What Is Your Investment Philosophy?

I believe in passive management.  Once we design a portfolio specific to an investor’s needs and risk tolerance, unless events require a redesign, there should be no need to change the asset allocation. To maintain this asset allocation, we use annual rebalancing.

I believe that the best vehicles for long-term wealth accumulation are no-load, low-cost, tax-efficient index mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs).   Owning individual stocks increases a portfolio’s risk with no guarantee of greater than market returns.   I do not believe in market timing.  The future of stock prices is never predictable.  The costs of active management and market timing are drags on an investor’s returns that are very difficult to overcome.

I am not an investment guru or fortuneteller.   I cannot guarantee the future return of your portfolio because the future is unknowable. (This seems pretty obvious, but the retail brokerage industry tries to convince you otherwise).   By studying the past we can get an excellent idea of the kind of portfolio that should allow you to reach your lifetime financial goals within your own risk tolerance.

I believe that managing downside risk is essential and that a portfolio should be designed with the lowest risk necessary to attain financial goals.