“The mutual fund industry is not an investment management industry. It’s a marketing industry.” – David Swensen (fmr. CIO of Yale & asset allocation pioneer) Why hasn’t active management – and we mean specifically in mutual funds – worked for...
In recent years, there’s been a considerable debate about which is better, active or passive investing. Most people narrowly define them as the following: Active: Someone, usually a mutual fund manager, picks and chooses investments for you, versus Passive: You just...
Congratulations! You’ve finally reached the point where you earn a few more dollars than you spend each month.What should you do with that extra cash? Where should it go? Those are the questions we’ll help answer. Why does it matter where you save? You work hard for...
For this post, we’re going to discuss Capital Gains (which occur when selling an asset that’s gone up in value). I know…a tax related topic…so exciting, right? Specifically, we’ll discuss how we set budgets (not to go over) for capital gains taxes and how...
The Value of Financial Planning Congratulations on taking the first step toward securing your financial future! If you’re starting to create a financial plan, you’re already ahead of the curve. Did you know that only one in every three adults in their 50s makes it as...
Our own Chris Johnson recently presented a “Taxes in Retirement” seminar at the Middleton Library. We thought sharing a few of the common questions would be helpful. How do I decide whether to save to my traditional or Roth 401k? It depends! Our tax system is...
Going to college is exciting! You get to live on your own for the first time, meet new friends, and explore new interests. But, for many, college is also a source of anxiety. Aside from having to develop a new routine in a new area, many students worry about how to...
One of the questions we’re commonly asked is how we pick stocks that end up in client portfolios. It’s a fun and creative process, of which we’ll share some of our secret sauce in this post. Our investment philosophy at JSA is to identify and own “excellence” and...
A common question we hear from clients is, “I need to withdraw cash from my portfolio. When should we sell investments to raise that cash?” As we’ve discussed in other posts, timing the market is very difficult. You might get it right a time or two, but outside of...
Considering how strong the housing market has been recently, you may think this seems a strange question. We’ve all probably heard stories of sellers receiving multiple offers or offers without contingencies. For better or worse, real estate is more expensive almost...