investing

Over the last year or so, I've read 20-30 books on investing, including short handbooks like The Index Card and somewhat more technical volumes like Jack Bogle's Common Sense on Mutual Funds. The thing virtually every book I've read on investing has in common is a recommendation that part of a portfolio be invested in bonds, and it took me a … [Read more...] about What do you think you are doing when you diversify investments?

I've heard a lot of talk lately about the issue of investors and investment advisors who claim to be investing "passively" but are really just actively managing low-cost index funds. One reason this issue is interesting is that most research into the superiority of index investing seems to ignore it completely. For example, when Jack Bogle says the … [Read more...] about The many flavors of investing activity

A current fad in the world of personal finance and investing is so-called "tax-loss harvesting." If you're not familiar with the concept, tax-loss harvesting refers to the perfectly true observation that up to $3,000 in capital losses can be deducted from ordinary income each year, and it's one of the biggest selling points of "robo advisors," the automated investing … [Read more...] about You can pay someone to harvest capital losses for you, but why would you?