Holding some extra cash can help combat a volatile, overpriced market. That doesn’t mean selling all your stock holdings if your investment goal is years away, even if you think stocks are overpriced.

Many observers dismiss, or at least question, the market’s rise since around 2013 as mere “multiple expansion.” That means the prices of stocks have risen disproportionately to underlying earnings.

The conventional wisdom is that IGCs should improve a portfolio’s volatility-adjusted returns. After all, corporate bonds typically have higher coupons than government bonds without having completely similar trading patterns.

If you’re planning to retire in or around 2020, and you have most or all of your assets in a target date fund, is that fund too risky? It might be given current stock market valuations.

I’ve been thinking about the problem of increasing inflation, and preparing for it. Here’s a run-down of the major asset classes, and how they typically respond to inflation (or have been responding to rising rates and inflation fears lately).

Even if stocks do outperform bonds, the volatility they impose on an investor drawing income from investments can be catastrophic.

Financial planning is all about contemplating how much money will result from a particular savings rate combined with an assumed rate of return.

Not only have fears of economic downturns receded, but it has seemed easier than ever to protect portfolios. High-quality bonds did their job in the last crisis.

Is it possible that stocks aren’t overpriced?

Apart from the esoteric realm of currency hedging, rising rates have also caused rates to, well, rise on short-term debt funds.

Do we need a recession or another credit event similar to 2008 to tell us stocks are overpriced and cause them to tumble?

It’s official — house prices are now as high as they were at the bubble peak in 2006 according to the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index.

It’s been a tough year for bonds so far. Of course, a tough year for bonds can be a tough day for stocks. But investors seem equally disturbed by a 2% loss in bonds as by a 10% or more loss in stocks, so it’s worth looking at bond funds.

Investors unable to resolve the mixed signals of traditional value sector underperformance and growth sector cheapness on a CAPE basis can pair the DoubleLine fund with one of the other value funds.

A bubble might be easy to spot, but it’s hard to trade.

Indexing your investments is a good way to increase your chances of doing better than average.