Archive for April, 2013

Not All Total-Bond-Fund Bond Index Funds are Alike

I read Morningstar’s annual report the other day, and saw something interesting in there: Morningstar’s business is being hurt by the rise of passive investment approaches and the mirror-image fall of active investment approaches. That makes sense, right? After all, Morningstar helps folks be better informed about, primarily, mutual funds, […]

Don’t Be Usin’ the B-Word Unless You Need to Be Doin’ the B-Word (Hint: B-Word = Budget)

Are you saving 15% of your take-home pay? And have you been doing that for most of your working life? If so, then don’t even think about using the B-word — you don’t need to even go there. Just enjoy the 85% you’re spending — enjoy it thoroughly — and […]

Shame Shame Shame on the Estate Planning Industries — and Me Possibly Lending a Helping Hand

Every once in a while you hear yourself say something to someone, and then, inside your head, you immediately hear yourself saying to yourself, Never again: I must figure out a way to be able to never say that again. Years ago that happened to me when I worked at […]

Friedman’s Law of Triangular Relationships

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: the odds of a commercial relationship involving three or more parties going off the rails are far higher than commercial relationhips involving two parties. There’s a reason for this. Say that three parties, called A, B and C, are working together […]