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Meet The Golden Retriever, The Cyclist and The Banker

We have created three characters to help you on your journey.

Pick one of them depending on your objectives, time you want to spend managing your portfolio and willingness to increase your knowledge about financial markets.

We Empower Individuals To Become Autonomous Investors No Matter Their Background

We want to inspire critical thinking, given the financial industry’s tendency to make false promises. We also believe most investors are better off without typical financial advisors that overcharge and suggest the wrong products.

Our guides can be used by any individual.

And they are tagged accordingly:

The Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever, aka Wise Passive Investor – has the simplest and easiest to understand portfolio with minimum maintenance as he (probably correctly) assumes that a dog is just as likely to beat the market in the long run as a professional investor. The Golden Retriever follows the bone (aka money) in the most efficient and transparent way.

For whom: All Investors
Type: Fully Passive Investor Behaviour
Why To Be A Dog: Investing with minimal effort, live your life without spending any time managing your portfolio but still following best practices.
Time Required: Initial setup – few days. Ongoing maintenance – a day or two per year.
Main Challenges: Sticking to your strategy, not selling
Number of ETFs: 1-2
Examples of Funds: Vanguard Lifestrategy, World ETFs, S&P 500.
Bankeronwheels.com Resources: A significant part of our guides are targeting golden retrievers. You can start here.

The Cyclist

The Cyclist, aka Semi-Passive DIY Investor – accepts that markets are usually efficient but given her experience in travelling across the globe wants to incorporate some marginal high level tweaks to her index portfolio. She also won’t bother overdoing this because, after accounting for costs and time doing research, trying to beat the market can’t compete with real life experiences like cycling the world.

For whom: Intermediate Investors
Type: Index portfolio with some active investor behavior
Why to be a Cyclist: Allows to (i) Investing in a customized way, improving tax efficiencies and reducing fees (ii) Implementing some personal views (iii) Understanding Financial Markets (iv) Potentially increase risk-adjusted returns.
Time Required: Initial setup – couple of weeks. Ongoing maintenance – a day or two per quarter at the minimum.
Main Challenges: May require more research and maintenance. Potential behavioral biases, keeping the active part relatively small and a consistent strategy over time.
Number of ETFs: 3+
Examples of Funds: Regional tilts to capitalization-weighted indices, adding diversifiers, Socially-responsible Screening or tax-efficient regional ETFs.
Bankeronwheels.com Resources: Most of our guides target cyclists including the portfolio construction and portfolio protection sections.

Due to changes to our methodology, we are currently re-labelling most of our resources. You may find that most of the cyclist resources have currently a banker icon. We apologize for this transitory period.

The Banker

The Banker, aka Evidence-Based Investor – knows that markets are not fully efficient. Behavioral and Risk considerations make Factor investing, in theory, superior. In practice, this strategy doesn’t make him any more likely to succeed. He is well too aware that exploiting inefficiencies is hard. Equity Risk Factors underperform over long periods of time and sticking to his guns will be challenging. He may also add a few active bets with some ‘play money’.

For whom: Advanced Investors
Type: Investing incorporating Equity Risk Factors
Why To Be a Banker: Allows for (i) Potential outperformance compared to capitalization-weighted indices rooted in academic research (ii) Understanding of Financial Markets.
Time Required: Initial setup – few months. Ongoing maintenance – a few days per quarter at a minimum.
Main Challenges: Substantial research, maintenance and adequate ETF selection. Potential behavioral biases, keeping the active, underperforming parts consistent over long periods of time.
Number of ETFs: 3+
Examples of Funds: Multi-factor portfolio including for example Value or Momentum Risk Factors.
Bankeronwheels.com Resources: Currently only a few guides target bankers. This will increase over time.

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DISCLAIMER

All information found here, including any ideas, opinions, views, predictions expressed or implied herein, are for informational, entertainment or educational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. Consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs, and seek professional advice where appropriate. Read our full terms and conditions.