A few weeks back, I talked about the good-is-better-than-perfect principle. A close corollary is to approach financial decisions incrementally. What do I mean by that? An example is dollar cost averaging, whereby a sum of money is invested in regular increments rather than all at once. Does [...]
Intersections
Back in the 1950s, economists Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller developed a theory that, even today, is taught in virtually every finance class. To understand this theory, suppose you’re running a company and want to build a new factory. To raise money for this project, you generally have two [...]
The good and the perfect
Last week, The Wall Street Journal carried a seemingly innocuous article by Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University. Horstmeyer described an analysis he and his team had recently conducted. The question they sought to answer: Could investors achieve better results in their [...]
Gerd Gigerenzer
I’ve never been a fan of financial planning rules of thumb. To see why, consider a common shortcut for choosing an asset allocation: The allocation to bonds in a portfolio, according to this rule of thumb, should equal an investor’s age. For example, if an investor is 65 years old, then his [...]
The three landmines of personal finance
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert has this to say about making forecasts: “There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as ‘nutty methods.’ Or you can put well-researched [...]
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