Last summer I wrote a few posts to help you dip your toes into the shallow waters of investment jargon. You might (or might not) find the jargon useful, but there is a lot to be said for not feeling like you are in over your head when discussing your own investments. So today, I've dragged out a slightly fusty standby—Earnings Per Share...

Anyone who has tried following the stock markets for even a relatively short period of time will have discovered two things:

1. There is always a new, unexpected force wreaking havoc with stock or bond prices; and
2. After a while, it all begins to look eerily familiar.

In his post this morning, investment professional Ben Carlson writes, "Investors with a truly diversified portfolio are always going to hate something that they own." I love this sentence. It's absolutely true —and not by chance. Diversifying a portfolio means actually planning to have some crappy investment in place at all times.

As I write this, my partner is on his way to a meeting with one of our clients with a bottle of vintage champagne in hand. We don't bring champagne to every client meeting (though, it would be an interesting marketing ploy). But these clients have been working with us a number of years and have just recently topped $1 million...