White Paper on Computing Tools for Promoting Sound Investment Decisions

Numerous academic studies document that retail investors make systematic “mistakes” in assessing the risk and return characteristics of their portfolios. In this paper, I introduce a computing tool which can help individuals better assess these characteristics by displaying simulated portfolio returns. This paper features a demo version of this calculator for the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan. The output shows that riskier investments can lead to higher wealth outcomes than less risky investments although this outperformance is sensitive to assumptions about the mean return, particularly at long horizons. In addition, the risk of such investments does not decrease but rather increases with time horizon.

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City of Cedar Park

Cedar Park, Texas is a city that espouses the core values of community, service, innovation, professionalism, integrity, leadership, and fiscal responsibility. These standards are at the heart of daily life for Cedar Park citizens, City leaders, City staff, and business leaders.

OTHER WHITEPAPERS
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Next-Generation Systems for Intelligent, Efficient, Citizen-Centric Government

whitePaper | March 15, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic increased pressure on senior civil servants to do things differently. Citizen trust in government grew to an all-time high in 2020 in many countries, according to the OECD1 . This trust in public institutions empowered governments across Europe and the Middle East to respond rapidly and plan bold investments for an inclusive recovery centered on innovation, digital and climate transitions, and resilience2 . With bold plans came elevated expectations to procure goods and services more efficiently and effectively, scale investments in digital infrastructure, and deliver seamless services to citizens and businesses, while making sure that costs do not spiral out of control, in the medium-to-long term

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The Ultimate Guide to Government CX

whitePaper | December 26, 2019

Transforming the way governments serve the public is about more than choosing the right technologies. This level of change requires agencies to rethink how they engage their customers — from citizens and external partners to the frontline employees assisting the public.

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Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2021

whitePaper | November 3, 2021

The Department of Defense (DoD) annual report to Congress on military and security developments involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) provides a baseline assessment of the Department’s pacing challenge. The PRC has long viewed the United States as a competitor and has characterized its view of strategic competition in terms of a rivalry among powerful nation states, as well as a clash of opposing systems. As expressed in the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, the PRC is the only competitor capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system. The PRC is increasingly clear in its ambitions and intentions.

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Government Enters the Metaverse

whitePaper | September 12, 2022

Four trends reshaping government for the metaverse continuum.

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Nudging Government to Use Evidence

whitePaper | March 30, 2022

Why have we written disparaging statements about government when our firm is so deeply committed to public sector excellence? These include statements like “as the fire rages on, our governments seem powerless” and “hunches no longer pass for evidence these days, unless we’re talking about government policy.” We have compared the policy-making process to a chaotic game of tag and suggested that government policymakers can act as seemingly irrational as Cosmo Kramer did on Seinfeld.

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The National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States

whitePaper | February 21, 2020

Protecting our Nation’s security and continuing to enhance the prosperity of our citizens are my top priorities. Ensuring that the United States is protected against espionage and other damaging intelligence activities conducted by our foreign adversaries is essential to meeting those goals. The Nation faces an expanding array of foreign intelligence threats by adversaries who are using increasingly sophisticated methods to harm the United States.

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Spotlight

City of Cedar Park

Cedar Park, Texas is a city that espouses the core values of community, service, innovation, professionalism, integrity, leadership, and fiscal responsibility. These standards are at the heart of daily life for Cedar Park citizens, City leaders, City staff, and business leaders.

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