It’s been 25 years since Professors Eugene Fama and Ken French explained why investors were likely, but not guaranteed, to earn better returns by favoring small cap and value stocks. Results since then have validated the researchers’ conclusions, but capturing those higher returns hasn’t always been easy.

Uncertainty is a constant in investing. Rather than hope for portfolio gymnastics to deal with unforeseen events, sensible investors rely on diversification and discipline. In so doing, they distinguish themselves from speculators and, we’d argue, not only enjoy a higher probability of success but a better quality of life, as well.

Market-timing investors’ efforts to outguess the random day-to-day variations in the stock market hurts their performance. They’d have better results if they behaved like rats.

Investors have many reasons to despise international stocks today. Chiefly among them is performance: they’ve underperformed large cap U.S. stocks by 7% per year since 2008. Despite international

It’s not uncommon these days to receive notification that long-term care insurance premiums are increasing—often by 30-50% or more!  What do you do if a premium increase occurs?  Options vary by state and insurance company, but here are five possible choices.