Do you have a financial advisor? Do you know whether the advice you receive is sound and worth the fee charged? Do you know how much your portfolio returned in 2020 and how much risk you had to take to get that return? Can you understand what your advisor is advising? Are you able to ask your advisor the questions you want in knowledgeable ways? Alternatively, are you managing your invest-ments on your own, and would you enjoy a second opinion on whether the investment choices you’ve made are sound?

This course will help you answer those questions and many more. Using everyday language and real-world examples, we will review the possible components of an investment portfolio, including cash (and cash equivalents), stocks, bonds, annuities, commodities, REITs, futures, options, hedge funds, and more. We will discuss the pros and cons of each investment, giving special emphasis to mutual funds and ETFs. Through lecture, discussion, downloadable readings and optional homework, my goal is to help demystify investing and give you practical methods you can use to immediately improve your return and reduce risk and worry. Part 2 of the course will be proposed for the fall term, when you will learn how to build a portfolio that is appropriate for your needs, including knowing if, when, and where to get various types of advice (e.g., planning cash flow in retirement, allocating assets in risk classes, maximizing tax efficiency, etc.).