Podcasts (93)

The Financial Crisis of 2007/08 is still deeply ingrained in many people's minds. But is the financial system any more stable today?

Mark Hebner starts a new series of videos about understanding uncertainty. The focus of the series will be the uncertainty of market returns.

Mark Hebner summarizes the market's performance during the second quarter of 2019 and demonstrates the difficulty in picking the next asset class winner.

Where do you think the best options for long-term investments reside? Gold? Silver? Paintings? Maybe postage stamps? Gallup Inc. recently asked 1,012 Americans this very question.

Just as you need to trust your doctor, you also need to trust your financial advisor. Trusting your advisor will give you much more peace of mind.

Jason Zweig, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, offered his opinion on how humans are not hardwired to be good investors. In his book Your Money & Your Brain, Mr. Zweig dissects the human brain to discuss how humans are motivated to make decisions.

When it comes to investing, we can identify many risks investors assume, either knowingly or not. At Index Fund Advisors, we see it as our core mission to get investors to take the risks that are worth taking (e.g. market, size, value, term and default).

Moving from full-time employment to retirement is a huge transition. You need to start thinking about it long before you plan to retire.

IFA's partnership with e-Money is an important part of our client's overall investment experience.

It's often assumed that to be a successful investor you need to be an expert in economics. In fact, far more useful is a knowledge of history, particularly the history of the financial markets.

Mark Hebner explains market volatility using the Hebner model.

Warren Buffett has long been a big proponent of index funds. But so has his long-time sidekick Charlie Munger. Recently, Mr. Munger gave a two-hour address at the Daily Journal Annual Meeting.

Contrary to popular belief, great companies don't make great investments. In fact, distressed companies have earned higher returns than those of companies with considerable goodwill at the time of purchase.

Over the years much has been written about the endowments of prestigious US universities. One endowment in particular, the Yale endowment run by David Swensen, has been hailed as a big success.

Mark Hebner summarizes the market's performance during the first quarter of 2019 and demonstrates the difficulty in picking the next asset class winner.

The best known, on-going research into the performance of actively managed funds is conducted by S&P Dow Jones Indices. Every six months it brings out what it calls a SPIVA scorecard for funds in different parts of the world.

Here at Index Fund Advisors, we believe there is great value in following our advice. This confidence is backed by our own clients’ past results.

Research into couples and their personal finances consistently shows that it's mainly men who make investment decisions.

John Bogle once described the practice of stock picking as “looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Some investors like to copy the strategy of famous fund managers. Others try to emulate the endowments of top American Universities.

In Part Five of Venkat's interview with Mark Hebner, they look at why it's so important to invest and relax

In Part Four of Venkat's interview with Mark Hebner, they break down the uniqueness of IFA and the importance of having an investment advisor.

In Part Three of Venkat's interview with Mark Hebner, they discuss the Behavior Gap.

In Part Two of Venkat's interview with Mark Hebner, they talk about the uniqueness of Dimensional Fund Advisors.

Mark Hebner summarizes the market's performance during the fourth quarter of 2018 and demonstrates the difficulty in picking the next asset class winner.

Vanguard founder and indexing pioneer John Bogle passed away yesterday. We wanted to take the time to look back at his impact on the investment world.

In Part One of this multi-part interview, Venkat Yarlagadda sits down with Mark Hebner and asks him why he started IFA.

Every now and again investors get excited about a new technological innovation which appears to be groundbreaking.

Experts in human behavior have observed a number of biases that people are prone to. But specifically regarding investing, which is the most damaging bias of all?

People leaving work today will typically spend 20 years or more in retirement. That's a very long time to last without a regular salary. Watch the full documentary of Investing: The Evidence.

Sometimes referred to as smart, strategic, or alternative beater; factor investing is based on the multi-factor model developed by two American academics: Eugene Fama and Kenneth French.

One of the biggest developments in the investment industry in recent years has been the growing popularity of passive investing.

We all need to invest. Nobody knows what the future holds, but a typical lifetime includes some pretty expensive events.

It's widely known, at least in the investing industry, that active managers have had a difficult few years.

Mark Hebner talks about the wide range of year-to-date returns among the 15 asset classes used in IFA Index Portfolios.

Mark Hebner introduces the new Investing Kit.

Mark Hebner summarizes the market's performance during the third quarter of 2018 & demonstrates the difficulty in picking the next asset class winner.

With the recent market volatility, Mark Hebner wanted to give his thoughts on the instability.

An annual study called the Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior by Dalbar attempts to measure the impact of investor decisions.

Investment committees or plan sponsors tend to hire investment managers with a history of above benchmark returns.

One of the problem investors face is what behavioral psychologists call Recency Bias. In other words, they focus on the very recent past and project that indefinitely into the future.

The growing popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is raising red flags not just with investment professionals.

Of all the behavioral biases people are prone to, one of the most prevalent is optimism bias. We typically assume things will turn out better than they do.  

Generally speaking, it's good to have a positive outlook on life and to be reasonable optimistic about the future.

Broadly speaking, there are three different types of fund you can invest in: active funds, passive funds and funds that give you exposure to certain risk factors.

Mark Hebner summarizes the market's performance during the second quarter of 2018 and demonstrates the difficulty in picking the next asset class winner.

Some people treat their financial advisor like an order taker. They go to them with preset ideas about what they want, and the advisor's role as they see it is to carry out their instructions.

Pascal's Triangle is a number pattern steeped in history. The triangle has been studied for millennia.

It was in 1876 in a Victorian workshop rather like this one that Sir Francis Galton constructed a contraption called the Galton Board.

There's no point in accumulating wealth just for the sake of it. What matters is what we do with our wealth.