... can test investor resolve, sabotage otherwise solid plans, and just plain hurt. But experience and evidence are on the side of investors with a long-term outlook. Acting rashly is far more damaging to ...
... to shift your assets back to their intended, long-term allocations.
A Rebalancing Illustration Suppose you and your advisor have planned for your portfolio to be exposed to stocks and bonds in a 50/50 ...
... past your System 1 thinking into more deliberate decision-making for your long-term goals. (On the flip side, financial providers who are themselves fixated on picking hot stocks or timing the market on ...
... to discount the market's many glittering distractions and focus on their long-term goals.
Recency
Recency causes you to pay more attention to your latest experiences, and to downplay long-term factors. ...
... Loss Aversion, Mental Accounting and Outcome Bias.
Hindsight
Hindsight bias is the "I knew it all along" effect – the belief that our memory is correct when it is not. For example, say you expected ...
... to the herd mentality, cows have nothing on us humans, who instinctively recoil or rush headlong into excitement when we see others doing the same. Sometimes conformity is helpful, enabling us as a society ...
... Evidence-based investing informs us, the best time to sell a holding is when it's no longer serving your ideal total portfolio, as prescribed by your investment plans. What you paid is irrelevant to that ...
... risks that are expected to generate our greatest rewards. All the while, we rush into nearly every move, only to fret and regret them long after the deed is done.
Why do we have behavioral biases?
Most ...
... market risks. Either miscalculation can cause you to panic and sell out or sit out of the market, thus missing out on its long-term growth.
In contrast, those who stay invested when market risks are ...
...
What financial planning designations do members of the firm have?
How long have you and your associates been offering financial planning services?
How many hours ...
... investors try to beat the market through stock-picking and market-timing. By contrast, evidence-based investors participate in the market to earn expected long-term returns according to time-tested academic ...
A recent study by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave found that the cost of retirement exceeds $700,000 on average, easily surpassing the costs of buying a home or paying for college. While this number probably ...
... if the need for cash suddenly arises.
At Align, we understand that unexpected situations sometimes arise and adjustments may need to be made to your long-term plan. We work closely with you to help ...
... 2017, we encourage you to give some thought to how you can be a better investor in the coming year. As such, here are a few investing resolutions designed to help you better achieve long-term portfolio ...
... idea at first, there are more downsides to cashing out than you might think. A sounder course of action is to stick to your long-term plan and not let Election Day distractions disrupt a sound investment ...
... we urge you to tune out the noise and instead stick to your long-term strategy. Making decisions based on political leanings or emotional fervor can seriously threaten your financial well-being.
Consider ...
... stocks that you own for longer than a year are taxed at lower capital gains rates. Short-term equities, as well as taxable fixed income, are taxed at higher, ordinary-income tax rates. Municipal bonds, ...
... as high as 39.6%. By comparison, long-term gains and qualified dividends in your taxable account are taxed at a lower rate that tops out at 20%.
It's often best to leave Roth accounts for last. Since ...
... losses to neutralize gains in future years.
3. Long-term investing. When an investment is sold for a profit less than a year after it was purchased, investors are faced with short-term capital gains ...
The stock market hasn't been a happy place so far in 2016. But for long-term investors, the real risk right now is losing sight of the big picture and making counter-productive short-term decisions.
So ...
... over a 30-year period. The finding: After fees, just 0.6% of managers showed any real skill at consistently beating the market.
The good news is that with a stable, diversified, long-term portfolio, ...
... possible. Short-term gains—those resulting when an investment is held for a year or less—are taxed at a higher rate than long-term gains.
Minimizing the taxes on your investments may not sound as exciting ...
... long-term returns. Diversification helps manage the necessary risks involved.
Get Along, Little Market. Diversification can also create a smoother ride through bumpy markets, which helps you stay on ...
The stock market has taken investors on a rollercoaster ride over the past few weeks, jangling plenty of nerves in the process.
In times like these, looking at some historical perspective can go a long ...
... expenses.
Behavioral Bias #2: Recency
Your long-term plans are also at risk when you succumb to the tendency to give undue weight to recent information. In "What Drives Market Returns?" we learned ...
... fires up within the nether regions of your frontal lobe. Greed grabs you by the collar, convincing you that you had best act soon if you want to seize the day. "Buy!"
Along with such self-defeating ...
... premium returns over low-profitability companies.
The Momentum Factor: Stocks that have done well or poorly in the recent past tend to continue doing so for longer than random chance seems to explain. ...
... but also why they exist. That's important because it can help determine whether a factor is likely to persist long enough to help us in our long-term portfolio.
Why do some factors persist while others ...
In last month's blog, "Get Along, Little Market," we discussed the benefits of diversifying your investments to minimize avoidable risks, manage those that are unavoidable when we're seeking market gains, ...
... that diversification helps to minimize volatility along the way to your expected returns. Imagine several jagged, upward trending lines on a chart; they represent several kinds of holdings. Individually, ...
