Investing

https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/stock-buybacks-are-booming-2025-thats-bad-news-dividend-investors?utm_source=eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MorningDigest&utm_content=None_68062&utm_id=35352
The link above from Morningstar discusses dividends vs stock buybacks and how they affect investors.

Most frauds are based on a false premise about the world. Fraudsters tell a story about this false premise to extract value from their victims. The story driving two recent fraud cases claimed that you can have high investment returns with little or no risk. Mike Hallam was promised annual returns ranging from 12% to as much as 49% that were “safer than government bonds.” Richard Whitacre was promised “guaranteed” annual returns of 10.5%, 15% and up.

This is a knee jerk post. I just heard an ad for Schwab where they said they will sharpen your trading skills to learn how to trade brilliantly.
What immediately popped into my mind was I am not, nor do I want to be, a brilliant trader. I want to be a brilliant investor (hardly the case but I’m trying).
What about you? Do you aspire to be a brilliant trader or a brilliant investor? For I think they are totally different creatures.

Every now and then I read an article and think “Wow, I wish had written than”. I’m sure I’m not alone.
Recently I came across this article from Safal Niveshak, which is part tribue to Jonathan Clements, and part ode to simplictiy.
Money Is Simple. Why Do We Make It Complicated?

My favourite passage:
“A simple equity fund, a fixed-income option, and plain insurance are enough for most of us. But the industry thrives on multiplying choice because that’s how assets are gathered.

LARRY ELLISON, THE 81-YEAR-OLD cofounder of Oracle Corporation, recently became the world’s wealthiest person.
Oracle, a software company, isn’t nearly as large as its peers. So how did Ellison’s net worth manage to surpass that of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the founders of other much larger companies?
The answer is simple: In the nearly 50 years since Oracle’s founding, Ellison has almost never sold a share of his company’s stock. According to an analysis by Smart Insider,

When I first started investing, my father-in-law, a longtime investor, gave me advice that echoes in my mind almost every day: “It is a business.”
At first, it sounded simple, maybe even boring. But the truth is, that advice has kept me from making a lot of mistakes. It runs contrary to the old adage, “Set it and forget it.” A business owner doesn’t forget their business. They know their numbers, track results, and adjust when circumstances change.

Christine Benz at Morningstar has published an update to the article. I think this is one of the better summaries on the internet.
It provides the steps and options available when determining an RMD. She lists the “key steps to take to improve your portfolio at the same time you’re meeting your obligations with the IRS.” She also discusses penalties for non-compliance and approaches to pruning and asset re-allocation.
Using Morningstar Style Box and sector exposure is suggested as a tool,

FOR MANY INVESTORS, talking about bonds is about as interesting as watching paint dry. They aren’t nearly as interesting as stocks. But if you have a portion of your portfolio allocated to bonds, or plan to, it’s a topic worth some discussion.
The bond market is actually much larger and much more diverse than the stock market. For most investors, though, there are just a few types of bonds to consider. We can examine each in turn:
Total Bond Market
Perhaps the most well known type of bond investment is a total-market fund.

THE MOST FAMOUS expression at Vanguard is to ‘stay the course.’ It’s meant to suggest that investors should remain steadfast and not sell stocks in a downturn.
This has proven great advice over the decades, but I’ve not been staying the course lately. I’ve been selling stock funds and buying bond funds this summer. Yet I think my actions would have the blessings of Vanguard founder Jack Bogle, who made the phrase ‘stay the course’ famous.

WHEN IT COMES to financial decisions, there are, as I’ve argued before, two answers to every question: what the calculator says, and how you feel about it. There’s a fly in the ointment, though: Calculator answers might appear to be based in logic, but they’re still imperfect.
Why?
Ian Wilson, a former executive at General Electric, explained it this way: “No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all knowledge is about the past,

I’m someone who’s been investing for almost 8 years and am early in my life and investing journey. I have only experienced the 2020 drop, along with the April 2025 drop. Of course, both were short-lived and I continued sticking to my investment plan.
A lot of HD forum members have been through more downturn seasons. How did you deal with that? Did you “automate” your investment (a relatively new concept) and delete any phone/web apps to “trick”

I play a bit of golf – thankfully I’m not a fanatic about it, I had a game this morning. It’s definitely an enjoyable way to waste a few hours, have a good dander and a bit of craic, as you would say in my neck of the woods.
I’m not brilliant at it, and it doesn’t really bother me. I still get around the course eventually, and a 27 handicap is grand by me. Some of my mates and fellow players have a completely different approach,

When I was out for a run this morning I had a breakthrough thought as to why I’m not mega-rich. It’s quite simple: I didn’t follow all the conventional financial wisdom with the dedication needed to reach those lofty heights. Apparently I’ve failed because I thought differently about some normal pearls of wisdom.
Take the often-touted phrase, “If it appreciates, buy it; if it depreciates, lease it.” Unfortunately, I don’t think this way. I like owning my cars outright,

Laughter, the Best Medicine
We all know that laughter is the best medicine. And while Humble Dollar usually gives us wisdom about money, markets, and life, maybe it’s time to add a little humor to the mix. Let’s send Jonathan a laugh.
Now, humor is always a risk—especially across cultures. The Brits, after all, are famous for their love of irony and wordplay. But clean, clever jokes never go out of style. Here’s a start:
How many financial advisors does it take to sell an ETF?

“INVESTING IS SIMPLE,” observed HumbleDollar’s editor Jonathan Clements. “To be sure, you can make it ludicrously complicated.” And, indeed, Wall Street does just that.
According to a recent analysis by Bloomberg, the fund industry rolled out more than 640 new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the first half of this year—an average of more than three a day. There are now more ETFs in the U.S. than there are stocks (4,300 vs. 4,200).