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You are here: Home / 2014 / Archives for April 2014

Archives for April 2014

The High Cost of Fees

April 21, 2014 By Lowell Herr

High fees are to be avoided, particularly management fees.  Readers of ITA Wealth Management are well aware of my propensity to keep fees to a minimum and that is why I place so much emphasis on using commission free ETFs.  While most of you

Filed Under: Retirement Planning Tagged With: Retirement Planning

Bach’s St. John Passion

April 20, 2014 By Lowell Herr

  While Bach is well known for his St. Matthew Passion music, in some ways I prefer his St. John Passion compositions so here is my recommendation for the week.  I usually include a review from Amazon as most reviewers have a better knowledge of music than I do.

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Music

Seven Last Words of Christ: Theodore Dubois

April 18, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Of the two recordings I have of “The Seven Last Words of Christ,” one by Dubois and one by Haydn, the composition by Dubois is by far my favorite.  The purity of “Christ We Do All Adore Thee” is well worth the price of this CD.  The accompaniment

Filed Under: Music Tagged With: Classical Music

Charles Ellis: Loser’s Game of Stock Picking

April 16, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Let’s revisit Charles D. Ellis’ 1995 paper, “The Loser’s Game,” where he describes his Break-Even Return (BER) equation. Here is a review of this equation. BER = [(Turnover percentage x Transaction Cost) + Management Fee + Target Return]/Market Return It is quite easy to set up this equation in an Excel spreadsheet and play around […]

Filed Under: Critical Material

ITARR: How To Reduce Losses

April 15, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Zion National Park On page 167 of Mebane T. Faber and Eric W. Richardson’s book, “The Ivy Portfolio: How to Invest Like the Top Endowments and Avoid Bear Markets” we read, “Our research has shown that returns are lower and volatility is higher when asset classes are below

Filed Under: Risk Management Tagged With: Risk Management

Portfolio Requirements: Basic Ideas For Construction

April 14, 2014 By Lowell Herr

Basic portfolio construction requires that long-term goals include diversification, a risk reduction model, and equity orientation.  Here is how I outline the thinking process when putting together a portfolio of securities. Think diversification through asset allocation.  Each asset class included in the Strategic

Filed Under: Beginning Investors, Critical Material Tagged With: Beginning Ideas, Portfolio Construction

William Bernstein’s Latest E-Book: Getting Rich Slowly

April 7, 2014 By Lowell Herr

William Bernstein’s latest e-Book, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly, is all about regularly investing equal amounts of money using three mutual funds.  Those funds are:  U.S. Total Stock Market, International Total Stock Market, and U.S. Bond Market.  Save 15% of

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Books

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