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
Curious how much money you might have if you had invested with One Day In July years ago?
One Day In July has a proprietary simulator tool that advisors can use to show qualifying prospective clients how their past investment performance may have varied had they been invested in a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds.
Low fees are important. Let us show you why.
Simulator performance information is intended for experienced investors only or those maintaining at least a basic knowledge and understanding of investments and financial markets.
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.
Understanding the urgency of climate change and the potential responses to it requires richer knowledge of how we got here, and how our collective choices are affecting the world around us.
Our environmental investing screens are centered around two key metrics - fossil fuel reserves and carbon intensity. These address the extraction of carbon from the ground, and its effect on the atmosphere as it is used, globally.
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.
Overwhelmingly, mutual funds extract enormous sums from investors in exchange for providing a shocking disservice.
DAVID SWENSEN
Former Chief Investment Officer, Yale University
These days everyone has the same data regarding the present and the same ignorance regarding the future.
HOWARD MARKS
Oaktree Capital
When our financial system - essentially our money managers, marketers of investment products - put up zero percent of the risk yet receive fully 80 percent of the return, something has gone terribly wrong in our financial system.
WARREN BUFFETT
Letter to Shareholders
The expense ratio is the most proven predictor of future fund returns. The findings worked for every category over every time period.
RUSSELL KINNEL
Morningstar Research, 2016
There is no investment product so great that a fee cannot make it bad.
CLIFF ASNESS
Hedge Fund Manager
Most investors, both institutional and individual, will find that the best way to own common stocks (shares) is through an index fund that charges minimal fees. Those following this path are sure to beat the net results (after fees and expenses) of the great majority of investment professionals.
WARREN BUFFETT
Letter to Shareholders
Paying the least for a haircut or for tacos usually is not a great way to go. But mutual funds are a very unusual market; it's one of the only types where price and performance are inversely correlated. That's hard to get your head around. Unlike most products, fees are what ruin performance.
WILLIAM BIRDTHISTLE
Author of "Empire of the Fund"
It is surely arguable that when the average equity-fund investor earns one-twelfth of the stock market's return, that could itself be regarded as a scandal.
JOHN BOGLE
Founder of Vanguard
The stock market serves as a relocation center at which money is moved from the active to the patient.
WARREN BUFFETT
Letter to Shareholders
Chesterbrook, PA 19087
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