Category: Investments

Investing with an eye toward promoting social, political, or environmental concerns (or at least not supporting activities you feel are harmful) doesn’t mean you have to forgo pursuing a return on your money. Socially responsible investing may allow you to further both your own economic interests and a greater good, in whatever way you define…

When investing, particularly for long-term goals, there are two concepts you will likely hear about over and over again — diversification and asset allocation. Diversification helps limit exposure to loss in any one investment or one type of investment, while asset allocation provides a blueprint to help guide your investment decisions. Understanding how the two…

One of the longest-standing debates in investing is over the relative merits of active portfolio management versus passive management. With an actively managed portfolio, a manager tries to beat the performance of a given benchmark index by using his or her judgment in selecting individual securities and deciding when to buy and sell them. A…

When new tariff policies were announced in the spring of 2025, investors feared the breakout of a global trade war and a potential economic recession. This caused stocks and bonds to sell off and generally upset public financial markets.¹ In uncertain times such as these, some investors may strive to build more resilient portfolios by…

What is cryptocurrency?  In earlier times of human history, financial exchanges were accomplished through barter (“hey, Joe, I’ll give you one of my chickens for that really cool flint spearhead you made”). But barter doesn’t scale well, and as communities expanded, money developed as a necessary medium of exchange. Minted coins and eventually printed currency…

A successful investor strives to enhance gains and reduce losses. Though there can be no guarantee that any investment strategy will be successful and all investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal, here are six basic principles that may help you invest more successfully.  Long-term compounding can help your nest egg grow  It’s…

If you haven’t started investing towards a long-term goal because you’re worried about short-term market volatility, consider using a common investment strategy called dollar cost averaging. Dollar cost averaging takes some of the guesswork out of investing in the stock market. Instead of waiting to invest a single lump sum until you feel prices are…

With the wide variety of stocks in the market, figuring out which ones you want to invest in can be a challenging task. Many investors feel it’s useful to have a system for finding stocks that might be worth buying, deciding what price to pay, and identifying when a stock should be sold. Bull markets,…

Setting investment goals means defining your dreams for the future. When you’re setting goals, it’s best to be as specific as possible. For instance, you know you want to retire, but when? You know you want to send your child to college, but to an Ivy League school or to the local community college?  Writing…

Conventional wisdom says that what goes up, must come down. But even if you view market volatility as a normal occurrence, it can be tough to handle when it’s your money at stake.  Though there’s no foolproof way to handle the ups and downs of the stock market, the following common sense tips can help. …