Details Are Part of Our Difference
Embracing the Evidence at Anheuser-Busch – Mid 1980s
529 Best Practices
David Booth on How to Choose an Advisor
The One Minute Audio Clip You Need to Hear
Category: Education
David Booth Endorses Odds On: The Making of an Evidence-Based Investor
The Odds On book launch is right around the corner and we know you’d like to be supportive! You can pre-order your copy on Amazon (or visit 800-CEO-READ to get discounts on multiple copies).
Check out the endorsement from David Booth, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Office of Dimensional Fund Advisors, that will appear on the book jacket. David rarely provides endorsements, so we’re honored to have him on board.
“Successful investing often comes down to having a strong philosophy you can stick with. In Odds On, Matt Hall shows how more than fifty years of modern finance have provided insight into how financial markets work. Investors who develop and apply a strong philosophy based on these principles can improve their odds of long-term financial success.”
*If you’ve pre-ordered the book but can’t wait any longer, the introduction and first chapter are now available for you to download here.
Watch for future updates coming your way about more incredible endorsements the book has received!
Lessons from a Lifetime of Investing
As the year comes to a close, it’s fitting that we take a moment to reflect on recent market lessons. But, you know we’ll never focus on any one year, so let’s consider the four most recent decades from 1975 through 2015. This captures nearly all of the investing lives of our clients. Here’s a summary of data taken at the beginning of each of the 10-year time periods.
TAKEAWAYS
• The S&P 500 increased more than twenty times while consumer prices rose four and a half times.
It’s hard to believe the amount of growth we’ve experienced, especially having lived through 9/11 and the great recession in ’07-’09. Our suggestion: Take this opportunity to remind yourself of these facts, stick to a long-term investment plan, and get on with whatever brings you joy in the year ahead. We’ve achieved a lot, and we may just be getting started.
Playing the Probabilities
Have you ever asked us, “How long is the long view?” If so, this might be for you. After we build you a low-cost, evidence-based investment portfolio, what should you do next? For the most part, pretend like it doesn’t exist. In this example (which only looks at the S&P 500), you’d see a negative result nearly half of the time if you checked your returns on a daily basis. At the other extreme, if you only reviewed results for 20-year time periods, you would have seen positive performance every time.
We got the data from Ben Carlson’s blog (click here) and posted it on the chalkboard in our office as a regular reminder to continue taking the long view.
