Your Survival Guy learned how to be a successful real estate investor from my dad. He taught me that price always matters, but he also understood the magic of time. If you need to pay a higher price to be in the game, you get in the game, especially when you’re young. When Becky and I were buying our first home, my dad couldn’t believe how much we were paying. But he also realized that when you’re young, you have a better chance of surviving if you happen to pay too much. You have time on your side—and a job—and nothing focuses the mind like a mortgage. But what if you don’t have time? Price … [Read more...]

Your Survival Guy’s boiler room is stacked with buckets of 30-day survival food sprinkled with Spam and other canned delicacies. My son tells me he can’t wait to try some of it. Other members of my family tell me they’d rather starve. Your Survival Guy also has a weakness in the canned goods aisle. Cans of BOGO tuna and sardines magically jump into my cart like fish out of water. “We’re good on the canned fish,” I’m told. Who knew the term “value” could be so subjective. Last month investors believed Apple was worth eight percent of the market. (They’ve since re-thought that). As I’ve … [Read more...]

Let’s clear something up real quick. If you’re invested with Vanguard and it’s a major undertaking to shift your portfolio to Fidelity Investments—there are worse places to be stuck. In an industry littered with terrible, high-cost products, you’re lucky to be at low cost, no front or back-end load Vanguard. But what you might own at Vanguard and seeing how its assets continue to expand is concerning. As an aside, Vanguard has had some great managers retire such as the GNMA fund’s Michael Garret, from sub-advisor Wellington Management. You never hear about his retirement party. It makes it … [Read more...]

You wouldn’t believe the conversation I had yesterday with a prospective client. It’s as if he’s done everything we’ve recommended over the years and we were set to talk yesterday—after all of those years later—to see how it all turned out. I’m here to tell you, quite well, indeed. This gentleman is wealthy beyond his imagination and I bet, having not met him face to face yet, I wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup. That’s the beauty of quiet wealth: You control how you move about the world with no pressure to live up to some silly image. Long ago, my new friend and his wife … [Read more...]

Do you know what career risk means? Of course, you do. It means you could lose your job. Well, in the investment world of pensions, mutual funds, and ETFs, career risk means you might lose your job if you underperform an index. That’s why so many pensions, foundations, and the like are piling into the Jabba the Hutt funds, like Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index. If they lose a pile of money, at least they can say, “Hey, so did everyone else. We performed just like the market did”. You’ve read here, here, here, here, and here about my concerns with Vanguard being too big. That goes for all … [Read more...]

I’m not trying to be unfair to Vanguard, or other companies with airplane-hangar-sized call centers, but nowadays you tend to feel like a number. You feel like what’s more important to the big guys is telling you how many assets they have under management. It’s in the trillions. How does that help you? It doesn’t. It also doesn’t help when the phone rep you’re speaking with is either fresh out of college or is worth a fraction of what you’ve been able to save over a lifetime of work. There tends to be some value in working with someone who has actually made some money, don’t you think? It … [Read more...]

When you spend hours on vanguard.com like I do, you realize how hard it is to get the information you’re looking for. Take for example the bloated Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. The thing is a behemoth, with so much money stuffed into it, it’s a wonder it can even move the needle. Jabba the Hutt comes to mind—you deserve better. Not to tool on Jabba, but take a look at what you’re really getting yourself into. Consider for a moment the title—Total Stock Market—where you think you’re buying a diversified fund. Not necessarily the case. How can it be when ten stocks account for over a … [Read more...]

In times like these, you can’t afford to fight other people’s social crusades. Vanguard has announced a new ESG bond fund. You need to know the pitfalls of ESG and avoid them. Vanguard has announced: We’re pleased to announce that Vanguard ESG U.S. Corporate Bond ETF (VCEB) is now available. This latest addition to our ESG (environmental, social, and governance) offerings was designed to complement our equity lineup of ETFs and mutual funds, satisfy evolving investor preferences, and enhance our low-cost approach. It’s time for Vanguard to get back to its roots. The venerable firm, … [Read more...]

Short-term noise is an investor’s worst enemy. As if it’s not hard enough to set an appropriate course, you have the constant barrage of information that can make you feel uneasy. Times are changing. That’s a fact. Take a look at the S&P 500 or Vanguard’s Index 500 or some other ETF. Today, seven stocks account for 26% of the index, while not one of them trades at less than 33x earnings. You have read here that the stock market has dropped by 33% three times already this century. Doesn’t it make sense that the chances of that happening again become more likely when only seven … [Read more...]