The Sapient Investor

Investment benchmarks are rare among retail advisors, but I think they are vital. Benchmarks are the only way to have meaningful risk and return comparisons.

How much should you invest in stocks? Does your age matter? Your anticipated retirement date? The amount of your assets? Your risk tolerance?

Save $ thousands in taxes with optimal withdrawal strategies during retirement. “Filling up” lower tax brackets with partial Roth conversions is key.

The SEC’s recent approval of spot bitcoin ETFs is a game changer, making bitcoin investment convenient, cheap (about .25%/year), and secure in the custodial sense. It is still enormously volatile, however. It could still fizzle out, but increased institutional acceptance seems to indicate permanence is more likely. In the long run, it could become a reserve asset for central banks and a popular store of value for investors. Bitcoin’s market capitalization has grown to over 1% of the entire U.S. capital market. I recommend a 1% strategic allocation within a range of 0% to 2%.

The inflation-adjusted yield for I-bonds is well below the real yield for the five-year TIPS bond. If you purchased I-bonds in the past, it is time to consider selling them and switching to TIPS.

Besides tax minimization, direct indexing can facilitate factor tilting, including ESG factors and alpha factors.

Direct indexing has become a hot topic in investing. What is it and is it right for you?

What are ETFs and why they are so popular? In short, they provide very inexpensive exposure to virtually any asset class or niche and are extremely tax efficient.

Interest rates have moved up. A lot. But most banks and brokers are still paying very little for cash deposits. Here’s what you can do with your cash to earn a lot more without taking on much risk.

Inflation is still a major risk. Here are some investment ideas to hedge it.