I don't care if you're investing one thousand dollars or ten million, you can do a better job at a much lower cost by avoiding most traditional financial advice altogether. There are a handful of advisers out t

If it wasn't clear enough from the last post, when it comes to investing costs kill. They kill your returns and ultimately your financial goals. Using index funds and index ETFs is the most effective way to reduce this

So I recently explained why a broker is not fit to be an adviser. I'd like to now take the next step to show why you shouldn't even hire the typical financial adviser. As opposed to a commission-b

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how I've decided to refocus the blog on exploring ideas and topics related to finance and investing. To do this, I've farmed out some of the alternative purposes to other platforms like

Yesterday I posted a rant I shared on twitter over the weekend. The focus of the rant was an annuity that was offered to a client of mine. Essentially, it paid the investor $5,500 per year (1.1% on $500,000) for ten years with a $50,000 early w

Looking at a fixed-indexed annuity presented to a client from another "adviser." Just blown away these things are legal. #caveatemptor— Jesse Felder (@jessefelder)

One of the biggest challenges for investors is determining what's valuable to your investment process and what's noise. I would guess that at least 95% of what I read and a huge chunk of the research I do is worthless to mine. Making that determination, however, is not nearly as easy as it seems.

My biggest problem with modern music is that technology can now make anyone sound perfectly in tune regardless of their true skill or talent. I know I'm not alone in hearing a song on the radio and immediately feeling conned somehow. Human beings are not capable of perfection and when we're

A few months ago I was getting asked a lot about gold. I guess it's a good sign I was getting "asked" and not "told." I was "told" a lot about real estate back in 2005. I can understand gold's use as an alternative to the fiat currencies of the w

I read this post today over at Seth Godin's blog and it made me realize

You may have noticed I've gone radical with the blog again (in the truest meaning of the word). I started writing here way back in 2005 using the platform to express and explore ideas and I'd like to get back to that.

A few weeks ago Bank of America saw its stock price trade below $5 and everyone, I mean everyone, was loudly heralding the development as a death omen for the bank and perhaps even the American financial system. Well it turns out that the bank's stock price made a bottom that day and

With as much as I've featured Richard Koo and his "Balance Sheet Recession" theory here it should be obvious  which side I come down on in the great austerity debate. You just can't cut spending during a severe recession - unless, of course, you're trying to make matters worse. And you certa

Learn to say "no." Think more/do less. Take Polonius' advice.

2011, it turns out, was 'the year to fade the mavens.' Like a good running back, the financial markets juked the leading experts right out of their shoes: Bill Gross, perhaps the most respected fixed income manager in the world, famously went short the long bond early in the year b

My friend, Collin, tweeted yesterday that he had paid down another credit card balance to zero. He was clearly elated by the experience, as he should be. Getting out of debt is an accomplishment to be proud of. But he should feel good about it for another reason: eliminating the sour

I recently wrote about

Just in case anyone needs a last-minute gift idea for me... via youtube.com

I'm pretty sure I've posted this chart before but it's worth posting again. In fact, I should just set it to automatically repost on a regular basis - it's that important.Nearly every major mistake I've seen folks make (or made myself) can be attributed to either not understanding or not heeding this cy

The 10-year Treasury bond yield has been trending down now for nearly 30 years. It's got to bottom out sometime but betting against it means violating two classic, trading maxims: "don't fight the fed" and "the trend is your friend." So for now I'll just keep watching.

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This is a very important distinction that many people overlook: a commission-based salesperson's interests are not aligned with those of their customer. This is also why the

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