Personal Finance

The personal finance category includes the usual topics that a certified financial planner would study and then provide advice on (planning, statements, time value of money, education funding, investments, retirement, income tax, etc.

Subject icon for stocks. Candlestick Chart.

Stock and Bond Allocations – Historical Returns

Last Revision: October 17, 2022 Summary In seven graphs, this post shows 94 years of expected returns for various stock and bond allocations. These graphs plot annualized returns for 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, and 20 rolling yearly periods and show that: Variability of outcomes increases (risk increases) as the proportion of stocks relative to […]

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How to Calculate a Moving Average (Rolling Average)

Last Revision: October 17, 2022 Summary Moving average (rolling average) computations help us analyze trends. They are often applied to time series data analysis where short term fluctuations are dampened out. As a result, the investor gleans further insight by studying the “smoothed” data. This post shows how to compute the moving average with two

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S&P 500 TR Daily Close 1/1988-7/2022

S&P500 Index Performance with Best Days Removed

Last Revision: August 14, 2022 Summary This post describes how the long term performance of the S&P 500 Total Return Index is affected when some of the best days are removed.  Introduction   I was recently perusing Chapter 2 of my copy of Charles D. Ellis’s book, “Winning the Losers Game” (3rd Edition, New York,McGraw-Hill,1998). The

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How to Calculate The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

Last Revision: October  17, 2022 Introduction  CAGR, the Compound Annual Growth Rate, is used to compute financial returns.   In this post, we’ll describe how to compute the CAGR by first laying down some foundational concepts and then going through a few graphical examples. As you read this post, keep the following in mind. The asterisk

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Historical S&P 500 U.S. Stock Performance

Last Revision: October 17, 2022 Introduction This article describes the historical performance of the U.S. Stock Market as represented by the S&P 500 index. It also provides some useful learnings that can be applied to our investment decisions. As you read through the material, please refer to the Financial Glossary which will open as a

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