Short Takes: Active Management Police, Lake Wobegon Research, and more

Here are my posts for the past two weeks:

Pandering to those with too much debt

Helping students handle credit cards well

Some financial policies to look for with a Trump presidency 

Making arguments with made-up data

Jobless Manufacturing

Here are some short takes and some weekend reading:

The Reformed Broker offers a funny piece satirizing the pressure on active management. I think the real pressure is on expensive management. I’d like active funds more if they were as cheap as the passive funds I own.

Allan S. Roth gives a scathing indictment of the Journal of Financial Planning that once again published a flawed study claiming that active mutual funds outperform index funds and that fees don’t matter. One amusing conclusion of the study is that even index funds produce alpha.

Tom Bradley at Steadyhand takes off the gloves in criticizing big banks that “accidentally” double-charged their clients.

Canadian Couch Potato explains some benefits of reverse share splits in ETFs.

Preet Banerjee explains how to calculate your CMHC insurance premium based on your house down payment (video).

Boomer and Echo have a good set of tips for negotiating a raise. It’s a good idea to look out for your interests, but it can be taken too far. I’ve worked with a few people over the years who were very good at the politics of getting higher pay and promotions. The trouble came when company fortunes forced layoffs, and these people were prime targets because their pay outpaced their usefulness to the company.

Jason Zweig reports on a new type of fund called an interval fund. Buyer beware.

Potato has a difficult personal story about failing to get disability insurance.

Insureye has a clear and informative list of insurance myths and facts. It covers insurance for home, car, life, health, critical illness, disability, and travel. I’ve never seen such useful insurance information gathered in one place before.

Big Cajun Man explains that when it comes to university costs, rent can be a bigger problem than tuition.

My Own Advisor breaks down his big investment goal into smaller sub-goals.

Million Dollar Journey answers a reader question about Whole Life Insurance for children.