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 may have been a short week, but there was no shortage of content this week, so let’s get into it…
Humble Dollar: Zach Blattner- Too Trusting Prior to starting my own RIA firm, I spent a large part of my career in the 403(b) world–the foundation of my firm’s client base is retired teachers. In addition to the obvious reasons, educators have a special place in my heart, and I know there are a lot of bad apples in the 403(b) market. In addition to the questionable “advisors” (not all are bad), most 403(b) products are unnecessarily expensive with poor investment options, and in this post Zach shares his personal experience with his first 403(b). I hope this finds its way to teachers and prompts them to start asking questions and requiring better options for their retirement savings.
WSJ: Meet the People’s Quant I’m an avid reader of Wes Gray; I’ve got three of his books on my bookshelf in my office. I also try to listen to him on podcasts whenever I can. When I started RLWM, I had to determine the investment philosophy I would use with my clients–in the past, I never was fully in control of it. I quickly began to identify with Evidence Based Investing, including the use of factors. Wes has written a lot about Value and Momentum as factors, and I continue to consult his work to stay abreast of these factors. This is a great introduction to Wes if you are not familiar with him.
Markets Insider: Millennials Are Still Spooked by the 2008 Financial Crisis I hope that I am able to make an impact on Millennials to help them shed this fear and begin building the foundation for their future–whether it be as clients, through my writing on this blog, or sharing articles like this to motivate them to begin investing. Yes, investing involves risk and with risk comes periods of losses, but it still is the most realistic way, to my knowledge, to help build the wealth that will be needed to reach long term goals. If investing and planning is not something you want to tackle alone, there are an increasing number of advisors working with Millennials…yours truly being one, but also all of my friends in the XY Planning Network. Don’t let your fear of the markets prevent you from taking advantage of the most powerful force of all–compound interest.
Balaji Srinivasan: Thought On Tokens Bitcoin was all the rage for a couple of days, but since there was a pretty good correction after it rocketed to new highs, the excitement seems to have dissipated–a little. This is a great intro to Bitcoin and the underlying structure to it (and other digital currencies). I still can’t wrap my mind around how these digital currencies work, but I don’t think they are going anywhere, so it make sense to begin learning about them.
ETF.com: Josh Brown On Evidence Based Investing I mentioned adopting an Evidence Based Investing philosophy for my firm, and here is a great explanation of what is meant by EBI, and why it makes sense. JB also touches on ESG investing, which has become a topic of extreme interest for me as well.
All About Your Benjamins: It’s Never Too Late Although everyone else was putting out great content this week, I was not. I’m currently working a couple of posts that should be out in the next few days, but since I don’t have a new one to share I thought I’d share this one again. If you’re a Millennial you might want to share this with your parents–still read it because it’s applicable to you too.
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.
