoring in all relevant and available information that may influence future performance and risk. This is a daunting task.
  • Nevertheless, according the EMH, the market is able to do this seamlessly and instantly.
  • According to theory, the markets have a way of equalizing prices such that all investment opportunities provide similar risk-adjusted returns on a go-forward basis.

Continue reading → Why invest in one thing over another? (Part 2)