There is an ongoing study from Hendrik Bessembinder at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University that I’ve followed closely. It’s titled 100 Years in the U.S. Stock Market, and…
Gold’s performance over the last few years is a good reminder that stocks and bonds alone are not enough for diversification, especially after 2022. Owning equities across all 11 sectors and across different geographic…
A quick reminder for anyone who’s already forgotten about 2022: that year, the classic 60/40 balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds didn’t provide much protection. In fact, it lost nearly as much as a…
There's been a lot of talk about how ETFs are slowly cannibalizing the mutual fund industry. In some cases, it's happening through outright conversions. In others, it's happening through ETF share classes becoming more…
A lot of investors chasing double-digit yields end up in covered call ETFs. And while those can work, the trade-off is pretty clear. You’re capping your upside in exchange for income, and in strong…
President Donald Trump’s recent address to the nation did little to calm investor concerns around the ongoing conflict with Iran, which has now entered its fifth week. Markets don’t like uncertainty, and right now…
Shocker, I’m a big fan of the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NASDAQ: VYM), and not just because Vanguard recently lowered its expense ratio again to just 0.04% a year. I like the benchmark.…
The Bogleheads 3-fund portfolio calls for an allocation to aggregate bond funds. They’re broadly diversified, low cost, and do a decent job of reducing overall portfolio volatility. But if your goal is yield, it’s…
Technically speaking, retirees should be just as comfortable selling shares to fund withdrawals as they are receiving dividends. From a total return perspective, there’s no real difference. For example, selling $10,000 worth of shares…
What’s your plan for retirement? If you haven’t given it much thought yet, it’s worth starting with a simple question: where is your income going to come from? The old model was straightforward. Work…
If I were retired today and had to put all my money into a single fund, I’d probably pick the Vanguard Wellesley Income Fund Investor Shares (VWINX). This is one of Vanguard’s longest-running actively…
A lot of income investors get tripped up on something basic: the difference between a dividend and a distribution. People use the terms interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. A dividend is…
I’m a total return guy. All I really care about is after-tax performance with distributions reinvested. I couldn’t care less about how much yield an ETF throws off. Even in retirement, I’d be perfectly…
While High-Yield Savings Accounts (HYSAs) remain a staple for principal preservation due to FDIC and NCUA insurance, the Federal Reserve raised its target range to 3.75% to 4.00% at its September 2026 meeting, its…
Call it habit. Call it decades of conventional wisdom pushed by financial advisors and DIY investors. Either way, a lot of retirees default to aggregate bond funds. It doesn't really matter whether it's from…
The 4% rule has taken its fair share of criticism from financial planners and academic researchers, but it still has its place. For the unfamiliar, the rule suggests that retirees can withdraw 4% of…
I don’t know about you, but I’m really not the biggest fan of TreasuryDirect. Sure, you can build a T-bill ladder on there, but you have to be willing to wade through a pretty…
Covered calls can be hit or miss. Personally, I tend to prefer actively managed strategies that write calls on individual holdings. That approach can leave more upside on the table, take advantage of spikes…
For a while after COVID, the playbook felt simple. If you wanted to beat the S&P 500, you just leaned harder into what was already working. That meant piling into the Magnificent Seven and…
The first ETF ever created was technically Canadian. That distinction goes to the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF (TSX: XIU), which traces its roots back to the Toronto 35 Index Participation Units in 1990.…
