This week we have been looking at one of the fastest growing companies in asset management – Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). Our Quote of the Week looked at the CEO’s key principal for successful investing, our Chart of the Week looked at DFA’s outperformance. Today we look and see how they do it. [continue reading…]

The concept of owning rental property looks great on the surface. Borrow money to buy a home (or condo, or townhouse), rent out that property to someone else, and have them effectively pay your mortgage while you build up equity in the property and it (hopefully) appreciates in price.

Simple right?

Unfortunately as many rental property owners will tell you, there can be a fair amount of headaches in the process. Do you do all the work and maintenance, answer the 2 a.m. phone calls and market the property yourself? Or do you give up 10-15% of your rental income to have a property management company do the hard work?

Then there is the potential risks. There is a huge potential hidden liability in owning a rental house. When the roof needs work, do you have $5,000 ready to fix it? When the HVAC goes out, can you fork over another $5,000? The number of big ticket items that can break in a house is a bit scary.

And with the median home price at about $204,000, investing in rental property without taking out a mortgage is out of reach for most individual investors.

But Wall Street has made a much easier, and much less scary way of investing in rental properties. Today we look at one such exchange traded fund: iShares Residential Real Estate ETF – Ticker: REZ. – Then we show you a new, even better way to investing in rental property with Motif Investing. [continue reading…]

Long time readers know my usual thought on choosing a stock broker – it hardly matters.

Most are almost all the same.

I typically recommend something along the lines of Vanguard or Fidelity, because of the access to commission free, low cost ETFs that those brokers provide.
I have been mostly invested with Vanguard for a few reasons: They provide a ton of lost cost mutual funds and ETFs that account holders can buy commission free, which makes small monthly investment feasible without commission taking huge chunks out. Vanguard also offers dividend reinvestment and partial share ownership for individual stocks and ETFs. Vanguard is still an excellent broker – and I will certainly continue to use them, But…

There is a new player in town which is a game changer for investors, whether you are a stock picker OR pure indexer.

And what’s best? New investors can take advantage of a special offer – up to $150 for those who create a new account today. Offer details are at the bottom of this post!

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There is new data released from S&P Dow Jones on active vs. passive fund management performance and the results are clear: What exactly are you paying for again? [continue reading…]

The price war between ETF providers continues, and the winners are individual investors. Charles Schwab has once again reduced the expense ratios on several of its already low cost ETFs. Here we look at several of Charles Schwab’s “core” ETF offerings and see if they are worthy to replace your current ETF investments. [continue reading…]

Emerging market stocks are taking a beating, with many trading near their lowest levels in 2 years. Here are a few emerging market ETFs for investors looking to get in on the action (And all may be commission free depending on your broker!). [continue reading…]

The latest sign that the 2008 financial crisis is still fresh in investor’s minds? The overwhelming popularity of “low volatility” ETFs with investors today. These funds claim to offer the returns of stock index funds, with the protection of a low volatility strategy. Do they have a place in your portfolio? [continue reading…]