Do You Need a Financial Advisor?

“It’s the best check my wife writes every quarter.” That’s what Professor Ken French says when asked why someone like him would need a financial advisor. French is the head of investment policy and a member of the board of directors for Dimensional Fund Advisors. He is also the Roth Family Distinguished Professor of Finance at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth […]

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Why Should You Diversify Internationally?

Given how poorly international markets have performed relative to U.S. markets during the last 6 years, some investors may be wondering about the benefits of investing internationally.  The simple answer is that different countries perform well at different times, and it reduces your risk and increases your long term returns when you’re broadly diversified across all of the world markets. While it’s very tempting to look […]

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2016: Ten Predictions to Count On

The New Year is a customary time to speculate. In a digital age, when past forecasts are available online, market and media professionals find it harder to hide their blushes when their financial predictions go awry. But there are ways around that. The ignominy that goes with making bold forecasts was highlighted in a recent newspaper article, which listed many […]

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Client Letter – Q4 2015

During the past year, the best performing asset classes were international small stocks and REITs (real estate). US stock returns ranged from -8% to 2%. Emerging markets lost about 16%! The following chart shows the 3-month, 1-year, and 3-year performance of many DFA funds (representing different asset classes) compared to the S&P 500 Index:Market Returns for the period ending December 31, […]

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Quarterly Market Review – Q4 2015

For an in-depth look at the world capital market performance and a timeline of events during the past quarter, here is our Quarterly Market Review: About Christopher Jones Christopher Jones is the Founder and President of Sparrow Wealth Management, a fee-only financial planning and investment management firm. Before entering the investment field, Chris was a management consultant for Deloitte Monitor. […]

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Which Hat Are You Wearing?

Most of us have multiple roles – as business owners, professionals, workers, consumers, citizens, students, parents and investors. So our views of the world can differ according to whatever hat we’re wearing at any one time. This complexity of people and their range of motivations, depending on their circumstances, highlight the inadequacy of cookie-cutter or automated investment solutions. For instance, […]

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Unhealthy Attachments

Have you ever made yourself suffer through a bad movie because, having paid for the ticket, you felt you had to get your money’s worth? Some people treat investment the same way. Behavioral economists have a name for this tendency of people and organizations to stick with a losing strategy purely on the basis that they have put so much […]

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Quarterly Market Review – Q3 2015

For an in-depth look at the world capital market performance and a timeline of events during the past quarter, here is our Quarterly Market Review: About Christopher Jones Christopher Jones is the Founder and President of Sparrow Wealth Management, a fee-only financial planning and investment management firm. Before entering the investment field, Chris was a management consultant for Deloitte Monitor. […]

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Client Letter – Q3 2015

Welcome to your second online quarterly letter! For emphasis, I am going to repeat the first paragraph from our previous quarterly letter, where we announced our new reporting and billing process:  “Your quarterly reports and bills can now be found in the Orion folder in your eMoney Vault.  We have also moved your documents from Sharefile to eMoney. Your new and improved […]

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