While I am satisfied with my current investments and have not made any significant changes in several years I do occasionally evaluate alternatives.  I recently read a Morningstar article titled “Top-Performing Stock ETFs of the Quarter”.  Most had higher expenses than I would be comfortable with.  But several were low-cost, including Invesco S&P 500 Momentum ETF SPMO at 0.13% expense.  This ETF tracks the S&P 500 Momentum Index.  This got me looking into what “momentum” investing was all about. 

With passage of the most recent Federal legislation the Congressional Budget Office projects another 3.5 trillion dollars added to the US debt over the next 10 years. The inevitable result of this will be the Federal Reserve having to increase interest rates.
In 2022 this scenario resulted in a bloodbath in my intermediate bond fund. I don’t remember in my copious reading any advanced warnings of prices dropping precipitously as interest rates increased (in fairness I had read about the inverse relationship between prices and yields,

Crab Fishing, cold beer and your portfolio 101
While I was enjoying the simple sight of kids crab fishing at Portballintrae harbour, pondering the wisdom of a cold beer at the boat club, a sailing boat came into the harbour entrance. And just like that, I thought to myself:
A sailing boat is a tiny bit like a financial portfolio. The boat itself acts as the wrapper – your 401(k) or IRA – providing a protective structure.

ON DEC. 31, 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a lease to take over a defunct brewery in Dublin. What was unusual was the lease’s term: 9,000 years.
It didn’t take long before Guinness and his landlord both realized they’d made a mistake and agreed to end the lease. Guinness needed more space, and the landlord realized he’d neglected to account for inflation. The rent was fixed at £45 annually for the entire 9,000 years.
The Guinness case is notable because it’s so extreme,

Most of the arguments against investing in individual stocks boil down to investors not being able to beat the market, therefore shouldn’t even try, and instead buy low-cost index funds. The fact that “you (or any money manager) can’t consistently beat the market” was even confirmed by the world’s greatest money manager, Ken Fisher, in a recent article of mine.
At this point, it will usually be mentioned that buying and selling individual stocks results in increased (and earlier) taxes due to having to pay tax on your capital gains when you sell the stock.

I fear rebalancing has been oversold—and that I was one of the overeager salespeople.
Rebalancing is primarily a risk-control strategy. As financial markets rise and fall, we may find we have more than our target portfolio percentage in large-cap growth shares, or emerging markets, or stocks generally. Rebalancing back to our portfolio targets trims our exposure, reducing the risk of a big financial hit if there’s a reversal in the market’s recent rise.
But rebalancing is also pitched as a way to boost returns.

The 4th of July, my anniversary, my birthday, and Christmas light up my year, but Easter might just be my favorite day of the year. On a monthly basis, though, payday steals the show—that spark of adrenaline when dollars hit my bank account is hard to beat. Four times a year, dividend paydays bring a similar thrill, maybe even more. This is why I’m hooked on dividends.
Dividends have trade-offs, but their potential to grow over time makes them irresistible.

I’ve owned stock-index funds for more than three decades—and that’s made a huge difference in my financial life. What if index funds didn’t exist? I can think of five key ways my financial life would be worse:
I’d allocate less to stocks. With broad market stock-index funds, I know I’ll get whatever the market delivers. If the alternative was actively managed funds or individual stocks, there would be far more uncertainty—and I’m not sure I’d have the confidence to allocate as big a portion of my portfolio to stocks.

“Which Is the Better Inflation Hedge? Both have some merit, but one is better than the other.”
Over at Morningstar Amy Arnott posted a short article to answer the question.
Here’s a part of her analysis:
“As shown in the table below, commodities were more consistent as an inflation hedge. They outpaced inflation in all five of the periods shown, while gold fell behind in two of the five periods. Gold did excel during the two separate inflationary periods in the early and late 1970s…..

What triggered this post was a Facebook meme claiming the wealthiest 0.1% have gained $4.4 trillion in the past two years, that they have grown their wealth at the expense of average Americans and that “without them your wealth would have doubled”
When I read that, my reaction is “that’s just wrong and so what, they earned it.”  I wish I was that smart. But that is not the typical reaction. Many people readily believe such a meme and are willing to bash the wealthy.

I receive Mike Piper’s Oblivious Investor newsletter. Today I saw the above interesting title of an article he linked to
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/articles/2025/05/19/revealing-question-personal-investing-how-warren-buffett-helps-answer
The question was: What is the lowest risk-free, after-tax, after-inflation rate of return you would accept in order to forgo all other investment opportunities for the rest of your life?1
Although the article itself was waaaay too technical for my pion mind, my knee jerk answer was 2%. I’m not greedy.

I know nothing about buying gold or in any way holding it in a portfolio. TV is full of ads to buy gold coins. If you buy them, how do you sell them and to who?
Anyone have any words of wisdom about buying gold in any form?
Is gold a viable investment for most people?

In tracking how your investments are doing, there are several ways to measure performance, but they don’t all tell the same story:

Simple Average Return
CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate)
TWR (Time-Weighted Return)
IRR (Internal Rate of Return / Dollar-Weighted Return)

Each method offers something different depending on the context, lump sum vs. ongoing contributions, investor vs. fund manager perspective, etc.
1. Which return metric do you personally rely on most and why (IRR, CAGR, etc.)?

MarketWatch posted that the Trump administration is rescinding Biden administration’s guidance that discouraged cryptocurrency investing by 401(k) plans.
The 2022 guidance directed plan fiduciaries to exercise “extreme care” before adding cryptocurrency to investment menus. That caution has now been removed.
I’m thinking removing urging “extreme care” for 401k plans is not such a good idea. Is the 401k the place for such an investment?
 How many people actually understand cryptocurrency? Not me 
I can just see some employees (like the ones taking the financial literacy test) jumping on the bandwagon if they have the opportunity.

I found this financial literacy quiz this morning. It comes from the Stanford Center on Longevity. According to the site, only 29% of American adults can correctly answer the three questions in the quiz.
I’m guessing most HumbleDollar readers will Score 100%. I did.
Take the quiz.