Chances are, you missed the message that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently sent to all investors. It went something like this: Nobody is protecting you, except for you. Oh, regulators weren’t that open and plain-spoken about it, but in finalizing their new “best interest” regulation — known in financial-services circles as “Reg BI” — they sent a clear message, again, that investors are mostly on their own when it comes to looking out for rogues, scoundrels and bad...

Everyone is eager for life to get back to “normal” right now. Normal, however, has changed. You may miss the gang from the office, the night out at the bar or the chance to go to the movies, but you also may be making the most of the relationships with your kitchen, garden, yard or with friends and family members who too often were overlooked in the rush of “normal days” before the coronavirus pandemic. We’ve learned that there is a big difference between what’s normal and what’s actually...

Rick in Maumee, Ohio, has used stay-at-home time during the coronavirus pandemic to “clean up my life.” There was a de-cluttering of the house, followed by a purging of his financial files (in accordance with guidelines I laid out in a recent column). He reorganized old family photos and papers, putting them in books and tossing the excess and the outtakes. There was the cancellation of subscription services he long-ago stopped using, a dumping of premium cable television channels he says no...

Buyers act differently than owners. That applies to homes, cars, investments and much more. To persuade you to buy, something has to meet the right conditions. It must be pristine, perfect, just the right thing, exactly what you are looking for, or some combination of those things. Those standards fall once someone becomes an owner. The car is allowed to get dirty, dust bunnies thrive under the furniture, the mutual fund isn’t sold just because its ratings slip a little. The imperfections...

Since the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting in May, the investment world has been kicking around the idea that legendary investor Warren Buffett has somehow lost his touch. The argument has been that Buffett should have been buying stocks when the stock market was panicking in March, following his own adage to “be greedy when others are fearful.” Instead, Buffett sold stocks — getting completely out of airlines — but mostly held onto his $137 billion in cash as Berkshire suffered...