I’m in a crabby mood. Why not spread the joy around? Welcome to today’s deliberately inflammatory column. Here are 13 of my firmly held financial beliefs:
1. You have no clue where stocks and interest rates are headed—and neither does anybody else. Instead of forecasting returns, investors should devote their efforts to cutting investment costs, trimming taxes and managing their portfolio’s risk level.
2. Buying actively managed mutual funds is an act of faith in the face of daunting odds. S&P Dow Jones Indices, part of McGraw Hill Financial, MHFI +0.65% analyzed the performance of U.S. stock funds in 13 categories. Depending on the category, just 14% to 39% of funds managed to beat their benchmark index over the five years through year-end 2013.
