DIY Personal & Retirement Financial Planning
Do-It-Yourself financial and investment planning Excel spreadsheet software
The Solution – ONLY follow financial strategies that are scientific, passive, diversified, savings focused, risk controlled, low cost, and tax efficient A previous article, “The Problem – Straight answers about personal financial and investment planning are difficult to find,” summarized important reasons why individuals may experience difficulties, even if they are intent upon doing better […]
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 […]
“Market efficiency” makes it very difficult for individual investors to “beat the market.” Making their own decisions, individual investors perform so poorly that on average their investment returns lag behind the returns that one would expect from random stock selection. The average professional trader does somewhat better than amateurs do, and professionals probably do so, […]
<<– Continued from Part 1 Financial Planning Software for Individuals In addition to showing that large numbers of additional stocks are required to achieve measurable improvements in diversification, the Evans and Archer study clarified other requirements for a well-diversified portfolio. The number of stocks selected for a highly diversified portfolio also depends on what one […]
Securities markets are usually very quick to adjust prices to reflect new information. However, this price adjustment process may take longer and be more volatile, if the new information is ambiguous. At any point in time, market participants will already have used more or less rigorous valuation methods to judge their expected risk-adjusted value of […]
The securities markets provide an evolving consensus of the risk-adjusted value of particular securities. By understanding how the markets value securities, individual investors can chose more durable investment strategies Judging the potential usefulness of different investment strategies requires some understanding of what the public securities markets really do. This article discusses how the markets price […]
Pay Lower Investment Expenses To Get Higher Investment Returns – Part 1 Excessive investment costs are a plague on your personal financial planning. Excessive investment expenses are one of the most significant barriers to lifelong family financial security. While financial services industry sales people tell you that you need to pay more to get more, […]
You must stay invested in the securities markets to earn market return risk premiums Securities markets pay risk premiums to risk takers You have to have your money invested and at risk to be paid a risk premium. Attempting to avoid risk or losses by jumping in and out to “time the markets” does not […]
Evaluate the historical investment performance of mutual funds and ETFs, BUT ONLY AFTER using other screening criteria Choosing only from among mutual funds and ETFs that have performed very well in the past can lead to significant selection mistakes and inferior personal portfolio returns Previous superior or average fund performance simply does not predict similar […]