It’s a fact: people have a hard time holding on to their wealth. In a Wall Street Journal article titled, “Lost Inheritance,” it was cited that 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and 90% lose their wealth by the third generation. In another documentary by ESPN titled, “Broke,” some other…
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I was asked the other day, “How many financial advisors are there in the US, and what percentage of them have the CFA designation?” It was a good question that I didn’t know the answer to, so I started looking around the web and found this from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Number of Personal…
DetailsAccording to the Labor Department (source), in 1979, 74 percent of workers participating in retirement plans had a defined benefit pension that would provide a fixed income stream. A defined benefit plan is one where the employer guarantees that your plan has a minimum value upon your retirement. This removes the worry that you’ll have an…
DetailsA client asked me recently what I thought about REITs now that interest rates were on the verge of rising. It’s a good concern since traditionally, people look at REITs as extensions of the bond market: they can have long lease terms that can resemble bond cash flows, so it follows that higher interest rates…
DetailsIt’s a well-known secret that Index Funds should play a major role in most investors’ portfolios. With their ultra low costs (the typical expense ratio of an index fund was 0.15% for U.S. Large Company Indexes vs. 1.36% for the average large cap actively managed mutual fund as of 2005 source), instant diversification (you can…
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