low cost

A Price War Erupts Over Retirement Investing

In every business, it is said, there’s really only two markets, the high end and low end. Judging from the continuing price war in the indexing space, the low end … Read more

Posted on May 5, 2017 by
cheap

Wine, Like Investments, Proves Cheap Can Be Great

We overpay for a lot of things on the presumption that price and quality are closely connected — perfumes, wine, certain restaurant experiences, travel. Even investments. While it’s true that … Read more

Posted on June 23, 2016 by
when to use etfs

When To Use ETFs, When To Avoid Them

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) get a strangely bad rap in the investment press. They’re either too risky or too boring, too opaque or too obvious. Which should lead you to a … Read more

Posted on March 24, 2016 by
stock scandals

Stock Scandals Not Scary, If You Diversify

The headlines are enough to give any stock investor pause. Volkswagen’s CEO stepping down over emissions cheating, a crazy biotech startup raising drug prices 5,000%, Caterpillar flummoxed by the global … Read more

Posted on September 25, 2015 by
low fees

How Low Fees Drive Much Bigger Returns

You know the mantra: Low fees means money money for you. Every dollar counts. We usually like to spend less on things we consider ordinary. Who doesn’t love a store-brand … Read more

Posted on August 7, 2015 by

Basics: When ETFs Beat Index Funds

It’s a bit of inside baseball in the money management world, but some advisors lean toward using index funds for their clients and some prefer exchange-traded funds (ETFs). We use … Read more

Posted on February 6, 2015 by
etf portfolio

2014: A Case For ETF Portfolio Investing

Now that the year is behind us and we have some nice round numbers, it’s a good time to look back and understand how building an ETF portfolio really works. … Read more

Posted on January 1, 2015 by
match the market

Stocks: Did You Match The Market This Year?

The end of 2014 is closing in rapidly and it’s beginning to look like another double-digit year for the broad index of stocks known as the S&P 500. At this writing, the … Read more

Posted on December 18, 2014 by
etfs

Morningstar: ETFs Should Be In Your 401(k)

If the rap on actively managed mutual funds is that they are expensive, inefficient and fail to keep up (mostly) with their benchmarks, what’s the natural solution? For years, it … Read more

Posted on September 22, 2014 by
etfs for retirement

Finding The Right ETFs For Retirement

The boom in exchange-traded funds, known as ETFs, has been unrelenting. At this writing, the number of investable U.S.-listed ETFs comes to 1,597. That’s pretty amazing growth, considering that just 20 years ago there … Read more

Posted on June 9, 2014 by