Investment Decisions
How your portfolio should change when the job of the money changes, especially around retirement and taxes.
strategy
How should my investments change as my plan changes?
Your investments should change when the job of the money changes. The right mix depends on when each dollar may be needed, how much volatility the plan can absorb, and how much volatility you can personally live through without abandoning the strategy.
Read answer ->educational
Am I actually diversified, or do I just own a lot of things?
Owning a lot of accounts or funds is not the same as being diversified. Real diversification means the pieces of your portfolio have different jobs and do not all depend on the same thing going right at the same time.
Read answer ->strategy
How should I invest once I am retired?
Retirement investing should be built around withdrawals, taxes, and time horizon. Some money needs stability because it may be spent soon. Some money needs growth because retirement may last decades. The structure should make both truths visible.
Read answer ->educational
Do I really need international investments?
International investing is not about chasing whichever market did best recently. It is about avoiding a portfolio that depends entirely on one country continuing to lead forever. The right amount depends on the plan, taxes, account location, and your ability to stick with it through long periods of underperformance.
Read answer ->myth busting
Should I use index funds or active management?
For most public-market exposure, low-cost index funds are very hard to beat after fees and taxes. But the bigger issue is not index versus active. It is whether the investments are low-cost, tax-aware, diversified, and connected to the plan.
Read answer ->strategy
Should I pay off my mortgage or invest the money?
The rule is interest rate arbitrage. If the money will earn more than the debt costs you, invest it. If it will not, pay the debt down. That holds the vast majority of the time. It gets closer than it looks when the two rates are near each other, because the debt charges the same rate every year and the market does not, so the sequence of returns tips a close call toward paying the debt off. The limit is liquidity: never at the expense of your emergency fund.
Read answer ->practical
What should I do with the cash piling up in my business account?
It feeling good to hold a certain amount of cash is not a reason to hold that amount. You want a calculable reason, and for most businesses that means three to six months of operating capital sized off the burn rate, how volatile the revenue is, and how concentrated the payers are. Anything above that is essentially like having employees who are not working. A new business is the exception, where hoarding cash is exactly right.
Read answer ->educational
What rate of return should I aim for with my investments?
There isn't a magic number, and chasing one is usually the wrong first move. The return that fits your plan is a by-product of two better questions: what does your money actually need to do for you, and how much of a temporary drop can you genuinely live with?
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