DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
Why allow the financial industry to help itself to your money? This blog provides you with objective information that could solidify a lifelong commitment on our part to low cost investing. Low cost investing is how you keep more of your own investments for your family, instead of naively giving your money to the financial […]
Markets are in turmoil once again as the “Greek Tragedy†continues to play out on the European stage. German and French banks are girding for a possible default, and the fear of the contagion spreading to the weaker member states of the Eurozone is freezing investors in their tracks. Stock markets are down on a […]
Most individual investors are poor investment portfolio managers Investors more easily understand investment costs that are directly measurable, such as fees deducted on investment statements. However, many investors ignore or are unaware of the “opportunity costs†of their sub-optimal investment behaviors. Opportunity costs are usually much more difficult to measure directly, but these investment costs […]
Your personal investment management contribution is the total value that you add to your investment portfolio less the opportunity cost of your time. When divided by the hours you spend, you can estimate an hourly wage for your personal investment management contribution. Obviously, the objective is to have a high investment wage. Unfortunately, for most […]
The table below in this article presents The Skilled Investor’s Fund Authority Score and other information for the American Funds – AMCAP Fund – Class A Shares. The diversified investment fund strategy of the American Funds – AMCAP Fund – Class A mutual fund shares (AMCPX) Family Financial Planning Software for Home Use According to […]
The table below in this article presents The Skilled Investor’s Fund Authority Score and other information for the Dodge and Cox Stock Fund (DODGX). The diversified investment fund strategy of the Dodge and Cox Stock mutual fund (DODGX) Discover Home Financial Planning Software According to its website and its prospectus filing on the U.S. Securities […]
The table below in this article presents The Skilled Investor’s Fund Authority Score and other information for the American Balanced Fund – Class A Shares. The diversified investment fund strategy of the American Balanced Fund – Class A mutual fund shares Financial Planning Software for Consumers According to its prospectus filing on the U.S. Securities […]
The diversified investment fund strategy of the Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX) According to its prospectus filing on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR system, the investment strategy of the Fidelity Contrafund is to invest primarily in common stocks and particularly in the “securities of companies whose value Fidelity Management & Research Company believes is not […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within investment […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within investment […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within investment […]
Fund Authority Scores rate mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) on the most important economic factors that influence individual investors’ net long term diversified investment fund performance. The Skilled Investor developed the Fund Authority Score system to provide individual investors with concise and objective summaries of mutual funds and ETFs for comparisons within investment […]
The diversified investment fund strategy of American Funds’ EuroPacific Growth Fund According to American Funds’ Annual Report for the EuroPacific Growth Fund, the fund “seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in the securities of companies based in Europe and the Pacific Basin.” American Fund’s 497 filing on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR […]
The investment fund objective of American Funds’ Growth Fund of America With 4.4 million shareholder accounts, the Growth Fund of America (AGTHX) is the largest actively managed stock mutual fund in the United States. According to American Funds prospectus, the investment objective of the Growth Fund of America “is to provide you with growth of […]
<<– Continued from Part 1 (Where’s Waldo? The illusion of superior professional mutual fund manager performance.) Instead of highlighting dozens or even hundreds of perennially superior mutual fund money managers, the media conversation has become a repetitive chant about Warren Buffett. Find Home Financial Planning Software While highly successful and very worthy of respect, it […]
If investment mutual fund managers were truly skilled at beating the market, then you would expect mutual fund manager performance prowess to persist over time. Unfortunately, the evidence indicates that superior past professional performance among mutual fund managers tends not to persist. Past superior mutual fund performance is simply not a predictor of future superior […]
Even if an investor has obtained superior results over an extended period, is this sufficient proof that these investment results were actually due to skill rather than just a lucky streak? No, these investment results could still be due to chance. For example, take a large population, such as all individual investors in the U.S., […]
For holding periods of many years, diversification improves dramatically, when you hold multiple actively-managed mutual funds in an investment portfolio. In “How Many Mutual Funds Constitute a Diversified Mutual Fund Portfolio?,” Professor Edward O’Neal of the University of New Hampshire at Durham tackled the important question of how much an investor could improve on diversification […]
Actively-managed mutual funds are not created equally. Performance can vary significantly – even when funds pursue similar strategies or “styles.” This article addresses the impact on portfolio diversification of holding more than one actively-managed mutual fund. (For the companion article to this, see: How many mutual funds are needed for a well-diversified portfolio? – a […]
How to lie with statistics: Investment performance charts – A Tip from The Skilled Investor Darrell Huff wrote a short and very informative book, “How to Lie with Statistics,” which was first published in 1954 and was amusingly illustrated by Irving Geis. This book is still in print and remains very popular (Amazon book rank […]