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S&P 500

How Should I Know If My Diversified Portfolio Returns Are Good Enough?

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It’s not easy for a diversified investor to know what their investments should be returning over most time frames. Just because the S&P 500 is up 15% this year, should you be too?  The S&P 500 plus dividends was up 40% over the past twelve months, but since you have a diversified portfolio, what is a normal return for you over the same period?  For any short-term period, like a year, how do we know if we’re still on track, or if our returns show something has gone wrong? Given the amount of media coverage large cap US stocks receive…

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Don Those Earmuffs!

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“Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” – Quote often ascribed to Winston Churchill If there’s one thing most can feel good about these days, it’s the fact that the process of trying “all other possibilities” to keep corporations and the economy afloat is in full swing, which in turn probably means we’re that much closer to getting to a viable long-term solution that benefits most. As touched on in last month’s letter, the “right thing” will likely only come after all these other easier, less painful possibilities have been…

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Retirement Uncertainties: Why Financial Planning is Necessary > Issue 6 > The Investment Elephant in the Retirement Room

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You may have to account for at least one, but probably more of the preceding issues before and during your own retirement.  However, the biggest threat that we can think of is also the one that gets almost no attention in the “biggest threats facing retirees” research we conducted, and it illustrates the need for people to work with a professional more than any of the items mentioned in the preceding paragraphs. With the U.S. stock market currently enjoying its longest and largest bull market in history, the potential for large investment losses is very high.   The last two major…

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How Expensive Is The Stock Market?

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We’ve incorporated our fair share of complicated charts and concepts into our letters over the months. This one, in our opinion, really keeps things simple. If we’re trying to figure out if the stock market is expensive, doesn’t it really come down to affordability for most people? When we look at the average earnings of workers across America – $21.90 per hour – the stock market has never been less affordable. It currently requires 109 hours of work to buy the S&P 500 (assuming one could buy 1 unit of the index at its current level of approximately 2,390). This…

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