I’m surprised at our country’s current state of the coronavirus pandemic. We – as Americans – are obviously doing something very wrong: we’re not wearing masks; we’re not social distancing. Yet those two things are very impactful in slowing the spread of the coronavirus: using masks in public; staying six feet away from others. The […]
Investing
Rental Real Estate Investing Across the United States
Previously, I wrote that stock market investing has historically outperformed rental real estate investing in California. (This is even the case when considering leverage: California rental property underperforms the stock market.) This conclusion applies not just to real estate in California, but anywhere with dense populations. This is because high population density creates a high […]
Reinvest Dividends and Capital Gains Distributions or Not?
In Larry’s Swedroe’s latest book, Your Complete Guide to a Successful and Secure Retirement, he briefly touches on the issue of reinvesting dividends and capital gains distributions. His suggestion? Don’t do it. Here’s his reasoning: Rebalancing. Cash from dividends and capital gains distributions can be used to (partially) rebalance an investment portfolio. This means deploying […]
Credit Risk for Interest Rate Risk
I gave a listen to a recent episode of the Stay Wealthy podcast. Investment manager Cullen Roche was the guest for the episode. In the episode, (if I understand his argument correctly) Cullen suggests short-term corporate bonds for one’s fixed income portfolio. He argues that Treasury bonds are currently paying too little to merit the […]
Are Long-Term Treasury Bonds Worth Holding? II
Read Part I of the series on Long-Term Treasury bonds here. Interest rate risk is scaring investors away from longer maturity bonds. And this is the case regardless of issuer quality – whether’s it high-quality U.S. government Treasury bonds, or low-quality emerging market debt. Given today’s low interest rates, long-term bonds are simply […]
Are Long-Term Treasury Bonds Worth Holding?
Ah, bonds. They’re quite the investment instrument. In a world of volatile stocks, bonds offer safety of principal – at least if you’re doing it right. That means shunning corporate bonds in favor of Treasury bonds, which includes shunning high-yield bonds. Yes, Treasury bonds are where the safe portion of your investments should lay – […]