The Transparent Advisor

  by Danno So we took the kids to Disney around April of 2013.  Maya was about 6 1/2 and Zoe was almost 5.  Let's just say that trip wasn't exactly at the top of my list of fun things to do. We did the "Breakfast with the Princesses", of course which I'm pretty sure my wife enjoyed more than the kids.  We were on track to enjoy all the most boring rides ever, waiting in line for 45-60 minutes for each one of them.   Neither kid wanted to do any of the fun rides, and obviously you can't leave the kids alone or wait in line for 45 minutes for me to do a fun ride by myself.  Finally we were at Animal Kingdom one day and I was able to get Maya to reach a little bit.  I explained to her that these rides are all designed to be safe.  What makes them fun is that they make you a little bit uncomfortable.  If you can try something that's just a little bit out of your comfort zone, and then you come to the end of the ride safe and sound, you'll have so much more

by Danno April was a hellish month in the financial markets.   In fact, all of 2022 has been.  A flat-out beating.  That's me on the left. When you talk about the averages or expected returns, it sounds so comfortable.  "Oh, I can make 8%-10% per year?... Great, sign me up."  But "average" almost never happens.  Ups and downs, ups and downs, ups and downs.  Every asset class does this at different speeds, at different times, and for different and unpredictable reasons. And it's uncomfortable. Right now all things are down except commodities.  But what's especially getting killed right now is very long-term assets, which disproportionately benefitted from lower interest rates & the first year of COVID.  Long-term US Treasuries are 30% off their all-time highs, and down almost 20% already this year!  I don't know if that's ever happened before!  And that's only 4 months! The Russell 2000 Growth (SmallCap Growth) is off 33% from it's hig