Have you seen the PBS program where Scott “The Piano Guy” Houston teaches adults who have always dreamed of playing the piano to learn to play using a simple, easy method?  Whenever the Learn Piano in Flash program airs (usually during pledge week), I stop what I’m doing and watch. Unlike my wife and kids who all play musical instruments, I have no musical talent. Frankly, I don’t have a strong desire to learn to play the piano, but I’m fascinated in how Scot…

Our family dog, Brittney, is very affectionate and has a sweet disposition most of the time.  However, when provoked she can get aggressive.  As with all dogs, you have to be careful around her when she might be protective of her food, yard or one of the family members.  As a comparison, I hope my clients will exercise similar caution when dealing with Fidelity Investments. Also known as Fido, Fidelity is an excellent discount broker and custodian f…

As June rolls around each year, the time comes again for the annual graduation speeches.  Though most will be quickly forgotten (and probably should be), some do provide valuable inspiration and insight.   Thanks to YouTube, I stumbled upon a speech that struck me as particularly meaningful. In a baccalaureate address given by author Michael Lewis (Liar’s Poker, Blind Side, Moneyball) to the Princeton graduating class of 2012, Lewis made a succi…

When it comes to investing in commodities, I don’t recommend them to my clients for one simple reason: I don’t understand them well enough. The first rule of investing is to never invest in something you don’t understand. Don’t get me wrong, I know what commodities are and I’ve done enough research to form an opinion. I just don’t understand enough to know specifically what to expect from commodities in the future or to have any confidence that the asset class wil…

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. This is what author Charles Dickens said of eighteenth century London and Paris around the time of the French Revolution. These same words could also be used to describe the current environment for investors in America. The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 15,000 threshold this year and remains not too far from its record high. This has been an astonishing turnaround of about 140% from the depth of the f…