Investing

Enter to Win 3 Great Investing Books by Richard A. Ferri, CFA

January 16, 2008

I’m excited to announce the first book giveaway here at The Dough Roller. Three lucky winners will each win copies of three books written by Richard A. Ferri, CFA. Two of the books I’ve written about and are both recommendations in my Amazon aStore–All About Asset Allocation and All About Index Funds. These are two [...]

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My Annual Investment Portfolio Tune-up: Asset Location and Donor Advised Funds

January 3, 2008

Asset Location involves allocating mutual fund investments across taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free accounts in a manner that minimizes tax liability. If all of your investments are in the same type of account, a traditional 401(k) for example, then asset location is not an issue. If you also have investments in a taxable account, however, then [...]

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My Annual Investment Portfolio Tune-up: Did I Beat the S&P 500 in 2007?

December 28, 2007

At the end of each year I calculate the performance of my investments and compare it to the S&P 500. Why? Curiosity more than anything. Some years I beat it, some years I don’t. Over the past five years, I’ve trounced the S&P 500. But I’ve been investing long enough to know that beating the [...]

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My Annual Investment Portfolio Tune-up: Rebalancing

December 27, 2007

Yesterday we looked at building an asset allocation plan. We walked through my asset allocation plan as a guide, but you’ll obviously need to make investing decisions that are best suited for your situation. Today, I’m going to layout all of my investments, compare them to my asset allocation plan, and then discuss any rebalancing [...]

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Building a Sound Asset Allocation Plan

December 26, 2007

Year end is a perfect time to give your retirement and other investments an annual tune-up. Each year at this time I evaluate my 401(k), rollover IRA and taxable investment accounts to see if I should make any changes to my asset allocation plan for the next year. Generally, I look at five things: (1) [...]

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A Cautionary Tale: The importance of asset location when ‘bad’ investors head for the exits

December 24, 2007

Image credit: OhioProgressiveAsset location involves dividing investments between taxable and tax deferred accounts in the most tax efficient manner. As a general rule, mutual funds that generate a lot of dividends or capital gains should be placed in 401(k), IRA or other retirement accounts. Those investments that do not generate a lot of dividends or [...]

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Frontier Markets: To boldly go where few investors have gone before!

December 20, 2007

Frontier markets and the mutual funds and ETFs that invest in them are quickly becoming a separate and distinct asset class from emerging markets. If you’ve never heard of frontier markets, you’re not alone. They’ve only recently become the hot new investment. The WSJ described them as “next year’s darlings in emerging-market investing.” Recent developments [...]

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Do low cost mutual funds outperform high cost mutual funds?

December 18, 2007

A reader recently asked whether the expense ratio of a mutual fund or the fund’s performance was the most important factor when selecting an investment. It’s an important question. What’s the point in investing in a low cost fund if it underperforms higher cost funds? Mutual funds report their performance net of expenses. So if [...]

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Why do mutual funds close to new investors (and 3 funds that have reopened)?

December 17, 2007

Image credit: MobilFunk7The Wall Street Journal reported this weekend that three mutual funds previously closed to new investors are reopening to accept new money. I’ll share the three funds with you, but first I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about why mutual funds would ever close to new investors.   The [...]

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