Back in 2016, I fired my financial advisor and moved all of our assets to Vanguard. It took just shy of 2 years of intensive reading of books and blogs (and not a little bit of chutzpah) to toughen up and assume accountability for our retirement portfolio. 9 years later, we have reached a unique and exciting milestone in our …
A Candid Review of WCI’s New Course: “No Hype Real Estate Investing”
I’m in the midst of a blogging sabbatical – so why am I coming off the bench to write this article? WCI is a savvy entrepreneur, and real estate is a sexy topic. I had increased my asset allocation to real estate and invested in several syndicates shortly before the pandemic, and continue to enjoy reading up on the topic. …
Is Your Investing Process- Or Outcome-Oriented?
An acquaintance relishes trumpeting his large bet on bitcoin and intent to hold on for dear life to a group of us repeatedly via text. He insists it demonstrates his investing prowess. For proof of his skill, he holds up the considerable increase in value he can demonstrate since he initially invested. When I ask to understand why he invested …
Why Every Emergency Physician Has What It Takes To Be A DIY Investor
Physicians provide a historically target rich environment for financial predators. We assume our expertise in medicine translates into competence in other spaces, like investing. How do I know? ‘Cause I’m a doctor, that’s how I know!Alternately, we plead ignorance to all other facets of life because we are so darn busy saving lives. Finances? Who has time? Why dirty hands …
Love Hertz
The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything – you can wait for your pitch. -Warren Buffett I don’t day trade. I don’t own cryptocurrencies. I don’t directly own rental real estate. I have friends who have done incredibly well in each and every one of those areas of investment, and I enjoy learning …
A Behavioral Economics Koan
H explains why he always bets against his favorite baseball team: If they win, I am happy because my team was victorious. If they lose, I find solace in having won the bet. A dear friend relayed this true story about a shared acquaintance from our high school days. It is an adolescent’s attempt to reconcile the tension between the …
Have I Fallen Victim To Normalcy Bias?
The hazards of normalcy bias were recently put on my radar by my invisible friend and unconventional thinker Dr. S, to whom I am grateful for the continuing mind expansion that has defined our virtual friendship. Having a friend who is unafraid to test and confront your definition of reality only strengthens your long-term resilience and the soundness of your …
Insure Against Catastrophic Inflation With TIPS
My latest journey down the rabbit hole of creating a “good-enough to get ‘er done” retirement portfolio reads like a biblical recounting of who begat whom. I started with William Bernstein’s Ages of the Investor, which inspired me to read one the books he referenced: Michael Zwecher’s Retirement Portfolios: Theory, Construction and Management. Zwecher strongly argues for the use of …
Who Says You Can’t Cheat Death?
I recently finished reading Bernstein’s slim book, The Ages Of The Investor, where he thoughtfully explores the accumulation stage, decumulation stage, and (trickiest of all) the stage during which one transitions from the former to the latter. It is in the transitional stage during which sequence of returns risk can appear and undermine what would otherwise appear to be a …
The Beauty Of The Regret Lottery
I relish the intersection of public health policy informed by behavioral economics. It’s a joy akin to matchmaking your two best friends and then witnessing as their relationship proceeds to marriage. It leaves me giddy and breathless and proud of the clever public health strategist who is able to leverage human psychology to improve population-level health. My wife relayed a …