medianet

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Time to Rebalance Your Portfolio

5 Year Stock Price Chart for Vanguard Total Stock ETF (VTI)

The stock markets in the USA are hitting new records again. It means your stocks, ETFs, Equity Mutual Funds are probably at all time highs as well.  See the above graph of VTI - The Vanguard Total Stock ETF which covers virtually all publicly traded stocks in the USA.

You probably have a desired portfolio allocation for stocks, bonds, international stocks, cash, etc. Check your holdings and you will likely find you are over-weighted in stocks because of the market's performance.  I found I was 3% over on US stocks, and under weight on international stocks and bonds.

So now is a good time to rebalance your portfolio if your allocation is out of balance by more than a few percent. Sell some of those winning domestic equity holdings, buy bonds or international stocks or whatever you are underweight. This means "take some of your winnings off the table."

This technique of keeping a balanced portfolio is recommended by Warren Buffet, Vanguard, Fidelity, and most other respected investment authorities.

Disclaimer: this is not professional investment advice and should be used at your own risk. The author is not a licensed financial advisor. You should not believe everything on the Internet including this blog and should check multiple sources possibly including a professional financial advisor before making decisions.

Friday, April 12, 2019

It is Impossible to Drink Coffee at Starbucks

Another day, another rant.

Starbucks and their free wifi have made it impossible to drink a coffee at Starbucks.  You can certainly buy coffee and take it out, but finding a seat and table to actually drink it is nearly impossible these days.  Almost every seat in any Starbucks we visit is full of students, people holding business meetings, budding authors, job interviews, people tutoring students (very popular in Florida), and people just browsing the web.

Obviously their business model is built on take-out, as they are not making money on people sitting for hours, using their wifi, and nursing a small blonde roast coffee.