Tag Archives: accounting

Are Markets Efficient?

business, inflation, Uncategorized, writing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When investing your money you’ll hear many different forms of opinion. Experts like Dave Ramsey will tell you to invest in growth stock mutual funds, others will say that index funds are the way to go. Then there is a group of investors that says you can beat the market by buying “undervalued” stocks.

The question that arises is, is there such a thing as an undervalued stock, and if so, is there a reliable way to take advantage of this “market inefficiency”.

Your investment philosophy in stocks is largely dependent on your opinion on what’s called the Efficient Market Theory (EMT). This theory states that markets are fully efficient. In other words any given price in the markets reflects the cumulative “wisdom” of all investors actings logically on fundamental data regarding value.

Essentially the market, according to this theory, is always acting completely logically based on the current information. So at any given point the market isn’t overvalued or undervalued – it’s priced at the fair equilibrium price given the current information available.

Some practitioners and theorists have brought up concerns with the theory stating that it doesn’t accurately reflect the actual results we see in the real world. For example, in the tech “bubble” of 2000, were investors acting completely logically on the market’s information or was there inefficiency?

Ultimately you’ll have to make your own determination. At the moment there isn’t unanimous agreement by the community.

Does Active Management Have a Place in the Modern Investment Portfolio?

business, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As index funds have become more and more popular a rising question has been, does active management still make sense for the average investor? Answer is of course not simple enough for a yes or no answer. However there are a few pros and cons we can look at for the two options. First let’s look at the advantages of passive management:

1) Relative autonomy 

Time is often saved from having passive investments. While of course there is initial research that goes into selecting the underlying ETF’s or mutual funds, once set up your strategy you will have relatively low time costs going forward.

2) Lower expenses

With passive management comes low expenses. Over the long term expenses can eat into  a large portion of your returns so paying close attention to this is crucial.

3) Lower taxes

Active management usually means less trading and less trading means both less transaction costs and less capital gains tax. Both of these add up in the long term.

Now that we’ve covered a few of the pros of passive management let’s dive into some of the pros of the alternative…

1) Potential for greater returns

By definition a passive manager can’t meaningfully beat their respective benchmark. However with active management everything changes. There is also ways a chance for outperformance. Of course the flip side of this double-edged sword is that you can underperform, which is often the case.

2) Lower volatility

Depending on the management style you are able to experience lower volatility in your investments from active management.

So which should you choose? After everything is said and done the thing that matters the most is your returns relative to the corresponding benchmark index. For example if you’re comparing a large-cap active fund verses and S&P 500 index fund.

Once you’ve selected your funds for comparison you need to determine if a) your fund has outperformed the benchmark in the past enough to cover expenses and additional active costs and b) will the fund continue to perform this way or better in the future.

If you can answer yes for both of these questions you may have a great candidate for an active portion of your portfolio.

The last option you have available is to execute the active management your self. This is a whole different story that deserves it’s own separate discussion for a different post. For the time being focus on comparing returns both pasts and potential for the future.

3 Forces Standing Between You and Your Financial Goals

business, Force, inflation, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Time

Often all the things we want to accomplish aren’t feasibly achievable in a set period of time. When this is true, we have to make the often difficult decision of determining which path matches with our values. In other words, we probably can’t achieve every goal we have so we have to prioritize.

This is very true with short term goals like making it to your kid’s basketball game verses watching the football game live. But it can also be true with long term goals. For example I certainly would enjoy the process of being a masterful accountant who has both technical skills and people skills. However I have come to realize that I might never become the world’s greatest accountant if I have other goals more worthwhile (for example like becoming a great financial advisor).

Goals

You might think a strange thing to add to this list is goals. After all, aren’t goals things that empower us and keep us on track? Yes and no. In one sense goals are essential to producing the results we want in life. In another sense, goals by themselves, without effective plans to get there and way to streamline actions towards them, are meaningless.

As Warren Buffet and Bill Gates agreed in an interview: one of the greatest factors to success is focus. Putting all your energy on one task, both with your mind and body, is a powerful thing.

Having too many goals, I have found, can get in the way of this powerful focus. That’s why it’s so important to recognize the things that are worthwhile and the things that can wait.

Inflation

Lastly on this simple list of 3 is inflation. This is more of a technical obstacle than a mental one. However the force can be equally important. If you were to buy a house in a stable neighborhood today, do you think the same house would be worth more in 30 years? Yes, I would hope so. This fact that we can all bet on, the fact that prices will overall rise year after year, is called inflation.

Inflation is powerful because it covers both the consumption side (for example like purchasing gum) and the investment side like stocks or investment real estate. Inflation is such an important force that I will be covering a brief history and action steps around it tomorrow in my blog. Tune in!

Stocks vs Real Estate – Which is Better?

business, real estate, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nearly all of the world’s billionaires have created wealth through business ownership. And the way most of them owned businesses was through stocks. So stocks, by default, are the vehicle by which many of the world’s wealthy have gotten there. Does this mean stocks are always the best investment over others? Not necessarily.

Is the list of richest people duplicatable? In other words, is it possible for someone starting off with nothing today, to buy and own businesses that eventually make them billionaires? The answer is clearly yes.

However there are other methods, less versatile that can provide the same type of opportunity: real estate investing. I am talking specifically about rental real estate, real estate built for the purpose of providing cashflow.

So if I’m a young person, deeply interesting in investing and committing to becoming rich, which paths should I take? Well real estate and stocks are both broad categories that are broken more specifically into numerous other sub-categories. So let’s take a brief look at your stock and real estate options:

Stocks

Stocks, which are ownership certificates in little pieces of publicly traded companies, can be broken down into various groups depending on the size of the company. They can also be categorized based on the industry or other factors. There are two general ways to get involved with stocks: direct purchase of stocks (through a brokerage account of some kind) or the purchase of shares of a mutual fund (a “basket” of stocks that is managed by a group of investment managers).

Individual investment in stocks can be a fantastic way to build wealth if you meet the following requirements: 1) Able to control your emotions in favor of logic, 2) time commitment to researching and analyzing your choices and 3) patience.

The other stock option, mutual funds, is perhaps the least involved option. I recommend this path for most people who aren’t wanting to spend a lot of time on their investments. One thing to be aware of in this type of investment is both the type of mutual fund (large-cap vs small-cap) and the fees that the mutual fund charges.

Real Estate:

Real estate is a vast field with both commercial and residential properties to choose from. When considering an investment path you need to pick somewhere and stay consistent. Building your knowledge up in a specific area of real estate can go a long way in mitigating risk, which should always be a big concern.

The best way to create wealth with real estate is by buying rental properties. You can either buy single-family homes, multi-unit properties (2, 3 and 4 units) or commercial apartments (5+ units). You should only invest in real estate if you have both time, interest and are capable of networking and management.

Conclusion:

Stocks can be good for people who have less time and more analytical skills. Real estate also requires analytical skills, but you also have to have interest and time to make money. The best choice for you depends on these factors.