SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker and monthly Fund Performance Rankings report have been updated to reflect mutual-fund performance data current through 6/30/2017. The Tracker and FPR are typically updated monthly between the 10th-14th of the month, depending on when the weekend falls.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker is our most popular web tool. It allows SMI members to easily personalize our mutual-fund rankings to their specific situation. The end result is a personalized monthly report showing only the funds each member is interested in, ranked by momentum and sorted according to SMI's risk categories (or without the categories, if a member prefers). This allows a member to take the 20,000+ funds SMI tracks every month and instantly transform those rankings into a concise report covering only the specific offerings of their 401k (or other plan).

The Fund Performance Rankings report contains performance data and momentum rankings on more than 1600 no-load funds and ETFs. The funds included have been selected on the basis of asset size, brand familiarity, and brokerage availability. You'll find help in understanding how to use the FPR (page 2), an overview of the 70+ risk categories that help you compare "apples to apples" (page 3), and explanations for the various data-column headings (page 4).

You can sign up to receive an email each month when the data goes live. Just go to the SMI home page and click on "My Account" under Quick Links. From there you can go to the "Email Subscriptions" page and check the box next to "FPR/Tracker Update" to receive the monthly email notification.

Are you a “good” or “bad” investor?

That can’t be answered without an understanding of an investor’s purpose. If you know the purpose of an investor is to manage money in such a way as to make it grow, but your investment accounts fail to see growth year after year, then it becomes apparent that, no matter how good a person you may be, you are a “bad” investor.

In Making Sense of God, pastor Tim Keller makes the point that “All judgments that something or someone is good or bad are based on an awareness of purpose.…How then can we tell if a human being is good or bad? Only if we know our purpose, what human life is for.”

For the secularist, human life isn’t for anything. It’s ultimately meaningless. We’re here only by chance due to random physical forces. But for the Christian, we’re here for a reason. Pastor Rick Warren begins his mega best-seller The Purpose Driven Life this way:

It may seem like a strange assertion that now is a good time to start investing in stocks. After all, the stock market has been in a long bull market that has now extended into its ninth year, stock valuations are widely acknowledged to be high, and the Federal Reserve finally has begun to correct the easy money policies that many think have been responsible for the huge rise in stock prices over the past decade. Taken together, these factors present a compelling argument that at some point in the next few years, stock prices are likely to be considerably lower than they are today.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker and monthly Fund Performance Rankings report have been updated to reflect mutual-fund performance data current through 5/31/2017. The Tracker and FPR are typically updated monthly between the 10th-14th of the month, depending on when the weekend falls.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker is our most popular web tool. It allows SMI members to easily personalize our mutual-fund rankings to their specific situation. The end result is a personalized monthly report showing only the funds each member is interested in, ranked by momentum and sorted according to SMI's risk categories (or without the categories, if a member prefers). This allows a member to take the 20,000+ funds SMI tracks every month and instantly transform those rankings into a concise report covering only the specific offerings of their 401k (or other plan).

The Fund Performance Rankings report contains performance data and momentum rankings on more than 1600 no-load funds and ETFs. The funds included have been selected on the basis of asset size, brand familiarity, and brokerage availability. You'll find help in understanding how to use the FPR (page 2), an overview of the 70+ risk categories that help you compare "apples to apples" (page 3), and explanations for the various data-column headings (page 4).

You can sign up to receive an email each month when the data goes live. Just go to the SMI home page and click on "My Account" under Quick Links. From there you can go to the "Email Subscriptions" page and check the box next to "FPR/Tracker Update" to receive the monthly email notification.

SMI regularly suggests that one’s investing decisions usually can be made with little regard for what’s going on in the investment markets. This seems counterintuitive. Let us once again make our case, then we’ll apply it to the question of deciding whether now is a “good” time to sell some of your stock holdings.

Where do investment decisions originate for many investors? The starting point is found in the impersonal “outside” world of current events, magazine articles, and “expert” recommendations. Their decisions are guided primarily by outside considerations. As they respond to the data thrown at them — sometimes buying, sometimes selling — their personal “inside” financial worlds take shape. Their thinking is “outside-in.” They need a continual stream of outside information to stimulate their thinking and provoke them to action. Decision-making would be impossible without it.

It’s a great time of year for the Pryors — Susie and I are getting ready to leave for our annual vacation on the Carolina beaches! While we’re there, we don’t buy newspapers, turn on the television, read any news, or do any work. We’re there to unplug, unwind, and connect.

Our vacations haven’t always been so care-free. Because I did all the research and writing for the first decade of SMI, I had to plan our (shorter) vacations around our monthly deadlines. In fact, the first issue of SMI was finalized at Fripp Island, South Carolina, during our 25th wedding anniversary getaway (taking your work with you is not a recommended way to relax and celebrate!).

The reason that’s no longer an issue is the Lord has given SMI a great team of writers to help carry the load. They’re talented, experienced, and dedicated to our mission of teaching financial and investing principles within the boundaries of God’s word. I’m grateful for each one, proud of them, and thought it would be encouraging to our newer members to learn more about the people who bring you our content and recommendations each month.

Why Upgrade?

SMI offers two primary investing strategies for “basic” members. They are different in philosophy, the amount of attention they require, and the rate of return expected from each. Our preferred investing strategy is called Fund Upgrading, and is based on the idea that if you are willing to regularly monitor your mutual-fund holdings and replace laggards periodically, you can improve your returns. While Upgrading is relatively low-maintenance, it does require you to check your fund holdings each month and replace funds occasionally. If you don’t wish to do this yourself, a professionally-managed version of Upgrading is also available.

SMI also offers an investing strategy based on index funds called Just-the-Basics (JtB). JtB requires attention only once per year. The returns expected from JtB are lower over time than what we expect (and have received) from Upgrading. JtB makes the most sense for those in 401(k) plans that lack a sufficient number of quality fund options to make successful Upgrading within the plan possible. Here are the funds and percentage allocations we recommend for our Just-the-Basics indexing strategy.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker and monthly Fund Performance Rankings report have been updated to reflect mutual-fund performance data current through 4/30/2017. The Tracker and FPR are typically updated monthly between the 10th-14th of the month, depending on when the weekend falls.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker is our most popular web tool. It allows SMI members to easily personalize our mutual-fund rankings to their specific situation. The end result is a personalized monthly report showing only the funds each member is interested in, ranked by momentum and sorted according to SMI's risk categories (or without the categories, if a member prefers). This allows a member to take the 20,000+ funds SMI tracks every month and instantly transform those rankings into a concise report covering only the specific offerings of their 401k (or other plan).

The Fund Performance Rankings report contains performance data and momentum rankings on more than 1600 no-load funds and ETFs. The funds included have been selected on the basis of asset size, brand familiarity, and brokerage availability. You'll find help in understanding how to use the FPR (page 2), an overview of the 70+ risk categories that help you compare "apples to apples" (page 3), and explanations for the various data-column headings (page 4).

You can sign up to receive an email each month when the data goes live. Just go to the SMI home page and click on "My Account" under Quick Links. From there you can go to the "Email Subscriptions" page and check the box next to "FPR/Tracker Update" to receive the monthly email notification.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker and monthly Fund Performance Rankings report have been updated to reflect mutual-fund performance data current through 3/31/2017. The Tracker and FPR are typically updated monthly between the 10th-14th of the month, depending on when the weekend falls.

SMI's Personal Portfolio Tracker is our most popular web tool. It allows SMI members to easily personalize our mutual-fund rankings to their specific situation. The end result is a personalized monthly report showing only the funds each member is interested in, ranked by momentum and sorted according to SMI's risk categories (or without the categories, if a member prefers). This allows a member to take the 20,000+ funds SMI tracks every month and instantly transform those rankings into a concise report covering only the specific offerings of their 401k (or other plan).

The Fund Performance Rankings report contains performance data and momentum rankings on more than 1600 no-load funds and ETFs. The funds included have been selected on the basis of asset size, brand familiarity, and brokerage availability. You'll find help in understanding how to use the FPR (page 2), an overview of the 70+ risk categories that help you compare "apples to apples" (page 3), and explanations for the various data-column headings (page 4).

You can sign up to receive an email each month when the data goes live. Just go to the SMI home page and click on "My Account" under Quick Links. From there you can go to the "Email Subscriptions" page and check the box next to "FPR/Tracker Update" to receive the monthly email notification.

By all accounts, 2008 was a most unusual year. The economy and financial system were rocked with abnormal events, and the prices of most financial assets fell sharply. Ever since, many have been eagerly anticipating a time when the markets return to normal. Some may even have sold all their stock holdings at that time, and are still waiting until normality returns so they can get off the sidelines and invest again.

There’s only one problem: when it comes to the investment markets, “normal” conditions don’t exist. A generation of investors has been taught that “the stock market averages gains of +10% per year.” Never mind the fact that this statistic applies to only one portion of the stock market—the largest companies that make up the popular S&P 500 index. More importantly, investors have failed to learn how those returns are experienced in real time. We suspect that even among SMI readers, what follows will be something of a surprise.