$8,000 At Closing

Pass this around.  This is the latest on the use of $8000 of Federal First Time Home Buyer tax credit money for the down payment and settlement costs of buying a home.

Here’s to You Mayor Hollister!

What does 200% turnover mean to you?

When a fund is turning over the stocks in your mutual fund like a rotisary chicken, you pay dearly for it. I recently analyzed a fund mix on the popular Fidelity funds on a 401k palet ? the average turn over was just under 200%! This translates into over 4% cost inside the fund in a single year. This cost comes after a market decline of 39% and underperformance of over 10% against market benchmarks. What should have been around a 40% drop in value translated into a 54% drop in this fund mix!

What should an investment manager do for you?

Rather than participating in all of the speculative hype so prevalent on Wall Street, your money manager should help you focus. Keep costs low, diversify and rebalance – over and over again ? this WILL give the best of returns with the lowest cost. Less activity, more investing.

Avoiding Black Swans

We would be far better off if we learned to avoid Black Swans. These three suggestions are priceless.

Benjamin Graham Quote

The value exchange in the world of investment management has long rewarded relationships based on frugality, simplicity and maintaining a disciplined balance of a varied selection of investment classes.  Benjamin Graham knows it and you know it.  I affirm that the widely accepted speculative techniques used by Wall Street are propagated by Wall Street primarily for the benefit of Wall Street.  This is done by blurring the real returns and siphoning unsubstantiated and unnecessary costs from your investments.

Why Markets Rebound So Quickly

Evan explains how the current market correction is a good thing is the long run.