THE AAII JOURNAL APRIL 2025 ISSUE
COVER ARTICLE
An Intro to AI-Powered Investing: How Individual Investors Can Leverage LLMs
Artificial intelligence can enhance investment research and decision-making, but it should be used carefully.
Features
in Portfolio Strategies,Retired Investor
Want More Retirement Income? Lower Your Portfolio Fees
Retirees who reduce their portfolio costs by using lower-cost funds realize larger withdrawals and ending wealth.
in AAII How-To,PRISM Wealth-Building Process,AAII Asset Allocation Models
Go Beyond Age-Based Allocation Strategies by Personalizing Your Approach
AAII’s PRISM Wealth-Building Process helps you think through the considerations for creating the optimal allocation for you.
in PRISM Wealth-Building Process,Financial Planning
A One-Page Wealth-Building Plan for Managing the Costs of Late-in-Life Care
One of the biggest challenges in financial planning and investing is longevity risk. A one-page PRISM plan can help you prepare for the forthcoming costs.
in AAII Sentiment Investing,Market Actions,Risk
Understanding the VIX: A Practical Guide
The VIX is a widely watched metric that tracks expected volatility in the stock market. How you can use it to gauge potential market turning points.
in ETFs and Mutual Funds,Mutual Funds,Exchange-Traded Funds,Bonds,Fixed-Income Strategies
Building Bond Ladders With Mutual Funds and ETFs
Quasi-bond ladders can be created with mutual funds or ETFs instead of individual bonds by choosing funds with differing durations.
in Stock Strategies,Dividends
Key Metrics That Signal Strong Dividend Growth Potential
Focusing on companies with a history of dividend growth and the financial strength to sustain it increases your odds of realizing higher total returns.
in AAII Model Portfolios,Small Cap Value Investing
Replacing the Outdoors With Oil in the Model Shadow Stock Portfolio
Quarterly changes, plus a look at how the portfolio performed during the best and worst months over its history.
Notes & Opinions
in Editor's Note
Market Corrections Offer Opportunities
Take advantage of a down market to make a Roth conversion when stocks and stock-focused funds are on sale.
in Dispatches,Stock Strategies,Dividends
Dividend Yields Are Higher Now Than in Recent Years
Stocks with yields significantly higher than current medians are alluring, but it’s essential to thoroughly analyze the stock before investing.
in Dispatches,Retirement Planning
Retirement Reality Check: Who’s Ready and Who’s at Risk?
Retirement readiness in the U.S. varies significantly by income level, with lower-income workers needing to replace a larger share of their pre-retirement income but facing greater shortfalls in doing so.
in Dispatches,Economic and Market Analysis
PEG Ratio Unreliable as a Market-Wide Indicator
A study examined whether the price-earnings-to-earnings-growth (PEG) ratio can be used as a market timing tool.
in AAII Community,Financial Planning
Smart Leverage vs. Debt-Free Living: Which Helps Build Wealth Faster?
Share your thoughts on strategically using debt for wealth-building.
The AAII Journal, a leading investment publication, provides readers with a continuing stream of insights and ideas that focus on how you can improve your investment results. Unlike many investment magazines, ours is completely unbiased, educational and contains no advertising.
AAII has published this prestigious financial journal every month for more than 40 years. Members receive it for free and have access to thousands of evergreen articles online so they can reference information and strategies for previous market situations with a few clicks of the mouse.
Our stock journal helps individual investors manage their portfolios, build sound investment strategies and navigate all types of financial conditions. Articles range from optimizing target-date fund portfolios to retirement account withdrawal strategies and analysis on robo-advisor performance.
The magazine also has recurring features our members find invaluable. Every quarter, we dissect our model stock portfolio and provide updates to its holdings and performance. This analysis helps individual investors manage small-cap value investments.
We also offer an annual tax guide in our financial magazine. This detailed investment magazine issue covers many details that individual investors need to consider when filing their taxes. It keeps readers updated on any recent changes to tax laws and provisions and provides a handy guide to tax implications of personal investments to cut through any tax filing confusion.
Another annual feature covers ETFs (exchange-traded funds) and mutual funds. This edition helps individual investors understand what to look for when investing in funds. Online, we accompany those articles with sortable tables so that members have an interactive component to their investment research. This helps individual investors plan their portfolios and invest with confidence.
Other regular features in the AAII Journal include financial planning, stock ideas and investor professor. Financial planning articles walk investors through the process and difficulties of crafting strategies for creating wealth regardless of age. They also cover difficult situations, such as estate planning, and helpful advice for getting kids and grandchildren interested in investing.
Stock ideas, as the name implies, give readers a peek at new screens and the stocks that pass them. This part of our investing magazine helps readers identify new opportunities in the markets, flagged by a mix of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Because we all, as investors, need ideas, this remains one of the most popular categories.
Investor professor helps readers invest with knowledge and confidence. It deals with contingencies, such as “What happens to your investment if a company goes bankrupt?” and gives actionable advice on what resources you should use when considering a new broker. Our readers enjoy this section because of its practicality and enduring tips.
Frequent internal contributors include president John Bajkowski; AAII Journal editor and vice president Charles Rotblut; Stock Superstars Report lead analyst Wayne A. Thorp; and Dividend Investing editor Derek Hageman. Together, these internal contributors have nearly a century of market wisdom and research, which they share with clear and concise prose to help individual investors improve their knowledge and portfolios.
The AAII Journal also includes frequent guest contributions from the financial and economic space. Articles from outside industry experts differentiate our financial magazine from others and provide additional points of view for our readers. Previous guest authors have included John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard; Jay Clayton, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission; Charles Schwab; and Nobel laureate and Yale professor Robert Shiller.
We hope you’ll enjoy our articles and, if you’re not a member, consider joining the Association so you can get our prestigious magazine sent to your door every month.
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