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Portfolio Strategy

The Significance of Fund Expense Ratios

The median expense ratios for all U.S. equity and bond funds have been declining steadily since the inception of (and growing popularity of) index funds.  According to analysis provided by ICI, median expense ratios have continually trended lower since 2000 (see Chart 1). The median expense ratios for index bond funds and index equity funds are 0.11% and 0.12% respectively.  Interestingly, bond index funds have expense ratios that are still 50 basis points below the expense ratio for actively managed bond funds.  Stock index funds have expense ratios 75 basis Read More »The Significance of Fund Expense Ratios

Common Mistakes in Asset Management

Understanding the basics of asset management is a necessity to building personal wealth. Individual investors can make irrational and costly decisions that otherwise could have been avoided.  Too often, people are able to prudently save excess cash to invest, but having no experience or interest in making an educated decision, they end up making foolish mistakes.  Below is a list of the most common mistakes:

  1.  Holding too much cash.

The first mistake is remaining too risk averse and never building a portfolio at all.  While it is strongly recommended to create an emergency fund in addition to having liquidity available for expenditures, at some point you need to put your excess cash to work and begin asset management.  Prudent budgeting should help you determine how much to hold in reserve and when to look into assets with higher rates of return.Read More »Common Mistakes in Asset Management