I asked him what would happen to his family if he died or became disabled. He told me they would be "in dire straits." I inquired about insurance. He had none.
Over 17 million investors are paying too much for perks and services they don't need, or they could oftentimes be receiving them more cheaply elsewhere.
What does Olen conclude we should do? "We need to talk about our money." Not our personal financial situations, mind you, but our collective money. Whatever that means.
If you're among the 17 million investors using accounts at the popular online brokers Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and E-trade, you are collectively throwing away over $1.8 billion a year in unnecessary fees, according to a recent NerdWallet study.
Your ultimate goal is good performance with low risk at the end of the day. Some ETFs might be really inexpensive but who cares if the performance stinks or if they invest in very risky markets?
It would be difficult to find an industry as ethically bankrupt as those involved in "managing" your investments. The harm these "advisers" have done to the retirement aspirations of hardworking Americans is incalculable.
When commodities brokerage firm MF Global collapsed last October, losing $1.6 billion in customer funds in the process, Christopher Dickerson was sure...
I often wonder why so many investors ignore the overwhelming data indicating that capturing market returns in a globally diversified portfolio of low management fee index funds in a suitable asset allocation is likely to outperform stock picking, manager picking and market timing.
Starting your own business is a noble -- not to mention exciting, rewarding and often crazy -- undertaking. The experience is an adventure, to say the...
The next thundering herd on Wall Street may be the ranks of low-cost portfolio managers such as MarketRiders and Folio Investing, which cater to self-...
I am often accused by brokers of being too hard on them. They say I cherry pick bad portfolios and there are many "hard working, honest brokers" who do the right thing for their clients. I used to believe it. I no longer do.
Don't rely on predictions by anyone about the direction of the markets or what to buy or sell in 2011. No one can predict random events. If your broker couldn't call the worst crash in 50 years, why do you believe his predictive skills have improved?
A new provision of New York State Real Property Law will significantly change the way brokers selling co-ops and condos in New York disclose their agency relationships with their clients.
Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, a federal bailout watchdog, and a likely nominee to head the new Consumer Financial Prot...
UPDATE 2: So-- was Jenny fake? Afraid so. In a followup post on theChive.com, "Jenny" revealed that she was an LA-based actress named Elyse Porterfiel...
I should have known it was too good to be true. A few months ago I was optimistic that regulatory reform would include an investor protection known as the "fiduciary duty" standard.