Seeking Prudent Advice Archives - NorthStar Capital Advisors

Temperament over Intellect

Warren Buffett once said, “The most important quality for an investor is temperament not intellect.”

Investors very often buy at high prices when the market is hot and attractive, and sell at low prices after observing periods of poor performance.

This leads average investors to severely trail both the S&P 500 index and the Barclays Aggregate Bond Index over long time periods. This is why investors are very often their own worst enemy.

CBS MoneyWatch author Larry Swedroe recommends in this article that you ask yourself if you believe that you’re best served by being your own advisor:

Do I have the temperament and the emotional discipline needed to adhere to a plan in the face of the many crises I will almost certainly face?
Am I confident that I have the fortitude to withstand a severe drop in the value of my portfolio without panicking?
Will I be able to re-balance back to my target allocations (keeping my head while most others are losing theirs), buying more stocks when the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be a truck coming the other way?

What if “the other guy” wins?

As the election draws near, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions about what will happen if “the other guy” wins. We made this short video talking through what you need to know.

You can watch it here.

Click to watch it here.

Strategy is your antidote to hysteria at T-27 days

The coronavirus is still very much with us, as is much of the economic dislocation occasioned by the resulting lockdowns. Granted, we are evidently closing in rapidly on a vaccine—indeed, a number of vaccines. But it may be quite some time yet before most of us will get access to a vaccine, and frustration may abound. Moreover, in the coming weeks we will have to go through a hyperpartisan presidential election, with a variety of voting issues we’ve never had to deal with before.

So before we’re further engulfed by these multiple unknowns, we want to take a moment to review what we as investors should have learned — or relearned — since the onset of the great market panic that began in February/March. And that ended when the S&P 500 Index regained its pre-crisis highs in mid-August.

The lessons, it seems to me, are:

No amount of study — of economic commentary and market forecasting — ever prepares us for really dramatic events, which always seem to come at us out of deep left field. Thus, trying to make investment strategy out of “expert” prognostication — much less financial journalism — always sets investors up to fail. Instead, having a long-term plan, and working that plan through all the fears (and fads) of an investing lifetime, tends to keep us on the straight and narrow, and helps us to avoid sudden emotional decisions.
The equity market went down 34% in 33 days. None of us have ever seen that precipitous a decline before — but with respect to its depth, it was just about average. That is, the S&P Index has declined by about a third on an average of every five years or so since the end of WWII. But in those 75 years, the S&P Index has gone from about 15 to where it is now. The lesson is that, at least historically, the declines haven’t lasted, and long-term progress has always reasserted itself.
Almost as suddenly as the market crashed, it completely recovered, surmounting its February 19 all-time high on August 18. Note that the news concerning the virus and the economy continued to be dreadful, even as the market came all the way back. We think there are actually two great lessons here. (1) The speed and trajectory of a major market recovery very often mirror the violence and depth of the preceding decline. (2) The equity market most often resumes its advance, and may even go into new high ground, considerably before the economic picture clears. If we wait to invest before we see unambiguously favorable economic trends, history tells us that we may have missed a very significant part of the market advance.
The overarching lesson of this year’s swift decline and rapid recovery is, of course, that the market can’t be timed — that the long-term, goal-focused equity investor is best advised to just ride it out.
These are the investment policies our clients have been following all along, and if anything, our experience this year has validated this approach even further.

A word now — really just a repetition of what we’ve said to you before — about the election. Simply stated: it’s unwise in the extreme to exit the quality equity investments you’ve been accumulating for your most cherished lifetime financial goals because of the uncertainties surrounding the election.

Aside from the self-inflicted wound of incurring capital gains taxes, your chances of getting out and then back in advantageously are historically very poor, nor can we possibly be helpful to you in attempting to do so. As we have done all year — and as we do every election year — we urge you to just stay the course.

As always, we’re here to talk any and all of these issues through with you.

Thank you, as always, for your support and your engagement. It is a privilege to know you.

Midyear Outlook (important read)

Dear Clients & Friends,

The first six months of 2020 saw the advent of the worst global public health crisis in a century — since the 1918 influenza pandemic. In response, the world locked down, putting its economy into a kind of medically induced coma.

In this country, the immediate effects were (1) a savage and nearly instantaneous economic recession, accompanied by record unemployment, and (2) the fastest, deepest collapse in stock prices in living memory, if not ever.

Though I usually write you an extended personal summary annually concerning the year past — and will again — the stark drama of the last half year has been such that I wanted also to report to you now.

This letter follows the format of my annual reports to you. It’s divided into two parts, the first a statement of general principles, especially those most relevant in the current crisis, with a restatement of how I practice my stewardship of our clients’ invested wealth. The second is a review of what little can be known at this point, and of how I propose we continue to deal with the pervasive uncertainties of the moment.

General Principles

• I believe that all lastingly successful investing is essentially goal-focused and planning-driven. All failed investing is market-focused and event-driven.

• Stated another way: every truly successful investor I’ve ever known was acting continuously on a long-term plan. Every failed investor I’ve known continually reacted to sudden and terrifying market shocks.

• Thus I’ve found that long-term investing success is only incidentally a function of the economy and the markets. It is a direct function of how the investor reacts—or, more properly, how he/she refuses to react.

• You and I are long-term, goal-focused equity investors, acting on our plan with patience and discipline. The smaller part of what I do for clients is the crafting of that plan. The much larger part is helping them not to react in stressful times like this.

• I continue to believe that the equity market can’t be consistently forecast, much less timed, and that the only certain way of capturing equities’ superior long-term returns is to sit through their occasionally steep but historically temporary declines.

Review and Outlook

• At midyear, the best that can be said is that the first great wave of the pandemic appears to be abating, and the economy is slowly reopening. As it continues to reopen, there will inevitably be some flareup in new infections. The interaction between the pandemic and the economy in the short to intermediate term is therefore perfectly impossible to forecast, as is the timing of the development of a vaccine.

• The equity market crashed from a new all-time high on February 19 to a bear market low (so far) on March 23, down 34% in 33 days. There is no historical precedent for this steep a decline in so little time. Confoundingly, it then posted its best 50 days in history. The S&P 500 closed out the first half at 3,100.3, 8.4% off its all-time high.

• It is not possible to forecast the near-term course of corporate earnings or dividends, as they — like the economy they reflect — are still largely hostage to the pandemic. That said, I invite your attention to the fact that at June 30 the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was less than 7 tenths of one percent.

• I infer from the current state of interest rates that though it is impossible to forecast equity earnings, dividends and prices, it can be stated as fact that few if any of my clients can continue to advance toward the achievement of their long-term financial goals in bonds, at anything close to today’s yields. This is just another reason why I’ve advised them to stay the course in equities.

• It should also be noted that even if the pandemic continues to subside and the economy to recover, investors will still have to deal with what may be the most widespread civil unrest in our country in decades, and what promises to be a bitterly partisan presidential election cycle. Emotions seem likely to continue to run high, with unpredictable short-term market consequences.

• I’ve very deliberately labored in this summary to convince you of the sheer unknowability of the short (say, the third quarter of 2020) to intermediate (say, through the first quarter of 2021) term economic and market outlook. In the next breath, I remind you that not one of you is investing for the next one to four calendar quarters. I say again: you and I are long-term, goal-focused, planning-driven, patient, disciplined investors. Our focus is on history rather than headlines, and our mantra is from Churchill: “The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”

• Finally, I would urge you to think back to January 1 of this year. Have your most cherished lifetime financial goals changed since then? If not, I see no compelling reason to change your plan — and no reason at all to change your portfolio.

• Be of good cheer. This too shall pass. Optimism remains, to me, the only long-term realism.

By all means, please be in touch with me with any and all questions and concerns. In the meantime, thank you — as always — for your interest.

Warmly,
Chris

Chris Mullis, Ph.D., CDFA®
Founding Partner

Financial Planning.
Wealth Management.
Since 2006AskNorthStar.com
(704) 350-5028

V, W, L, or Swoosh? (no, it’s not a meme)

Everyone you and I have ever met has been affected by the coronavirus.

My childhood friends in Charlotte, strongman Kristofer Hivju, and the folks I met in Lesotho, Africa.

And it’s Day #18 in the hospital for my father-in-law fighting the disease. He’s now in a federal field hospital and hopefully coming home very soon.

It’s likely that every human on the planet has been affected by COVID-19.

I’m not sure that this kind of event has ever happened before in human history.

Though it’s sad that it took a disease to bring us together, it reminds me of how deeply connected we all are and how much our daily existence depends not just on our community, but on people we’ll never meet in far-flung corners of the world.

That very interconnectedness is what’s making this pandemic so dangerous to us and the economy.

Economists believe we entered a recession in March, and the latest data continues to show the economic damage:¹

Retail sales dropped 8.7%, the biggest drop since the government started tracking the data in 1992.²
Spending on travel, restaurants, and shopping overall is way down (though grocery sales and delivery are up).³
The number of new unemployment claims skyrocketed to 22 million, erasing the job gains since June 2009.⁴

Despite the ugly economic data, stocks just wrapped their best performance in decades.⁵ What gives?

“Irrational exuberance,” to quote Alan Greenspan. Stocks are famous for rallying in the face of bad numbers, and it’s clear that investors are expecting government stimulus to lead to a quick recovery as states emerge from lockdown and business picks up.

Are bullish investors right? Will the economy recover quickly?

It’s impossible to say right now. How long the downturn lasts and how soon the economy recovers depend on answers to some critical questions:

When will widespread testing, tracing, and treatment allow lockdowns to ease? Reopening America too soon and igniting a fresh wave of the pandemic will prolong the pain.
Will employers maintain relationships with their laid-off staff? You can’t just flip a switch and reopen a closed business without skilled workers. The longer the shutdowns continue, the harder it will be for companies to staff up.
How soon will consumer spending return? “Deferred” demand that’s pent up and just waiting for restrictions to ease could cause spending to surge; “destroyed” demand that’s not coming back could cause spending to remain depressed for longer. Here’s a simple example: deferred demand would be rescheduling a canceled vacation. Destroyed demand would be deciding to skip it entirely.

V, W, L, or Swoosh?

The “shape” of the eventual recovery is being hotly debated because it gives us insight into what would need to happen (and how long it could take).⁶

“V-Shaped” Recovery: A short, sharp decline and then a quick rebound is the best-case scenario. In this case, lockdowns lift soon and spending surges, driven by pent-up demand and government stimulus.

“W-Shaped” Recovery: A “double-dip recession” is a worst-case scenario that could happen if the easing of restrictions leads to another wave of infections and lockdowns, or the economic damage causes a second downturn.

“L-Shaped” Recovery: An L represents a sudden plunge and fitful recovery if lockdowns continue through the year and growth is slow to return.

“Swoosh-Shaped” Recovery: A tick or swoosh is a sharp downturn followed by a gradual recovery as lockdowns are eased cautiously across the country.

We can’t predict what the road ahead will hold, but I think it’ll look less like a return to “normal” and more like a way to live with the way COVID-19 has overturned ordinary life.

What do you think? Will your life be back to normal this summer? Will we be riding waves in the warm Atlantic Ocean and romping down the Appalachian Trail relatively soon?

Be well,
Chris

Chris Mullis, Ph.D.
Founding Partner
NorthStar Capital Advisors

Financial Planning.
Wealth Management.
Since 2006

AskNorthStar.com
(704) 350-5028

P.S. Now that stimulus money is going out, the scam artists are slithering out to get their piece. Here’s what you need to know:

Scammers are impersonating the IRS and contacting folks by mail, email, phone, and text to ask for personal information.
The IRS is not contacting taxpayers about stimulus checks. If you receive a call from someone asking for information, hang up. Do not click links in emails or text messages purporting to be from the IRS or the Treasury Department. If someone asks you to pay an upfront fee or to confirm your bank details to receive stimulus money, it’s definitely a scam. Contact your bank or our office at (704) 350-5028 if you’re not sure.
Please share this information with those you love, especially parents, grandparents, and elders who may be at higher risk of being victimized.

¹_{https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/us-retail-sales-march-2020.html}

²_{https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/coronavirus-delivers-record-blow-to-u-s-retail-sales-in-march/ar-BB12FaEi}

³_{https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/11/business/economy/coronavirus-us-economy-spending.html}

⁴_{https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-covid-weekly-initial-jobless-claims-april-11-192401571.html}

⁵_{https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-stock-market-is-ignoring-the-economy-11587160802}

⁶_{https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/alphabet-soup-how-will-post-virus-economic-recovery-shape-up/}

This is why I’m an optimist

“The toilet paper had armed guards.”

“We celebrated my birthday with a dinner party over Zoom.”

“My officemate jumped on my desk and drooled on my keyboard during a meeting.”

One day, we’ll look back on these strange days and tell stories about the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.

But right now, we’re getting through it. One day at a time.

How are you doing? What stories can you share with me about your life right now? Email me at chrismullis@nstarcapital.com and tell me. I’d love to hear about them.

In difficult times, it’s easy to think we are alone. Especially when our loved ones and support system are far away or reduced to virtual connections.

We are all learning how to adjust to a new world and stay grounded when headlines are blaring and our very health and well-being are under threat.

I’m working on being grateful for the great things in this life.

I’m grateful for my wife.

I’m grateful for our children.

I’m grateful for our family, friends, and neighbors.

I’m grateful for work that allows me to help people in my community get through times like these.

I’m grateful for you.

What are you grateful for?

Like WWII and 9/11, we’re living through days that will define future generations and change the very fabric of our society.

I don’t envy the policymakers making grim trade-offs between life, death, and the economy. How long do we socially distance? What about the 10 million+ who have lost jobs?¹ Or the businesses that have been forced to close?

I hope with all my heart that each one of them has a financial plan and someone they can go to for advice. But my head knows better. I know that most Americans can’t survive a $1,000 emergency and only 17% have a financial adviser to help them.²

What trade-offs are we willing to make to protect those at greatest risk from the disease? We can’t put a dollar figure on human life. But we can put a dollar figure on the human cost of jobs lost and businesses closed.

The next few weeks are going to be tough for all of us. And I want you to know that I’m here for you.

Layoffs and furloughs are happening and I’m helping affected clients create a game plan to get through the next few months. If this happens to you or someone you love, please let me know immediately so I can help you determine if you’re eligible for special assistance. And, also please remember our COVID-19 pro bono program that we’ve launched to serve people who don’t normally have access to fiduciary advice.

How do we make good decisions with so much uncertainty and mixed information?

We make a choice:

We can choose to crumble under the weight of fear and uncertainty…

We can choose to simply hunker down and endure…

We can choose to grow, flourish, and come out stronger on the other side. We can be grateful for our blessings and focus on what’s within our control: our mindset, our behavior, and the actions we take.

I am fundamentally optimistic about humankind’s ability to weather this crisis and use it to grow.

I’m optimistic about how our society will adapt and change due to this crisis. Some of the greatest changes and innovations in history grew out of frightening, pessimistic times.

I’m optimistic about the heroes fighting the disease on the front lines.

I’m optimistic about the people helping friends, neighbors, and strangers stay safe and comfortable.

I’m optimistic that those with jobs will continue working to keep this country going while we wait and heal.

I’m optimistic about the innovators staying up late in labs, workshops, factories, and offices around the world to create vaccines, treatments, and tools to beat the virus.

I’m optimistic about the new inventions and technologies that will grow out of necessity.

I don’t know what challenges the world will throw at us in the coming days and weeks. I do know that I am grateful to be surrounded by smart, motivated people who push me to do better.

How can you show up for the people around you? How can you be your best self in these times?

How can I help you do it? Email or call and let me know.

Be safe and be well,
Chris

Chris Mullis, Ph.D.
Founding Partner
NorthStar Capital AdvisorsFinancial Planning.
Wealth Management.
Since 2006

AskNorthStar.com
(704) 350-5028

¹_{https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-us-officially-lost-701000-jobs-in-march-but-in-reality-millions-vanished-2020-04-03}

²_{https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-january-2019/}
_{https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/01/when-it-comes-to-their-financial-future-most-americans-are-winging-it.html}

Coronavirus

Last Saturday night, Master Eric Sbarge opened the Chinese New Year banquet celebration at The Peaceful Dragon with a moment of silence for those impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. Our hearts and thoughts go out to those dealing with this crisis.

(Incidentally, my family trains in Chinese martial arts, yoga and meditation at The Dragon. It is a uniquely special place of learning and development available to those of you in the Charlotte area.)

But I write to you from the perspective of your investments.

On Friday, January 17 — after a spectacular 40% run-up that started the day after Christmas 2018 — the S&P 500 index closed at 3,329.62.

Two weeks later to the day — last Friday, January 31 — the S&P 500 index closed a little over 3% lower, at 3,225.52. (Indeed, more than half that damage was done on Friday.)

We have therefore been invited by financial media to suspect that the blended value of 500 of the largest, best financed, most profitable businesses in America and the world has “lost” 3% — with more “losses” to come — due to the outbreak in China of a new strain of coronavirus.

Permit me to doubt this, and to suggest that you — as goal-focused long-term investors — join me in doubting it.

I do not claim to have any idea how far this outbreak will spread, nor how many lives it will claim, before it is brought under control. I’m reasonably certain that many (or perhaps most) of the world’s leading virologists and epidemiologists are working on it, and I believe that their efforts will ultimately succeed. Clearly, this is nothing more (or less) than my personal opinion.

But if the rich history of similar outbreaks in this century is any guide, this would seem to be a reasonable hypothesis.

I draw your attention to:

SARS in 2003-2004, also originating in China
The bird flu epidemic in 2005-2006
In 2009, a new strain of swine flu
The Ebola outbreak in the autumn of 2014
The mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak in 2016-2017

Without belaboring the point: the super-spreader of SARS — a fish seller — checked into a hospital in Guangzhou on January 31, 2003, basically infecting the whole staff. The epidemic exploded from there.

On that first day of the litany of epidemics cited above, the S&P 500 closed at 855.70. Seventeen years and six epidemics later (including the current one), this past Friday the S&P 500 index closed fairly close to four times higher. I’m confident that you see where I’m going with this.

As always, I welcome your inquiries around this issue. In the meantime, I think the most helpful — and certainly most heartfelt — investment advice I can offer would be that you turn off the television set.

—
Chris Mullis, Ph.D.
Financial Planner & Founding Partner
704-350-5028 | AskNorthStar.com

Better Conversations. Better Outcomes. Since 2006

Money Lessons for Professional Athletes

“Many NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball players have a penchant for losing most or all of their money. It doesn’t matter how much they make. And the ways they blow it are strikingly similar.”
— Sports Illustrated

Barry Ritholtz gives a good run down on how professional athletes go broke:

Youth and inexperience: Most professionals see their salary gradually increase over the course of their career. By the time they are making the big bucks, age and experience has taught them (more or less) how to manage their finances.

Not so for the pro athlete. After being an unpaid student athlete in college, they suddenly have access to millions of dollars. I don’t know about you, but I am fairly certain that if someone gave me $2 million when I was 21, I would have died in a fiery Ferrari wreck or some other foolish thing. It is a simple formula: Youth plus inexperience with money equals bad outcomes.

Athletes have short careers: Injuries, trades and the sheer quality of competitive talent means a twenty-year sports career is the exception, not the rule. On the other hand, white-collar professionals enjoy careers that last 30, 40, even 50 years — more time to amass their wealth, as well as a much longer period to figure out how to manage it.

Young athletes spend too much money: Suffice it to say they spend lots and lots of money, often more than they actually have. Divorce, child support and the costs of an entourage all eat into the cash flow.

Dazzled by the lifestyles of veterans — whose longevity and endorsement deals put them way ahead of the average player in terms of income — these professional competitors may feel pressure to compete off the field. Trying to keep up is a recipe for disaster.

Everyone takes home much less than they realize: Holding aside the issue of unwise spending, let’s look at nondiscretionary spending. GQ analyzed the finances of the typical athlete making $5 million a year. Right off the top, Uncle Sam and the resident state where he plays takes a hefty share — about half for someone in that top tax bracket. Then you have the professional managers, lawyers, accountants, etc. The agent takes $250,000, while the manager may take up to twice that amount. Trainers, nutritionists, travel and courtesy tickets all eat into the net.

Before spending the first discretionary dollar, the typical $5 million player is already down about 70 percent of the gross, to $1.5 million. That sounds like a lot of money, but a naive kid who has a $5 million dollar budget in his head can quickly find himself way behind.

Barry’s five simple steps that athletes (and non-athletes!) can take to avoid financial crisis:

1 Be involved: It is important that a young investor becomes involved with financial planning from the beginning of a career. He should understand what his take-home pay is (after taxes and fees) — and know what he is spending money on.

Be aware of the other numbers involved: What your career expectancy is. How much you are likely to make. What it is going to cost to live a certain lifestyle.

2 Have a plan: A young athlete should plan for three phases of a career: rookie years, top earning years and the life after sports.

In the first part of a career, the emphasis should be on improving your game, and saving money. Don’t worry about indulging in luxuries; you have the rest of your life to do that. Once you enter your prime earning years, you can loosen up a touch and spend more — but always within your means.

The last part of athletes’ careers is often the longest: when they are no longer playing professional ball. Having enough saved to carry them for the next 40 years is important. So, too, is having a second career — whether as an entrepreneur or a color commentator on TV sports broadcasts or as a coach.

Mapping out a workable plan for these three phases is crucial to avoiding that “other” phase: Bankruptcy.

3 Keep your costs low early in your career: Investors learn that costs, taxes and excessive fees are a killer of portfolios over the long term. So, too, are all of the small costs that eat into a professional athlete’s financial pie.

It helps to find a more seasoned and experienced teammate to walk you through what you should and should not be paying for.

4 Avoid debt and leverage: Learning to live within your means is a crucial financial skill for anyone. It is especially valuable for someone earning big bucks for what is likely a few short seasons. Debt simply means you are living beyond your means, even at those big salaries.

The latest snare waiting to trip up the unwary and impatient young athlete is the payday loan. For a very large fee, professional athletes can get huge advances on their salaries. These loans can be usurious, with fees and interest adding up to annual rates of 25 percent or higher. These are to be avoided at all costs.

5 Keep your investments simple: What most people think is the hardest aspect of finance is in reality the simplest: Avoid complex (private placements) or expensive (hedge funds or private equity) investments. Don’t make loans to friends or family. Don’t back start-ups. Don’t invest in new technology. Never buy fancy financial “products.” And whatever you do, for God’s sake, don’t put money into a restaurant.

Instead, have a simple asset allocation model of broad indices (U.S. equities, emerging market stocks, corporate bonds and Treasuries). You are in your early 20s, so you should have a 40- to 50-year time horizon for these investments. Don’t waste your time stock-picking or timing, just let the markets work for you. Build a portfolio of high quality, tax-free municipal bonds (especially if you live in a high tax state). These will pay you an income as long as you hold them.

Source:
Barry Ritholtz / WP

Know More, Make More

A new academic study finds that more financially knowledgeable people earn a higher return on their 401(k) retirement savings.

Dr Robert Clark (NC State University), Dr. Annamaria Lusardi (George Washington University), and Dr. Olivia Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania) analyzed a unique dataset that combined 401(k) performance data for 20,000 employees plus financial literacy data for the same workers.

Investors deemed to be more financially knowledgeable than peers enjoyed an estimated 1.3% higher annual return in their 401(k)s or other defined contribution plans than those with less knowledge.

According to the study’s authors:
“We show that more financially knowledgeable employees are also significantly more likely to hold stocks in their 401(k) plan portfolios. They can also anticipate significantly higher expected excess returns, which over a 30-year working career could build a retirement fund 25% larger than that of their less-knowledgeable peers.”

Financially savvy people tend to save more and are more likely to invest those savings in the stock market. But past studies haven’t clearly demonstrated that these people necessarily make better investment decisions. The authors look at patterns in 401(k) retirement accounts and find that more sophisticated investors do indeed get better returns on their savings.

Source: “Financial Knowledge and 401(k) Investment Performance”

Elite Colleges Don’t Buy Happiness or Extra Money for Graduates

Attention high school graduates that were rejected by their first-choice college

A new Gallup survey of 30,000 college graduates of all ages in all 50 states has found that graduation from an elite college provides no discernible advantage over Podunk U.

“It matters very little where you go; it’s how you do it” that counts, said Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education.

Gallup’s data demonstrate that people that feel the happiest and most engaged are the most productive. Those successful people got to that point by developing meaningful connections with professors or mentors, and made significant investments in long-term academic projects and extracurricular activities.

This new study’s results are well aligned with the existing body of academic research. For example, economist Stacy Dale published an insightful paper in 2004 that found that students who were accepted to elite schools, but attended less selective schools, went on to earn just as much money as their elite counterparts.

“Individual traits matter more than where you went,” Ms. Dale said. “It’s a lot more important what you learn later in life than where you got your undergraduate degree.”

Source: WSJ

12 3 4 Next ›Last »