The biggest refrain you hear from people who think you can beat the stock market goes as follows:
“By definition, 50% of investors do better than the market and the other 50% do worse. Surely it cannot be so hard to be in the first group.” […]
The period between 1999 and 2009 will likely go down as the “decade of pain” for US large-cap investors.
The S&P 500 followed the roaring 90s with a nasty, -2% annualized return over the subsequent ten years.
And yes, that does include reinvestment of dividends. […]
Debating the merits of active vs passive investing has got to be one of the favourite – and entertaining – pastimes in the FIRE community. Clearly, the default stance is that passive beats active by a stretch. At the same time, take a closer […]
To kick off today’s post, let me tell you a little story. The story is about a good friend of mine from the MBA days. To preserve confidentiality, we can call him Mike. Today, however, I will call him the Frustrated Consultant. With that […]
Sometimes it seems there is nothing but obstacles on your road to financial independence. Stagnating pay, high taxes, the ever-increasing cost of living, stock market downturns. Take your pick – all of these… […]
A few weeks ago, I sat down on a Saturday afternoon to write a post about the top investing mistakes people make on their journeys. Now, I am not talking about active investing, trying to time the market, or even join that exclusive club […]
Earlier this month, I set out to cross off a few items on my 2021 money agenda. As part of that (somewhat boring) exercise, I had to transfer roughly £150k from my wife’s workplace pension into Hargreaves Lansdown. Alongside Vanguard, Hargreaves is one of […]
A lot has been said about the tremendous run-up in the stock market since the global financial crisis. Historically, the S&P 500 returned about 10% a year (nominal, with dividends included). Over the past decade, however, the returns are well into double digits: So […]
The world of investing is a confusing one. Let’s start with the good news: it gets easier with time. Now for the bad news: when you first start out, the terminology can get so overwhelming that you’ll just want to give up on the […]
And so, as it usually does every year, the Christmas fiesta has come to an end. If anything, the unexpected lockdown here in London was a blessing in disguise. Yes, not being able to see friends and family was a bummer. On the flip […]
One of the fundamental truths of being a personal finance blogger is that it invariably involves telling readers what you think. The internet, however, is a funny, opaque place. Things are not always what they seem. And for all you know, I could be […]
Bonds or equities? US or international? Large cap or small cap? What about value? Gold, commodities, crypto, individual stocks, sectors and subsectors, investing styles – the personal finance community is bursting at the seams with discussions on where to put your money. And yet, […]
It may not seem like it, but as of today, we are just four weeks away from Christmas. One of the most eventful years of the past few decades is beginning the countdown toward its logical conclusion. It’s fair to say that 2020 has […]
Yesterday’s news of the Pfizer Covid vaccine may well be the emotional highlight of 2020. It certainly put a big smile on my face, notwithstanding an otherwise challenging day at work. A triumph of good over evil. Of human ingenuity over a nasty, deadly […]
About ten years ago, I attended an investment conference that brought together students and faculty from a number of MBA programs on the East Coast. Eugene Fama was one of the keynote speakers at the event. This was a few years before he won […]
After seven and a half months of working from home, I have finally had enough. Driven by a desire to insert a bit more separation between work and life, I put on my mask, boarded the Jubilee line, and headed for the office. To […]
Not too long ago, I was scrolling through Instagram when I stumbled across an interesting chart. The author of the post was making the point that the amount of money you should save/invest is really a function of two things: Your investment goals (i.e. […]
To say that 2020 has been an eventful year would be an understatement. A once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic led to unprecedented levels of government and central bank intervention. In turn, the combination of a macro shock with the fiscal and monetary response has led to […]
You may have noticed that as of last week, we are back to regularly scheduled, twice-weekly programming here at Banker On Fire. Two weeks in Spain flew by. It wasn’t a relaxing holiday by a stretch – a toddler, an infant, and a stream […]
One of my best friends happens to be a wildly successful real estate investor. Picking up the baton of a family business, he built up a neat little empire of apartment buildings and commercial properties – all by the age of 40. He also […]
In the personal finance community, you will struggle to find a set of people more vehemently disliked than active money managers. Yours truly certainly shares the sentiment. There are exceptions, of course. Star managers who haven’t (yet) fallen from grace. The rare species who […]
When I first moved to the UK about ten years ago, I remember being mightily confused by the concept of a self invested personal pension, also known as a SIPP. I ended up parking my mental questions on the topic when I had realized […]
Over the past few months, I have been spending a fair bit of time on the topic of investing in bonds. For some people, bonds represent an excellent way to soften the inevitable volatility of the stock markets. For others, it’s a way to […]
“Objects in the rear-view mirror may appear closer than they are”. Right now, the opposite is true. It feels like a lifetime ago – but it has only been 11 weeks since we were trying to find a way forward in the midst of […]
One possible explanation for the recent divergence in stock market performance vis-à-vis the broader economy is the performance of the tech sector. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook now comprise ~22% of the S&P 500 index. It’s no wonder that the stock market held […]
“It’s all over. They’ve gone and lost it.” This was just one of the comments that popped up in my Facebook feed on March 15th, the day the Fed cut interest rates to zero and launched a massive stimulus program. “They have nothing left […]
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