​During the second half of 2017, I spent a lot of time with clients walking through annual market reviews. I would like to share some of the insights that have come out of those meetings. There are two broad areas of focus: investment implications and personal finance implications (or, as I like to think of it, regular old life implications). 

​Life gets complicated quickly. That doesn’t mean that our response needs to be complicated. I recently read the book Simple Rules by Donald Sull and Kathleen M. Eisenhart. They discuss the use of simple rules and why they are so successful in the face complex situations. These types of situations range from surgical triage to dieting. It turns out that simple rules can help us make much better functional decisions because they allow us to focus on variables that really make a difference while allowing for flexibility to pursue new opportunities as they arise.

This time last week, I added an item to my to-do list: Start writing my next client note. The topic was going to be “Sideways Markets Can Be Difficult to Deal With, Too,” or something to that effect. What a difference a week makes!

If you have a globally diversified portfolio, you may have been disappointed with your returns for 2014. For the past several years, U.S. stock markets have been the best game in town. And in 2014, they were pretty much the only game in town.

Welcome to 2014!  I hope your Holidays were fantastically fun and that you enjoyed a festive New Year.  I’m please to report that we had a wonderful Holiday season.  One of the things that made it so special was the birth of our second daughter: Rowan Marie McCann.  She arrived on November 17th – two weeks early.  She was actually due on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  I think she wanted to avoid the crowds.  Already a smart girl.  The whole family is doing wonderfully.

I thought this quarter would be a great time to follow on our last discussion regarding Reversion to the Mean.  Over the course of this year, we will re-balance our clients managed accounts.  So this is a great time to discuss some of the mechanics of managing your asset allocation…

October has arrived and the excitement is palpable in the Bootstrap household.  A burning question needs to be answered in the next several weeks: What is Quinn going to wear as a Halloween costume? Last year we lived in a neighborhood with very few families, but this year we live in family friendly Willow Glen. We expect a veritable onslaught of sugar-crazed kids at the door.  Colleen is so excited she can hardly contain herself.
 
I think everyone knows how I feel about Fall.  Since the pace is a little slower this season, I thought I would take some additional time to write about one of the core investing concepts I think about at Bootstrap Capital.  It’s called Reversion to the Mean…