Owning rental properties only ranks fifth out of my eight best passive income sources. However, as interest rates decline, the value of rental properties and their cash flow has increased. As a financially savvy individual, your goal should be to accumulate as many underpriced cash flow-generating assets as possible. I believe this permanently low-interest-rate environment […]

Are you already signed up for our daily e-mail newsletter? Great, but did you know that we just launched an adviser-focused e-mail on Fridays? Now you do. Sign up here! Quote of the Day “History is littered with huge corporations that get to the top of the mountain yet never come close to reaching those […]

Mondays are all about financial adviser-related links here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at how advisers are dealing with going remote. Quote of the Day “Being a good podcaster not only requires you to be knowledgeable about the subject you’re going to talk about, but it also […]

Photo credit: jb Many, if not most, applications for Social Security benefits are approved without any issues. But often, an application is denied, for legitimate reasons. Maybe you don’t have the requisite number of credits on your account for benefits, or something similar. But also, many times, benefits are denied without a specified reason. When […]

Executive Summary When it comes to marketing strategies for financial advisors who want to grow their firms, there are generally two commonly used approaches. Optimistic “glass-half-full” strategists often decide to invest in a(n ever-widening) variety of marketing tactics in the hopes of attracting more and more new clients, whereas more Pessimistic “glass-half-empty” strategists may often […]

Can you spot what’s wrong in the image below? Please post your answer as a comment. You might not catch this mistake with a quick read. Try reading it again. I post these challenges to raise awareness of the importance of proofreading. Related posts

Are you already signed up for our daily e-mail newsletter? Great, but did you know that we just launched an adviser-focused e-mail on Fridays? Now you do. Sign up here! Quote of the Day “Just like these seedlings beat the odds, the same goes for our country. The dark clouds will lift, and our nation […]

Saturdays are the day we catch up with all the non-finance related stuff we didn’t get to during the week. You can check out last week’s edition here. Quote of the Day “Good engineers don’t whine about trade-offs, because they realize that they’re the entire point.” (Seth Godin) Chart of the Day Carnvana ($CVNA) is […]

A linkfest dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic is now a weekly feature here on Abnormal Returns. You can read last week’s edition here. Please be careful, get a flu shot and stay safe. Quote of the Day “The healthiest way to look at the pandemic—or any difficult period in our lives—is as an opportunity for […]

Executive Summary Enjoy the current installment of “Weekend Reading For Financial Planners” – this week’s edition kicks off with a striking new study from state regulators finding that broker-dealers are drastically more likely to recommend ‘complex’ investment products than RIAs (from being 2X more likely to use leveraged and inverse ETFs, to 8X more likely […]

Are you already signed up for our daily e-mail newsletter? Great, but did you know that we just launched an adviser-focused e-mail on Fridays? Now you do. Sign up here! Quote of the Day “The easier your message is to read, understand, and remember, the more convincing it will be.” (Daniel Kahneman) Chart of the […]

When Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on September 18, 2020, at 87 years old, the first person I thought about was my 9-month-old daughter. I thought about how RBG fought her entire career for women’s rights so that daughters, mothers, and sisters everywhere could lead better lives. Thank you RBG! I’m not sure […]

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback about this Friday podcast linkfest. We have decided to focus much more on finance, economics and investing podcasts going forward here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at Amazon’s move into podcasting. Finance Book stuff Alternatives Guy Raz Book Tour

During the lockdown and required social distancing it’s common to feel cooped up and restless. Finances may be strained, and we may feel the need to lockdown our own spending. During this time, and raising two daughters, it was a great way to become creative with activities that didn’t cost a thing but were a […]

Are you a buyer? The sooner the better. Are you a seller? Ask high, and take your time. Because the boom in suburban real estate was going to happen, beginning this year, pandemic or not. And it could have legs for years. That’s according to my special guest, Logan Mohtashami, who joins me for the […]

Are you already signed up for our daily e-mail newsletter? Great, but did you know that we just launched an adviser-focused e-mail on Fridays? Now you do. Sign up here! Quote of the Day “Tell people what they want to hear and you can be wrong indefinitely without penalty.” (Morgan Housel) Chart of the Day […]

Thursdays are now all about longform links on Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s linkfest including a look at the decline of former giants ExxonMobil and GE. Quote of the Day “If someone keeps coming back to an irrelevant, urgent or provocative point instead, they’re signaling that they’d rather not talk about the […]

Executive Summary In the early days of financial planning when an advisor’s primary function was to provide access to capital markets, fees that clients paid were baked into the cost of the product they were buying. With the advent of planning as a service, however, fee transparency became an important feature for clients. Accordingly, charging […]

Marious Sjulsen, Co-Founder of EquityMultiple In my endeavor to stay on top of the commercial real estate market, I’ve interviewed Marious Sjulsen, EquityMultiple Co-Founder & Head of Real Estate. EquityMultiple is a real estate investing platform for the self-directed accredited investor. They offer a diverse array of rigorously vetted, professionally managed commercial real estate investments. […]

Are you already signed up for our daily e-mail newsletter? Great, but did you know that we just launched an adviser-focused e-mail on Fridays? Now you do. Sign up here! Quote of the Day “SPACs remove a layer of scrutiny in the early stages that may screen out some of the worst offenders before they […]

Wednesdays are all about personal finance here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look at why the lure of private investments is so strong. Quote of the Day “The best time to start saving was as soon as you got your first paycheck. The second best time is now. […]

I almost slipped and bought into the SPAC Renaissance. Almost. Draftkings looks legit. But Draftkings could have been a true IPO. The SPAC wrapper was beside the point. Chamath and Ackman will probably do something legit, those guys usually find a way to win. Maybe a few others. The rest are / will be garbage. […]

Executive Summary When it comes to connecting with strangers in a new relationship, our minds often jump to associating them with a friend or family member who we know well (“you remind me of so-and-so!”)… something we do without even realizing it. The tendency to do this is part of our brain’s natural shortcuts to […]

Car accidents, natural disasters, thefts, and lawsuits can happen to anybody at any time. Surprises like these are expensive and stressful — and the expenses associated with them start to pile up fast.  As our clients build wealth, we need to make sure they can protect it. That’s where property and casualty insurance comes in (often […]

Image Credit: Aleph Blog || Really, do you want to earn 3 1/2% for the next 10 years? At present, the S&P 500 is priced to return 3.51%/year over the next ten years. Now if you were buying some ten-year investment grade corporate bonds, you might expect something around 2%. Is that 1.5% over corporates […]

[embedded content] Join Downtown Josh Brown and Michael Batnick for another round of their favorite game, What Are Your Thoughts? On this week’s episode, Josh and Michael discuss the biggest topics in investing and finance, including: US household net worth just hit a fresh record all-time high. Huh?The new investor class is much more diverse, […]