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Pre-Retirees & Retirees

Investment Fundamentals Part 5: Your Financial Plan

So far in our investment fundamentals series, we’ve explored the history of investing; how important it is to save (so you have money to invest); how to invest efficiently in broad markets; and why to avoid chasing or fleeing rising or falling prices. But there is more to the story. While investing is one of the most critical elements of long-term financial success, it can’t be done in isolation. In fact, the best results most

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Investment Fundamentals Part 4: Patience and Personal Persistence

So far in our investment fundamentals series, we’ve explored the history of investing; how important it is to save (so you have money to invest); how to invest efficiently in broad markets; and why to avoid chasing or fleeing rising or falling prices. By applying these principles, you are much better positioned to let capital markets work their wonders on your investments. But there are two more essentials that can make or break even the

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Investment Fundamentals Part 3: The Price You Pay Matters

In our last piece, we described, Our Marvelous Markets and how to account for it being both robust and random at the same time. Today, we’ll look at how stock pricing works, and why Nobel laureate William F. Sharpe was correct when he reminded us: “Asset prices are not determined by someone from Mars” (even if it may sometimes feel that arbitrary). Markets are inspired by ingenuity, tempered by diversification. The price you pay matters.

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Investment Fundamentals Part 2. Our Marvelous Markets.

In our last piece, we wrote about how recency bias can damage your investments by causing current crises to loom large, while rewriting your memories of past challenges. Recency tricks us into overpaying during heady times, and bailing at bargain rates, when our confidence fades. One of the best ways to combat recency bias is by focusing instead on the fundamentals that have served investors well for centuries, if not millennia. In this series, we’ll

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Investment Fundamentals: Remembering Years Past.

“There were so many big events competing for our attention this last year …,” said nearly every investor, almost every year, ever. We’re not making light of last year’s uncertainties. Inflation is real and lingering; we can’t rule out the possibility we’ll still see a recession instead of the hoped-for soft landing (although neither has been reported yet). Heightened levels of market volatility across stock and bond markets alike may have left you once again

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What’s in the SECURE 2.0 Act?

How will the Secure 2.0 Act affect your retirement? The original SECURE Act was signed into law on December 20th, 2019. Its “sequel,” the SECURE 2.0 Act, was just enacted at year-end on December 29th, 2022. Both pieces of legislation seek to reform how Americans prepare for retirement while juggling current spending needs. How, when, or will each of us retire? How can government incentives, regulations, and safety nets help more people safely do so—or

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