The BAM Alliance From recent equity performance to risks facing investors in the current market environment, Chief Investment Officer Jared Kizer and Director of Investment Strategy Kevin Grogan share market insights on a range of topics and answer questions about our overall investment strategy in this BAM ALLIANCE client webcast.
Life insurance is one of the pillars of personal finance, deserving of consideration by every household. I’d even go so far as to say it’s vital for most. Yet, despite its nearly universal applicability, there remains a great deal of confusion, and even skepticism, regarding life insurance. Perhaps this is due to life insurance’s complexity,…
Eleven years ago, I needed a new bike. At the time, I rode a lot. I was in a big group of relatively competitive riders, and we’d often put hundreds of miles on our bikes each week. I agonized over what bike to buy, but I kept coming back to one made by a company…
I think we’ve been looking at Social Security retirement benefits all wrong. In the long-running debate about when to take Social Security — as early as age 62 or as late as age 70 — the focus has been on timing your claim to get the most money, in total, out of the social safety…
Investors have now been faced with a long period of very low yields on high-quality bonds. As a result, and as a consequence of the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy, many investors have chosen to pursue higher yields by taking credit risk. This has occurred despite historical evidence that only a very small default premium…
As the holidays conclude and the calendar turns into a new year, depression can become an all-too-real possibility. After all, the daylight hours are shorter, and what seems like the longest and coldest (at least in some places) stretch of winter is still ahead. It’s a common time of year for depression, which is frequently…
Over the years, I’ve noticed that moment when each of my children started caring about what other people think of them. One by one, I’ve watched as the opinions of others become a big deal in their own decision-making. As smart, mature adults, we have a term for that: peer pressure. You know, that dumb…
We just completed the second consecutive year where U.S. large-cap stocks outperformed most other asset classes, including U.S. small stocks, U.S. value stocks and international stocks. This development has led some investors to wonder whether diversification still works. We believe diversification should remain an essential part of a well-devised, long-term investment plan, and that investors…
I remember feeling repulsed when I first read that Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of its proprietary drug, Daraprim, by 5,000 percent. This increase caused the price of each pill to go from $13.50 to $750. At the time, I did some research on the disease that Daraprim is prescribed to…
Interest rates, which have sat at or near historical lows during the past seven years, have led many investors to seek additional yield in the form of credit risk. The recent trend, and its popularity, gives us an opportunity to determine if this risk historically has been rewarded by examining the credit risk premium in…
A few years ago, my wife and I considered buying a boat. We both grew up water-skiing on the lakes here in Utah, and some of my best memories involve being on the water. I was talking about this with my friend Eric, because he has a boat, and he introduced me to his “cost…
“Recency” can be described as the tendency to overweight recent events or trends and ignore the long-term evidence. It’s one of the more common and costly behavioral mistakes that individual investors can make, often leading them to buy high and sell low. Clearly, this represents a major problem, as such behavior is exactly opposite of…
I am not endorsing any political views, but I did note an observation made by Bernie Sanders in the recent Democratic presidential primary debate. He stated that Wall Street’s “business model is greed and fraud.” There’s a lot of data supporting that view. A history of unethical conduct The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compiled…
The best financial relationships occur when your wealth advisor is interested not just in investing your money, but in investing in your life. Manisha Thakor on helping clients achieve financial clarity, calm and confidence through the process of true wealth management. Financial Calm and Confidence from The BAM ALLIANCE on Vimeo.
Do your New Year’s resolutions for 2016 include crafting a workable budget that you’ll actually want to stick to? Are you stumped about how to make it happen? One answer is an approach that financial advisor Manisha Thakor, director of wealth strategies for women at Buckingham and The BAM Alliance, calls “joy-based budgeting.” First, estimate…