In the spirit of Thanksgiving, what should investors be thankful for?

Low Fee Index ETF’s. Access to a liquid S&P500 Tracker for 0.05%, who-wouda-thunk? Fees are the silent killer of your portfolio, lower the fees more of the return you get to keep!

Blogs. No longer is research restricted to people in the know. The average investor, now has access to quality un-baised information. A big shout out to my favorite blogs – FT Alphaville, Abnormal Returns, Aleph Blog and The Capital Spectator.

Web Technology. Innovation is finally coming to the Personal Finance space. Tools that were accessible only to sophisticated investors are now available for everybody. Web start ups such as Sigfig, Personal Capital and Future adviser are bringing some great innovation to this space.

Behavioral finance. Economics 1.0 was all about humans being rational beings. We all intuitively know that not to be true :), we are “irrationally rational”. Economics 2.0 is all about the behavioral aspects of humankind aka behavioral finance. There is a ton of great research coming out in this area and it has finally reached the mainstream. For a good introduction check out the awesome book, Thinking Fast and Slow by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman. Behavioral finance is a great step forward in understanding how we invest and manage our money.

What else are you thankful for?