Market economies have delivered enormous returns to investors, yet many people have recognized only a fraction of them. A dominant reason, which the financial industry rarely publicizes, is fees. Quietly, in places that are hard to see and understand, fees grind away at your investments and diminish your wealth.

As your financial advisor, one of our primary goals is to drive the fund and other financial fees you pay down. If you are paying 1% or more, and many people are, we believe you are paying too much, and the compounding drag on your net worth over time will be enormous.

Because we have taken no external financing, we have the freedom to price our services low without agitating our shareholders. Our objective is to operate a financial firm that provides excellent financial advice at the lowest cost possible for our clients.

A large body of academic work shows that investors in low-fee index funds practicing passive investing outperform almost all active funds over the long term.¹ This work originated at Princeton, MIT, and the University of Chicago and has been verified repeatedly over the past 50 years. We have extended it with insights from the Yale University endowment and others.

We focus on the capital performance of your investments and the dividends and interest they pay. Careful attention is given to minimizing taxes. Our financial advisors help clients think about their investments like a business that pays them income every quarter.

We encourage clients to view investments on an after-tax, after-fee, after-inflation, risk-adjusted basis. That is the correct way to analyze performance.

1. SPIVA: Active vs. Passive Scorecard

Clients trust One Day In July Financial Advisors with safeguarding their financial future. Trust starts with being transparent about fees (see our fees table here). We aim to eliminate common conflicts of interest and invest our own money primarily in low-cost index funds.

One Day In July is a 100% independent investment firm - no one pays us other than the client. Our financial advisors act as fiduciaries all the time, across all accounts. One Day In July financial advisors do not cross-sell annuities, insurance, or other financial instruments that would pay us commissions and cause a conflict of interest. We do not answer to bosses in New York demanding sales quotas be met. Although we use products from Vanguard, iShares, and Schwab, we do not work for them.

To do this, true diversification is needed so that assets are "uncorrelated" with each other. This means they do not all move in the same direction at the same time. Generally, we buy indexes of United States Treasury bonds to provide downside risk protection. In 2008 and 2020, these indexes were among a handful of investments that saw gains. Corporate bonds and state bonds were not as safe as investors had believed.

Simplicity drives risk reduction. By distilling investments and accounts to their simplest form, our financial advisors reduce the risk inherent in complexity. Our firm is built on stable pillars in finance: we use Vanguard and iShares index funds, among others, and client money is held at Charles Schwab and other established firms. We primarily purchase ETFs but hold mutual funds and other securities as well.

Historically, United States Treasury bonds generally have moved inversely with equities, although there have been exceptions. There is no guarantee that Treasury bonds will be uncorrelated with equities in the future.

We are not a call-center firm: we believe there are significant benefits, both in investment returns and stress reduction, to a long-term advisory-client relationship. In-person meetings, where possible, are welcome. We use computers behind the scenes but do not let algorithms trade client accounts. We do not outsource investment decisions to other firms.

Clients like this relationship because it is built on trust and makes their lives easier. We like it because as we get to know you, we can make better investing and financial decisions for you. In times of euphoria and panic, you can reach your dedicated financial advisor for discussion.