I was in New York this week with little time to update the blog. It is always great to be with my co-workers at RWM, and we packed a lot in to three days. I brought King Cake from Antoine’s bakery in New Orleans to celebrate Carnival Season. It’s hard to believe Mardi Gras is…
Thoughts on Gold
A few weeks ago, I attempted to listen to Tim Ferriss interview Peter Mallouk, president of one of the largest independent wealth management firms in the country. If you don’t know Ferriss, he is famous for his best-selling book, The 4-Hour Work Week. Mallouk runs Creative Planning, one of the fastest growing RIA firms managing…
No Call
Last Sunday we witnessed the most obvious and consequential officiating blunder in American football history. The New Orleans Saints, playing for the NFC Championship at home in the Superdome, were tied 20-20 with the Los Angeles Rams with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Drew Brees, the quarterback with the most career passing yards…
Jack Bogle – In Memoriam
If there is one super hero in my field, it was Jack Bogle. In 1974, Mr. Bogle presented a revolutionary idea to the board of his former employer Wellington. He suggested that their mutual funds should be owned by the investors of the fund and not have outside owners seeking profits. Wellington rejected his proposal,…
My Controversial Op-Ed in the New York Times
Last fall, an editor of the Times Sunday Review, Talmon Smith, contacted me about writing an essay for the paper. He read my post harping on the lack of women in the financial advice industry and asked me to take a second crack at the topic. When I regained consciousness, I said yes. I mean, the…
Health Insurance, An Untold Story
I recently read about a family earning too much to qualify for health insurance subsidies through the ACA (Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare) but too little to afford the premiums. While it seems absurd that a family earning $113,000/year cannot afford health insurance, this is the plight for millions of Americans who do not have…
New Year, New Limits
In 2019, the IRS will allow you to save more for retirement than in prior years. Contribution limits for IRA accounts are increasing for the first time since 2013. While 401(k) contributions increased $500 last year, they held steady at $18,000 between 2015-2017. The base contribution limits increased, but the catch-up provisions for those age…
Happy 2019!
It is 100% true that the years fly by faster with time, and 2018 was no exception. I could never have imagined on New Year’s Day 2018, that I would be writing this blog by late July, as an advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management. The first six months of the Belle Curve were amazing. Thank…
My Habits for Reducing Environmental Impact
The recent National Climate Assessment Report is sobering. Let us hope these calculations are wrong, and the near future on Earth is not a dire as predicted. We follow an evidence-based approach to investing, and one cannot read this report and not find evidence that things are headed in the wrong direction. Some of our…
The Price of Admission
There’s no other way to say it, this market is brutal. The S&P500 Index is down 9.61% year to date and has declined more than 17% since October. Small caps stocks are in a bear market, down more than 24% in the fourth quarter. Bonds haven’t helped. The US aggregate index is down 0.45% for…
