Getting Started
Lump sum or drip feed, and what the evidence says
Investing all at once has usually beaten spreading it out. Doing so is also harder, and that matters.
The Investment Habit — The boring parts, done for thirty years
Getting Started
The decisions that only need making once
Most of investing is a handful of choices made at the start and then left alone. The rest is maintenance.
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Funds & Trackers
Reading a fund fact sheet without being sold to
A fact sheet is a regulated document and a marketing one at the same time. The useful parts are rarely the largest.
Funds & Trackers
Diversification is not the number of funds you own
Three funds tracking the same market are one investment held three times, at three sets of charges.
Costs
The percentage that eats a third of your outcome
Charges compound against you exactly as returns compound for you, and unlike returns they are certain.
Behaviour
Selling in a fall is the most expensive thing investors do
The gap between fund returns and investor returns is well documented, and it is almost entirely behavioural.
Behaviour
Chasing last year's best fund is a reliable way to lag
Performance tables are backward-looking, and buying the top of one has a poor record.
Getting Started
All getting started →Getting Started
The decisions that only need making once
Most of investing is a handful of choices made at the start and then left alone. The rest is maintenance.
Getting Started
Lump sum or drip feed, and what the evidence says
Investing all at once has usually beaten spreading it out. Doing so is also harder, and that matters.
Getting Started
The annual review that takes twenty minutes
A long-term portfolio needs maintenance, not management. Here is the whole list.
Funds & Trackers
All funds & trackers →Funds & Trackers
Reading a fund fact sheet without being sold to
A fact sheet is a regulated document and a marketing one at the same time. The useful parts are rarely the largest.
Funds & Trackers
Diversification is not the number of funds you own
Three funds tracking the same market are one investment held three times, at three sets of charges.
Funds & Trackers
Fund choice absorbs the effort that changes the least
Investors spend weeks selecting between broadly similar funds and minutes deciding how much to contribute. The attention is…
Costs
All costs →Costs
The percentage that eats a third of your outcome
Charges compound against you exactly as returns compound for you, and unlike returns they are certain.
Costs
Costs are invisible by design, and invisible costs are never resisted
Investment charges are deducted rather than billed. Nothing leaves your account, so nothing triggers the part of you that notices…
Costs
Why a phone contract gets more scrutiny than a platform fee
People will spend an evening saving a small monthly amount on a subscription and years paying a larger one on an account they never…
Behaviour
All behaviour →Behaviour
Selling in a fall is the most expensive thing investors do
The gap between fund returns and investor returns is well documented, and it is almost entirely behavioural.
Behaviour
Chasing last year's best fund is a reliable way to lag
Performance tables are backward-looking, and buying the top of one has a poor record.
Behaviour
Why a loss feels bigger than the same-sized gain
The asymmetry between losing and gaining is the single most useful thing to understand about your own investing, and it explains…
Risk & Allocation
All risk & allocation →
Risk & Allocation
Time horizon does more work than risk tolerance
How you feel about volatility matters. When you need the money matters more.
Risk & Allocation
What a bond allocation is actually for
Bonds are held to change how a portfolio behaves in a bad year, not to maximise return.
Risk & Allocation
Risk tolerance is discovered, not declared
What you say about risk is a prediction. What you did in the last fall is evidence. Only one of them is worth much.
Drawing an Income
All drawing an income →
Drawing an Income
Sequence risk is the retirement problem nobody plans for
Two portfolios with identical average returns can produce very different outcomes depending on when the bad years arrive.
Drawing an Income
Dividends are not free money
A dividend reduces the value of the holding by roughly the amount paid. Treating it as income separate from capital leads to bad…
Drawing an Income
Spending a portfolio is harder than building one
Decades of practice at saving produce exactly the wrong instincts for the day you are supposed to start spending.