Young Research’s Retirement Compounders
Retirement Compounders Portfolio is comprised of 32 dividend and income-paying securities from around the world. A well-diversified, 32-stock portfolio can give you over 90% of the diversification of owning every stock, for example on the NYSE.
A Risk Worth Taking
In today’s environment of low interest rates, there are few places to turn to add yield to your portfolio. Sure, you can tie up your money in 30-year Treasury bonds to lock in a 3.70% yield, but you will take it in the neck when interest rates rise. A 1% increase in interest rates will [...]
Lower Portfolio Risk to Boost Return
Do you know the difference between total return and investor return? Most investors are familiar with the concept of total return. The total return of a fund is simply the sum of the capital and income return of a fund over a certain holding period. The total return of a fund of course assumes a [...]
Which Portfolio Would You Rather Own?
Given a choice, most investors would rather own the portfolio represented by the blue line in my chart. But in reality, many own something closer to the portfolio represented by the black line. The black line tracks the performance of the S&P 500. The blue line tracks the performance of a balanced portfolio. The balanced [...]
An Investment Strategy Guaranteed to Win
In investing there is only one variable that an investor can control, and that is cost. Cost is vital to your long-term investment success. Lower costs necessarily result in higher returns. There is no disputing this fact. As an example, take two funds with the same gross return, Fund A and Fund B. Fund A [...]
Wall Street Begging for More Stimulus
The stock market mounted a powerful rally in July. The S&P 500 jumped almost 7% for the month and has tacked on another 2% so far in August. The rally is most unusual given the raft of weakening economic data that has been reported in recent weeks. My chart shows a marked downtrend in the [...]
My #1 Diversification Tip
I often write about diversification and the benefits diversification offers to investors. Diversification is said to be the only free lunch in investing. It allows you to lower risk, without sacrificing meaningful return. The basic concept of diversification is of course intuitive. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. And don’t invest your entire [...]
High-Octane Fuel for Stocks
Since I graduated from Shaker Heights High School in 1959, the most important driver of long-term stock market returns has been the direction of interest rates. Bonds compete with stocks in investors’ portfolios. When interest rates rise, the prospective return on bonds goes up. In order for stocks to remain competitive with bonds, their prospective [...]
A Simple Strategy for Stock Market Success
For over four decades I have used a simple strategy to successfully invest in the stock market. I invest exclusively in dividend paying stocks. I especially favor those with high yields, a strong balance sheet, and a history of annual dividend hikes. This strategy is simple, but it works. Historically, high dividend payers have outperformed [...]
Stop Losing Money in ETFs
You may be thinking about using fixed-income ETFs to fill out your portfolio. Don’t. I continue to avoid fixed-income ETFs, as should you. The low liquidity of many bonds creates wide discount/premium gaps between the price and the net asset value (NAV) of the funds. If you buy the fund at a premium, you’re whacking [...]
