Our investment philosophy emphasizes goal-based investing, long-term focus, full diversification, passive investments, and cost and tax efficiency.
Goal-Based Investing
We recommend strategies that are driven directly by your investment goals, whether it is wealth preservation, retirement savings, or college savings. As your financial needs get closer, your portfolio slides gradually from aggressive to conservative to reduce uncertainty.
Long-Term Focus
We employ a strategic asset allocation policy and avoid short-term market bets that are typically counterproductive, both financially and emotionally. Tactical adjustments are only made based on market relationships that are fully supported by evidence.
Full Diversification
Our investment strategy employs a level of diversification that is beyond what is generally utilized. Our full diversification into non-US stocks, real estate, and commodities is backed by academic and industry research, and employed successfully by large institutional investors.
Passive Investments
Our recommended investments are passive products, such as index funds or ETFs. Extensive research has shown that active managers rarely beat the market on a consistent basis. Our use of passive investments avoids the risk of performing worse than the market.
Cost and Tax Efficiency
One of the easiest ways to increase returns is to reduce costs and taxes. When selecting funds, we consider management fees as well as taxes incurred by frequent trading. And we avoid unnecessary transactions to keep trading costs low and to delay capital gains taxes.