Moving to a “Geographically-Neutral” Allocation You’ve often heard us say that it makes sense to be “geographically-neutral,” that there is no systematic return associated with geographic allocation. One exception in recent years has been an extreme under-weighting of so-called Emerging Markets, which for some time represented less than…
Two weeks ago, several members of our financial planning team attended the Financial Planning Association’s NorCal Conference in San Francisco. At the opening keynote presentation, Jennifer Micieli and Jennifer Hicks (aka “the Jens”), Elissa, and Dave listened to Dr. Laura Tyson, Berkeley professor and former…
The Eurozone is back in the news today as economic and political events have given rise to fresh doubts that European policy-makers will get their financial house in order. Renewed uncertainty took several forms, from comments by the head of the IMF that Europe is…
We have lately noticed the growing ubiquity of a British government poster produced in 1939 at the beginning of World War II that advises the reader to “Keep Calm and Carry On.” The poster was intended to boost public morale in the face of the many risks of war,…
When we examine sources of risk and return in the market, we conclude, among other things, that there is no systematic return associated with geographic allocation. One of the practical results of this conclusion is that we always aim to be “geographically neutral” when assembling a global portfolio. …
We thought we’d celebrate this numerologically-significant Veteran’s Day with another edition of the Live Big Digest. While this is the day in which we all pause, reflect, and give thanks for the service and sacrifice of those in our armed forces, it also happens to…
I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that I’m writing again to chat about the chaotic world in which we live, but before I get to that, I wanted to remind you that recorded version of our webinar “Economic Vomitility and Financial Planning as Dramamine” is…
On October 21 of last year, at 10:20am Pacific Time, millions of people participated in the Great California ShakeOut (www.shakeout.org), practicing the essential earthquake survival skills of “drop, cover, and hold on.” Researchers long ago established that those who practice an emergency response are more…
We thought we’d take a break from the scary market action of the past week and talk about EMT. And no, that doesn’t stand for Emergency Medical Technician, notwithstanding any heart palpitations you may be feeling. The EMT we’re going to discuss stands for Error Management…