Here you will be able to find communications from the RIM team as well as helpful resources and articles.
Quarterly letter with Market update, Personal update, Business update, Personal improvement and book review.
There were two big issues last quarter that captured investors’ attention. The first was interest rates. The second issue that has rightfully held investors’ interest is geopolitics. Sentiment has moved around over the last several quarters. It now has shifted to convinced optimism. Very few people are expecting a recession now, and some have already begun their victory dance, complete with taunting the naysayers.
Stock market valuations have clearly been rising since early 1982. In fact, investors now pay over five times as much as in 1982 for a dollar of cyclically adjusted earnings, and 11% more than in 1929, when economist Irving Fisher declared, “stock prices have reached ‘what looks like a permanently high plateau.’” Indeed. Nearly a century later, have we finally entered a “permanently high plateau”? Are fat pills and algorithms able to do what online commerce and cat videos couldn’t? Readers must make up their own minds. The data hasn’t supported this yet, but investing is all about looking forward. As you do, I hope you look forward to my next article on what current valuations mean for future returns.
This book was a pretty easy read, though at times it felt like a rant and was redundant. On the positive side, he calls out that many investors are not being well served by their brokers or advisors. Many people, especially with very simple financial situations may be able to take care of their own investing needs. He rightly calls out so-called advisors who are actually sales people and who don’t work under the fiduciary standard, which requires working in their clients’ best interests. He sheds light on how hard it is to pick stocks or to time the market, and how much time and money is wasted in this endeavor.
