Every Friday I’ll be releasing my own compilation, a mixtape if you will, of blog posts from the week I think are worth your time.
It was a big week in my house, my oldest, Roman turned 7 on Monday. We had a NBA themed party for him on Sunday, and we spent Monday together as a family. We snapped one of my favorite pictures of the boys, and I thought I’d share it.
This week was full of great posts from my fellow financial bloggers–I had a hard time narrowing my list down, but I think I did a good job. We start with a comparison post of Game of Thrones and diversification in an investment portfolio, and we end with a bonus, thought-provoking post from my man Josh Brown–he takes us beyond just investing and financial planning. Between these posts are some great pieces by some familiar names. I hope you enjoy!!
Brendan Mullooly: Break the Wheel I have to admit something: I am one of the few non-GOT watchers. I tried binge watching it a couple of years ago when I was up late every night getting RLWM up and running, but I never got hooked. Although I have limited knowledge on the show, I do recognize the names referenced in this post. Brendan uses a quote from Daenerys to start the discussion about diversification. I once read or heard, “As an advisor, diversification means always having to say sorry”; I don’t know who said it, so I cannot credit them, but it’s true and Brendan explains why–along with why it’s worth it.
The Reformed Broker: Blind Ambition JB provides us a good reminder to be true to ourselves–this may be one to bookmark and re-read every once and awhile.
The Reformed Broker: If Everyone is a Robo-Advisor, Then No One is a Robo-Advisor Another good one from JB; when I started RLWM the experts were predicting robo-advisors would put human advisors out of work. Knowing human advisors possess intangible qualities, I never believed the predictions–sure, robo-advisors may allow some DIY’ers go at it a lone, but there will always be a need for human interaction when it comes to financial planning. I also touched on this a couple of weeks ago, which you can read here.
The Irrelevant Investor: A Millennial’s Rebuttal They say Millennials don’t want to invest, and Ritholtz Wealth Management’s intern, Tommy Tranfo offered his take on why. I’ll have my own in the coming days to compliment his post.
A Wealth of Common Sense: Why is There a Retirement Crisis? “With life spans, and thus investor time horizons, expanding, saving money for long periods of time to allow compound interest to do the heavy lifting for you will be more important than ever.”
All About Your Benjamins: A New Breed of Advisors I’m planning a follow-up to this post to introduce you to some of these advisors and explain why this new breed of advisors is going to be good for investors.
Bonus- The Reformed Broker: A Modest Proposal I know, I know, a third post from Josh Brown…I had to. Although JB discusses Apple and its cash hoard, I wanted to share this for reasons outside of investing and financial planning. In this post Josh shares an idea that upset a lot of people on Twitter–most likely the types of people who never think outside of the box and get satisfaction shooting down ideas from behind a keyboard. So what’s the idea? Instead of continuing to sit on hundreds of billions of cash, Apple would take some of the cash and set it aside to help deserving students pay down student loans. This would better the lives of many, and it may expand its base of loyal Apple customers, although this is not the motivation behind the motion. No, Josh’s idea isn’t perfect, and I don’t think he intended it to be–it was a suggestion, and maybe the start to a new way of doing business. I applaud him for thinking outside of the box and having the guts to put it out there!
“Without the rule of law, abundance of capital, physical infrastructure, university system, intellectual property rights and dynamic consumer culture we have here in America, something like Apple Inc could never have happened. What would be so terrible about this miraculous company reinvesting in the environment that enabled it all in the first place?”
-Josh Brown, A Modest Proposal
Disclaimer: Nothing on this blog should be considered advice, or recommendations. If you have questions pertaining your individual situation you should consult your financial advisor. For all of the disclaimers, please see my disclaimers page.
