• June 26, 2017: How To Beat The Best Balanced Allocation Fund

    June 26, 2017: How To Beat The Best Balanced Allocation Fund

    We show a way to construct a simple yet effective balanced portfolio that can outperform even the best balanced allocation mutual fund, both in returns and risk. 


  • June 19, 2017: Newsletter Collection Update

    June 19, 2017: Newsletter Collection Update

    We summarize our recent newsletters and update the newsletter collection list. 


  • June 12, 2017: A Mixed Bag Performance of Momentum Investing

    June 12, 2017: A Mixed Bag Performance of Momentum Investing

    We review momentum based invest portfolios at various levels and note that the current stock market is very much driven by very few large technology/internet stocks. 


  • June 5, 2017: How To Start A New Portfolio

    June 5, 2017: How To Start A New Portfolio

    We offer some tips on how to start to follow a portfolio. 


  • May 29, 2017: Alternative Assets And Their Role In Portfolios

    May 29, 2017: Alternative Assets And Their Role In Portfolios

    We discuss our notion of alternative assets and their roles in portfolio management.


  • May 22, 2017: Summer Seasonality And Portfolio Management

    May 22, 2017: Summer Seasonality And Portfolio Management

    We show that stock markets exhibit strong seasonality and discuss how to utilize it in portfolio management. 


  • May 15, 2017: Cash: Banking Or Investing?

    May 15, 2017: Cash: Banking Or Investing?

    We closely look at the possibility using short term bonds to replace CDs or to invest cash that’s not needed immediately. 


  • May 8, 2017: Holding Period of Long Term Timing Portfolios

    May 8, 2017: Holding Period of Long Term Timing Portfolios

    We further look into how much hold time a timing strategy can shorten for equity investing and conclude that even though the timing strategies like our tactical asset allocation can shorten required hold time a few years, they are still long term investment strategies. 


  • May 1, 2017: Debate on Risk vs. Volatility

    May 1, 2017: Debate on Risk vs. Volatility

    A user commented on our recent article on the risk and volatility. We publish his email here and would like to have a debate/discussion on this important concept. 


  • April 24, 2017: The Long Term Stock Market Timing Return Since 1871

    April 24, 2017: The Long Term Stock Market Timing Return Since 1871

    We look at the S&P 500 and its simple moving average strategy for the past 145 years. It’s indisputable that a simple moving average based market timing strategy can be an effective tool to reduce risk.


  • April 17, 2017: Risk vs. Volatility: Long Term Stock Market Returns

    April 17, 2017: Risk vs. Volatility: Long Term Stock Market Returns

    We discuss risk and volatility, especially with respect to the investment time horizon using S&P 500 data in the past 145 years. 


  • April 10, 2017: Total Return Bond ETFs And Portfolios

    April 10, 2017: Total Return Bond ETFs And Portfolios

    With three major total return bond ETFs in the markets and several index ETFs in key bond categories, we believe we are getting very close to construct an ETF based portfolio that’s comparable with mutual fund based portfolios. 


  • April 3, 2017: Quarter End Asset Trend Review

    April 3, 2017: Quarter End Asset Trend Review

    We review asset class trends in the last quarter and discuss several possible scenarios. 


  • March 27, 2017: Practical Consideration For IRAs And 401k Accounts

    March 27, 2017: Practical Consideration For IRAs And 401k Accounts

    There are several factors to consider even among tax deferred retirement accounts. 


  • March 20, 2017: Fund Fees: That’s (Still) Outrageous

    March 20, 2017: Fund Fees: That’s (Still) Outrageous

    High fees are still rampant in 401k and retail investing. We also discuss how to cope with this. 


  • March 13, 2017: Long Term Stock Valuation Review

    March 13, 2017: Long Term Stock Valuation Review

    Stocks are extremely over valued based on several long term stock valuation metrics. We review the metrics and discuss the implication on portfolios.


  • March 6, 2017: Asset Classes for Retirement Investments

    March 6, 2017: Asset Classes for Retirement Investments

    We discuss core and sub asset classes for retirement investments. 


  • February 27, 2017: Fidelity Total Bond Fund Review

    February 27, 2017: Fidelity Total Bond Fund Review

    We review Fidelity Total Bond mutual fund whose managers have won the Morningstar’s Fixed Income Manager of the Year award in 2016. 


  • February 20, 2017: Long Term Stock Timing Based Portfolios And Their Roles

    February 20, 2017: Long Term Stock Timing Based Portfolios And Their Roles

    We review and discuss long term timing based US stock portfolios and their roles in one’s overall investments.


  • Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio Long Term Performance

    Harry Browne’s Permanent Portfolio Long Term Performance

    This is the latest update (as of 12/31/2016) of the performance of Harry Browne’s permanent portfolio. In 201, 6the portfolio returned 5.4% return. Since 1970, for the past 46 years, the average compound annual return of the permanent portfolio has been 8.5%. Harry Browne proposed the concept of  permanent portfolio in his  Fail-Safe Investing book in 1999. In the book, he showed the performance table of his ‘permanent portfolio’. The following table incorporated Harry Browne’s performance and the new performance since 2003.  As of 12/31/2016: 1970 4.10% 1980 22.10% 1990 -0.70% 2000 2.70% 2010 11.92% 1971 13.40% 1981 -6.20% 1991 11.50% 2001 -1.00% 2011 8.16% 1972 18.70% 1982 23.30% 1992 4.00% 2002 7.20% 2012 5.5% 1973 10.60% 1983 4.30% 1993 12.60% 2003 13.76% 2013 -3.8% 1974 12.30% 1984 1.10% 1994 -2.40% 2004 6.64% 2014  7.6% 1975 3.70% 1985 20.10% 1995 16.60% 2005 8.01% 2015 -4.5% 1976 10.10% 1986 21.70% 1996 5.20% 2006 10.80% 2016 5.4% 1977 5.20% 1987 5.30% 1997 6.70% 2007 11.94%     1978 15.00% 1988 3.60% 1998 7.40% 2008 -2.03%     1979 36.70% 1989 14.80% 1999 4.70% 2009 9.64%     Cumulative 328.62%   272.57%   186.24%   190.27%     Annual 12.63%   10.55%   6.42%   6.64%  Since 1970  8.48% The highlighted portion is from Browne’s book (page 81) and the rest is from MyPlanIQ’s Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio. Notice there is some discrepancy for performance between 2000 to 2002. This is because in MyPlanIQ’s portfolio, Vanguard funds and Gold ETF (GLD) are used while in Browne’s calculation, he uses the following: Stock results are for an S&P 500 Index mutual fund, including reinvestment of dividends. Bond results are for a 30-year T-bond, including interest received. Gold results are for American Eagle 1-ounce coins. Cash results are for Treasury bills, assuming a 1-year bill was bought at start of each year. Cash in MyPlanIQ’s Harry Browne Permanent Portfolio is modeled using 3 month Treasury bill’s returns. We will continue to update this table as time goes. See also Permanent Global Portfolio ETF Plan Permanent Portfolio ETF Plan