Maximizing returns with smart passive investing

Today on The Rational Reminder Podcast, we talk about the relationship between asset allocation and outcome, the ins and outs of reverse mortgages, and finally, life insurance (or lack thereof) in Canada. However, we begin by sharing some interesting points covered in a recent Barry Ritholtz interview with Eugene Fama and David Booth for his Masters in Business show.

Okay, today, I’m taking on a subject I’ve been dancing around for a while. This is one two-step I’m tired of! So let me tell it to you straight: Most of the financial media is out to get you. Their goal is to lure you into staying tuned to their channel, website, or whatever … all day, every day. And they know just how to do it. They bait their trap with an endless stream of BREAKING NEWS.

Today we welcome Dave Nadig onto the show, who joins us off the back of a brilliant presentation he gave at the Wealth Stack conference last month in Scottsdale. Dave is the founder of etf.com and has had key positions at FactSet, Barclays Global Investors, and Cerulli previously.

It may be bad memories from last October coming to the surface, but I’ve been sensing more nervousness about the stock market in recent weeks. You’ll recall the markets went through a bad patch around this time in 2018, with the S&P/TSX Composite down 6.3% in October and another 5.4% in December. South of the border, the S&P 500 plunged 6.8% in October and 9% in December.

On today’s episode, we cover a variety of topics, such as some tips for DIY investors, highlights from a conference Cameron recently attended, home country investment bias and whether it’s possible to have too much money in your RRSP.

Today we are joined by Wesley Gray who is the CEO of Alpha Architect, a firm in the US that specializes in concentrated factor strategies. Having completed his MBA and PhD at the University of Chicago – the Harvard of the finance world – Wes is an authoritative voice when it comes to quantitative research and factor investing.

Michael Burry’s words reported in a Bloomberg article caused a good deal of commotion and may even have shaken some investors’ confidence in passive funds. In my opinion, the article delivers three negative messages about index funds without offering the slightest proof. Let’s take a closer look.

Along with reading, writing, and arithmetic, you’d think personal financial literacy would be just as core to our kids’ education. Instead, the subject rarely makes its way into the standard curriculum of grade schools or high schools. I’ve even seen postsecondary business programs pass it by.

Have you ever heard of the SPIVA® Scorecard? Published by the S&P Dow Jones Indices, it’s a report comparing the performance of active vs. index investing. As today’s No Dumb Question, I’ll take a closer look at this important report, so you can see why I want to rename it the “I Told You So” scorecard!

The growth of passive investing shows no signs of letting up and neither do the warnings about it from people who earn their living actively managing investments.