The Sapient Investor

When you turn 65, you need to sign up for Medicare. This ebooklet will help guide you through the many options you will need to choose from when the time comes.

Many investors are surprised to learn just how much tax they will owe during their retirement years. Roth conversions can help reduce the tax bills.

This article highlights the sectors and industries most sensitive to increases in interest rates using an objective and sophisticated statistical risk model. Some of the winners and losers are different than in past economic recoveries.

Here is my attempt to provide unbiased advice regarding long-term care insurance and other ways you might finance your long-term care expenses. Buying insurance is not likely to be the best option.

Clean energy stock returns led the market by a wide margin in 2020. Given their political support, that momentum seems poised to continue for the long-term. iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN) is the largest and most liquid among the clean energy ETFs, it has nearly the lowest expense ratio, and it is widely diversified to include solar, wind, and other clean energy-related companies. If you are going to have representation in this niche, ICLN is a logical choice.

Now is an excellent time to invest in a homebuilding ETF. Mortgage rates are at all-time lows. The economy is recovering. And demand for housing has surged in the wake of Covid-19. I recommend either iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) or SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) or both.

U.S. investors should have some international exposure for diversification. Here is a fund that has boosted return and lowered risk by hedging foreign currency exposure and tilting toward such winning characteristics as profitability, growth, and value.

Long-term bonds have a lot of interest rate risk and little yield. Here are some short-term corporate and muni bond ETFs with relatively attractive yields that are cheap to own (low expense ratios) and cheap to trade (low bid/ask spreads).

Long-term bond yields are low by historical standards. For bonds, current yield = future expected return. Interest rates have much more room to go up than go down, with the risk of losing money on long-term bonds looming large compared to a very modest increment of yield. Stay away from long-term bonds until their incremental yields over short-term bonds justify their much higher level of risk.

Buy what hedge funds are buying without paying the high fees. Goldman Sachs Hedge Industry VIP ETF (GVIP) holds the 50 stocks most often owned by hedge funds for only .45%, not “2 and 20.” It is updated quarterly based on the 13f filings of U.S. hedge fund managers. It has shown a strong ability to provide risk-adjusted excess return compared to the S&P 500.