There comes a time when it is important to step back and take a deeper look at the fundamentals of a company or industry rather than just bask in the glow of its historical stock performance.  For Utilities, now is that time.  With the XLU nearing all time highs, holding near a 4% dividend yield,...Read More

If your advisor has decided to own individual stocks rather than either mutual funds or ETFs (Exchanged Trade Funds) for your portfolio, I think you need to ask Why?  To justify the fees he is charging is a cynical (and likely truthful) answer. The costs to do it well. Large firms spend large sums of...Read More

When it comes to investing for the long term, the overriding factor that will determine future investment returns, other than time, is the value of the asset at the time you buy it.  Think back to the early part of this century (the technology bubble).  If you had decided to invest in late 2000 in...Read More

I have always found it odd that many financial companies and their advisors prominently display on their websites an article on how to select a financial advisor.  Seems just a little biased.  As I read a number of them, it was highly coincidental that the qualities they thought you should want in an advisor were...Read More

I offer this as an introduction.  Up to this point, I have been an investor focused on institutional assets (pension funds, endowments, etc).  It has been 18 years of being paid to do something that I have loved doing since I was a teen.  Though I originally went to college to become an engineer (receiving a BS...Read More