Risk is about understanding your own greed, fear and pride.
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About David John Marotta
David John Marotta+ is the Founder and President of Marotta Wealth Management, Inc. He played for the State Department chess team at age 11, graduated from Stanford, taught Computer and Information Science, and still loves math and strategy games. Favorite number: e (2.7182818...)
Invest Even When Afraid
You can’t invest for the future in the future. Don’t let your fear of the future ruin your future.
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Generational Financial Planning Within The Kiddie Tax Limits
Families that consider generational financial planning techniques can reduce the burden of taxes on the family as a whole.
Read More...Morgan Stanley Is A Terrible Choice
I normally try to refrain from “bashing the competition,” but in this case, the competition’s practices are, at least to me, a moral issue.
Read More...How much do you need to save this month?
Find out today how much you should be saving and investing this month! If you think a $1 million dollar portfolio is overkill, you haven’t really run the numbers.
Read More...An Asset Allocation For Your Health Savings Account
You are unlikely to need funds for any long-term care episode until about age 85. Given the long time horizon, we suggest investing your HSA for appreciation.
Read More...Marotta’s 2017 TD Ameritrade Gone-Fishing Portfolio Calculator
This portfolio uses all TD Ameritrade no-transaction fee exchange-traded funds with the exception of Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE).
Read More...Mailbag: How Do I Replenish A Bond Laddering Strategy?
When you use a bond laddering strategy with funds, rebalancing to your asset allocation naturally buys and sells bond funds as appropriate.
Read More...Radio Interview: Health Savings Accounts
David John Marotta was interviewed on radio’s The Schilling Show discussing Health Savings Accounts and the recent Healthcare bill.
Read More...Not All Financial Advising Firms Rebalance Client Portfolios
You would think that rebalancing a client’s portfolio would be standard in the industry. Unfortunately, it is not.
Read More...Five Things You Can Control: Taxes
A dollar saved on taxes is worth more than an extra dollar of income because the extra dollar of income is in itself taxable.
Read More...Asset Location Can Significantly Boost After-Tax Returns
Exact asset location depends on the percentage of a portfolio held in each of the three types of accounts as well as the percentage of the portfolio which is to be allocated to each selected sector. But the boost in after-tax returns is well worth the effort.
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Five Things You Can Control: Goals-Based Asset Allocation
An advisor’s job is to recommend the optimum asset allocation regardless of how the client might answer a survey about risk tolerance.
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Five Things You Can Control: Spending Discipline
“Develop spending discipline. People too often forget that the real enemy of investment is consumption.”
Read More...How to Deduct U.S. Debt Obligations on State Tax Returns
Dividends and interest received from U.S debt obligations can be deducted on many state tax returns.
Read More...Radio: What Does “Trickle-Down Economics” Mean to Liberals and Conservatives?
David John Marotta was interviewed on the Schilling Show discussing trickle-down economics and taxes.
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Invest Your Health Savings Account For Appreciation
HSAs have so many advantages over traditional IRAs that you should continue funding your HSA as long as possible and build as large an HSA investment balance as you can.
Read More...Radio: What’s the Difference Between Obstruction and Resistance?
David John Marotta was interviewed on the radio 1070′s Schilling Show discussing the difference between obstruction and resistance.
Read More...Commission-Based Firms Admit They Don’t Provide Advice
Commission-based firms want either to be exempt from the Fiduciary standard or else given the title anyway.
Read More...Are Democrats Or Republicans Better For The Stock Market?
Politics matters less to our financial success than the ordinary decisions we face every day.
Read More...Marotta’s 2017 Gone-Fishing Portfolios
A gone fishing portfolio is a portfolio of just a few stocks which should weather the ups and downs of the market fairly well while only rebalancing twice a year. Here are three hand-crafted gone-fishing portfolios for 2017.
Read More...Marotta’s 2017 Gone-Fishing Portfolio Calculator
A gone-fishing portfolio has a limited number of investments with a balanced asset allocation. This year I limited myself to 13 investment vehicles with two changes from 2016′s calculator.
Read More...Marotta’s 2017 Vanguard Gone-Fishing Portfolio Calculator
A gone-fishing portfolio has a limited number of investments with a balanced asset allocation. This portfolio uses all Vanguard mutual funds.
Read More...Marotta’s 2017 Schwab Gone-Fishing Portfolio Calculator
A gone-fishing portfolio has a limited number of investments with a balanced asset allocation. This portfolio uses all Schwab no-transaction fee exchange traded funds.
Read More...US Large-Cap Exchange-Traded Fund Choices
In anticipation of adjusting our yearly gone-fishing portfolios, I reviewed the performance of five US large-cap Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs).
Read More...Bond Investing In 2016
Bonds had positive returns for the year despite returns peaking at the end of July and falling for the rest of the year.
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To What Benchmark Should I Compare My 2016 Returns?
Investors always want to compare the return of their portfolio against some benchmark index. We suggest not using the S&P 500 for that purpose.
Read More...Radio: The Politics of Kindness
David John Marotta was interviewed recently on the Schilling Show discussing the politics of kindness and the difference between intentions and outcomes.
Read More...2016 In Review
2016 was a good year for stocks in general with a number of noteworthy details. Resource stocks performed the best despite being the worst-performing asset class in 2015.
Read More...Freedom Investing and Emerging Markets in 2016
In 2016, the average return of the best investment products of the Freedom Six outperformed the Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF by 6.75%.
Read More...US Stock Investing in 2016
The S&P 500 had another good year, ending up 11.96%. The S&P 500, however, only represents half of the US Stock asset class, and Small- and Mid-Cap stocks performed even better.
Read More...Mailbag: What Do You Think About The Elliott Wave Principle?
It is difficult in investing theory to determine which narratives have the appropriate underlying evidence to support them and which narratives are not worth following. Often it is necessary to be both a mathematician and a skeptic to filter out what is even worth considering.
Read More...Your Advisor’s Sports Car Personality Is Hurting Your Returns
What does the car your advisor drives tell you about their investment and budgeting services?
Read More...Benjamin Graham on Individual Stock Analysis
“I am no longer an advocate of elaborate techniques of security analysis in order to find superior value opportunities.”
Read More...One Example Of What Is Wrong With Commission Based Investment Advice
There is a large difference between the motives and incentives of the sales person and those of the service person.
Read More...Using Factor Investing To Boost Country Specific Returns
The rough idea is that the stock price of companies that are profitable are more likely to appreciate than companies which are not profitable.
Read More...Radio: Why Corporate Tax Rates Should Be Lowered
David John Marotta was interviewed on radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show discussing corporate tax rates, and why they should be lowered.
Read More...Investing Mistake: Confusing A Promising Company With A Good Investment
A good narrative describes what happened in the past. And even though past earnings may have something to do with current share prices, they don’t have anything to do with future share prices.
Read More...There’s Still Time for Charitable Giving
Instead of giving cash, there are two ways you may be able to give so more of your money goes to charity instead of the IRS.
Read More...Factor Investing: Small and Value Factors
Factor investing “tweaks the idea of asset allocation and diversification by seeking out types of securities that have been shown, by decades of academic research, to offer positive return premiums over time.”
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