Welcome to Balhiser Investing. Our goal is to help investors become better investors. On this site you will find a blog covering a wide range of investing topics ranging from: strategies, experiences, investing psychology, savings, spending wisely, ETFs, stocks, bonds, and so on.

Balhiser Investing seeks to provide a diverse and independent investing perspective with articles ranging from investing basics (eg. how to get started, how the stock and bond markets work, investing in mutual funds) to the esoteric (option-writing strategies and closed-end fund arbitrage).

We want to take your investing game to a new level. Our goal is to make personal finance clear and accessible to regular people who want to be better investors. From low-cost, fire-and-forget mutal fund and ETFs portfolios, to techniques to help tame the part of the brain that always thinks it can beat the market. We are here to provide thoughts and ideas for long-term investors.

Investing Timeline

Money and Investing: How it all began.

• 2000: Learned that my friend who was an engineer is now making a very nice six-figure salary in finance after completing his risk management master’s from Carnegie Mellon.
• March 2000:  Wondered if I could lock in my gains on unvested company stock options (A) worth $70,000.  Noticed put options six months out would cost about $4500.  Decided I didn’t know enough about options to buy the puts.
• August 2000: Saw that my options were now worth about $0.
• September 2003: Started taking graduate courses in finance.  Confirmed that my put option insurance strategy would have netted me about $65,000… that my idea in March was right.
• 2004: Started getting unsolicited job offers in finance even though I hadn’t even graduated.
• May 2005:  Received Graduate Certificate in Finance.

“Big-Time Investing Advice”

• July 2008.  balhiser.com came online.
• October 2008. Balhiser LLC formed.
• July 2009. 50th investing article posted on Balhiser Investing Blog
• October 2009: Celebrating one year of independent investment info, advice, and investing strategies.
• December 2009: Diversified by entering the residential real estate market.

2010

• Jan: Applied for business line of credit. Despite excellent collateral, >75% equity, solid business plan, and strong positive cash flow position, loan was rejected.
• Jan: Secured $10K private loan.
• Feb: Signed 1-year lease on a Balhiser LLC investment property.
• Apr 5th: Published 75th Blog Article. Invest Like a Vulcan