Anthony Isola

Evidence Based Investing for Dummies

“To hell with facts, we need stories!”- Ken Kesey The most important ingredient in creating an investment portfolio is evidence. Unfortunately, according to Michael Shermer, “Humans are pattern-seeking, story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.” The average investment plan of many retail investors consists of…

The Most Valuable Degree is from Good Luck University

“Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.”  – Will Rogers Luck plays a vital role in wealth creation, whether you want to believe it or not. No one is disputing the role of hard work and personal grit; the point being these qualities can…

Don’t Rely on the Government to Save Your Retirement Plan

“The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.” – Bill Clinton One of the biggest problems in our educational system is the method in which United States history is taught. Far too often, the government is given too much credit for many of the progressive changes our…

Have You No Decency?

Variable Annuities are one of  the most misused and oversold financial products. A “new” VA has hit the market call the L-share. This annuity charges much higher fees in exchange for a lower ransom, I mean surrender charge. FINRA has reported that they have fined 8 separate firms a total of $6.2 million for failing…

Bad Advice Strikes Out

“Motivated blindness is when you don’t recognize facts that are sitting in front of you because they would be inconvenient for you to recognize,” – Scott Killingsworth This term perfectly defines the attempt by AXA Advisors to justify selling inappropriate retirement products to public school teachers. According to Tara Siegel Bernard, in the second part…

A Momentary Nuisance

  Unfriending people on Facebook, moving to Canada, or changing a long-term portfolio because of an election are all awful ideas. We are in the midst of our tenth consecutive “most important election in our lifetime!”  This nonsense is really starting to get old. We need to take a fresh approach.  Hopefully this will dispel…

What You Allow Is What Will Continue

How do these guys sleep at night? In addition to pillaging the retirement accounts of public school teachers, Some large insurers prey on churches and charities. This is from Ron Lieber of The New York Times: He also reviewed the 403(b) plans of the nonprofits that had them. People who worked there were not sure…

A Year Ago Today

“Two roads diverged in a wood. And I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.”  – Robert Frost Walking away from something that is comfortable and stable is a difficult decision. I did this twice in the last three years. The first time was resigning from a high-paying tenured…

Confusing Power With Greatness

“Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.”  – W.C. Fields   The American people are in dire need of “Change We Can Believe In”.  It is quite obvious; the majority of Americans detest both political candidates. We will have change in 2016; the belief part is a whole other story. The partisans…

Helping Women Teachers Gain Confidence to Get in the Game

Dina here … For those of you who have been following The New York Times’ multi-part series on teacher’s retirement plans, it is truly disturbing what has been permitted to occur in the name of business at the expense of those with the noblest careers.  The fact that women outnumber men in the teaching profession…