Max Osbon's Posts

Nobody’s too happy with the big banks these days. The public distrusts them and the regulators have been levying hefty fines for misdeeds before, during and after the financial crisis. The fines are big, but who’s really paying the price? How does $93B in fines affect you? Fines on the six major Wall Street firms – JP Morgan, Bank of…

At Osbon Capital, John Osbon is the conductor, but where’s his orchestra? We often hear the question: How many employees do you have? Our reply – zero – is a surprise to some. The business is operated by two partner owners. John Osbon manages all client portfolios and investment strategy while Max Osbon is the operational guru. Our payroll is…

The announcement of Eugene Fama as a Nobel laureate in economics was bound to happen someday, and it finally has. Fama’s pioneering research regarding how the market arrives at security prices constitutes a fundamental principle of finance. It’s also at the core of indexing. Fama was already a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business when I…

Small cap can be big We know that a typical long-term stock portfolio returns more, on average, than a typical bond portfolio. But what kind of stocks consistently outperform the broad stock market as a whole? Hint: Think smaller. 87 years Since 1926, a dollar invested in small cap stocks has grown to $18,365 – a hefty annualized return of…

Cost of Cash Calculator Keeping a stash of cash seems to be a natural human urge. Call it a “rainy day fund” or “emergency fund.” Whatever you call it, having some cash on hand for unforeseen situations is a good idea. But is holding excess cash a good idea?  Some, yes; too much, no.  Understand the cost of stuffing money…

The next 5 million dollar man How much do you need to save and invest to accumulate $5 million dollars?  Max Osbon fired up the Excel spreadsheet to create a simple and revealing look at how to do just that. Four facts to enter Armed with four simple facts – your current age, your current investable wealth, your expected rate…

I definitely agree with the old adage that kids say the darnedest things.  But now and then the financial media give kids a good run for their money. For instance, we’ve all seen headlines like this one: “Dow Plummets 150 Points.”  But is 150 points really a plummet? Let’s look at the stats. With the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering…

Citius, Altius, Fortius – (Faster, Higher, Stronger) After months of training, we finally had the opportunity to compete at the RBC Decathlon this weekend. It was a blast, and all for a great cause. First things first, a round of applause for the $1.4m raised for Memorial Sloan-Kettering cancer care and the enormously high standard set by the field of…

We all know college costs a fortune, and many parents would rather leave it at that. But to get a realistic handle on how much you need to save for tuition, you have to get into the real numbers. This terrific calculator developed by Max Osbon will help you quantify the challenge ahead and determine how much to put away…