Posts by ssolares

Have you heard the breaking news story about the dog that bit a man? Of course not. That’s not news. A dog biting someone is fairly routine. What about the news story about the man biting a dog? Maybe that was newsworthy about 20 years ago, but even that is blasé. To make news now,…

Have you heard of the caveman who was analytical, measured in his approach, and focused on long-term goals rather than short-term dangers? No? Yeah, me neither. That dude didn’t live to be 12 years old. He’s not a caveman, he’s a cave boy. All those wonderful personality characteristics would serve that cave boy today as…

Okay, so you were so moved by the last lesson that you are sure you will not be successful timing the market and you’re sure there isn’t some investment expert or formula that can time the market either. Does this mean you are doomed as an investor? Let’s look at some real world data. This…

Would you like to become a millionaire? Well, then this is the lesson for you. I’m going to show you how you can time the market to quickly and easily become a millionaire. First things first. What does it mean to time the market? Okay, take out a stopwatch and – no, that would be…

What’s a professional investment manager and a huge meathead at the gym have in common? No pain, no gain! The buffed out beefcake wears this message on his muscle shirt, and the investment guy has this message in his brochure. No pain, no gain! In essence, if you want to do well, there is going…

This is a true story. It’s time to test your knowledge on the importance of asset allocation! A new client came to me because she wanted to do some retirement planning. She already had an investment advisor, but she wanted me to review her portfolio. In less than 30 seconds, I determined several things that…

This lesson will get me in trouble… We’ve spent several lessons on asset classes and asset allocation, but I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret in the financial world that no one likes to admit to or talk about. Asset allocation, the process of choosing which asset classes and the amount…

The Fundamentals of Investing Asset allocation. The two words you’ll hear on Wall Street more than “big” and “bonuses.” As an investor, asset allocation is one of those things you’ll want to know something about. The good news is that you already know a lot about it! What is an asset class? Well, you may…

In the last lesson, you learned about the difference between raw and undeveloped real estate compared to developed real estate. As a reminder, undeveloped real estate means it’s just land. No one has built anything on it yet. Developed means there is something there. Maybe a house, an apartment building, or a parking lot. Something.…

How to lend money to a deadbeat friend Let’s say you have a couple of friends and they each want to borrow money from you. One of them has a great job, and the other always seems to have some kind of issue – he’s always broke, getting fired, and sleeping on friends’ couches because…