Retirement Researcher - by Wade Pfau, Ph.D. CFA & McLean Asset Managem...

A lot of the time, investors view each of their investments in isolation. They focus on how this fund or that fund did. But this is a fundamentally wrong headed approach. Just like your investment portfolio only really matters – and can only be evaluated...

Navigating the financial markets can often feel like you’re in a labyrinth, with news outlets, analysts, and every ‘guru’ on the internet vying for your attention, each one painting a picture of the market landscape teeming with endless opportunities...

When investors are looking at their bonds, one of the most common questions is whether they should use individual bonds or bond funds (either in the form of mutual funds or ETFs) in their investment portfolio. Interest rates have come up over the past...

Investing is deceptively simple. Until it’s not.
As investors, we want to start with the market portfolio—that is, by definition, the most efficient portfolio. But we’ll also want to customize our investments to address our specific situation.
For instance, the global bond market is substantially bigger than the global stock market, but most retirement-focused investors’ portfolios are more heavily tilted towards stocks than bonds. There are all sorts of reasons for this (some better than...