My Comments: Two years ago I began trying to understand what appeared as a new class of investments. Over my 40 year career as a financial consultant, stocks and bonds in all their many variations formed the basis for investment decisions. Over that time, stocks and bonds tended to be relatively uncorrelated, meaning their ups …
Category: Investment Planning
Stimulate Your Customer’s Lizard Brain to Make a Sale
Or: Stimulate Your (fill in the blank) Lizard Brain to Make a (fill in another blank) Apart from the fact this is a fun photograph to look at, there's a message here that applies to me as a financial advisor looking for new clients, for a politician hoping to get people to vote for them, …
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A Modern-day Depression: The Current Secular Market Cycle Mirrors the Past
My Comments: This article is further confirmation that these are not “normal” times. My efforts to help you manage your money cannot follow the traditional “buy and hold” approach that worked in the eighties and nineties. If you expect to have more money in the future than you have now, you have to be either …
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Is Another Lost Decade on the Horizon?
My Comments: This article, which appeared in a recent issue of “Producers Web”, an online magazine that caters to the investment and financial planning community, affirms what I have been telling clients and prospective clients now for about five years. Namely, that we are looking at another 5 – 8 years of essentially sideways movement …
Only Half of Americans Financially Prepared to Live Longer
My Comments: I know, I know, I promised to add stuff that was more positive going forward. Only it’s hard to find. And as I age, along with you, I’m reminded that given medical advances, both of us might be dead by now had we lived a 100 years ago. But we’re not, and that’s …
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The Paradox of Being Prepared
My Comments: The author of this article has a blog about investments that is both entertaining and informative. As much as anything, he doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is a fault many of us have. It’s long, but a good one... by Jeffrey Dow Jones Turns out our newsletter last week on China was …
Navigating the Landscape of Healthcare Reform
How the Affordable Care Act Impacts Vision and Dental Plans My Comments: We’re still waiting to hear what the Supreme Court is going to say about the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Personally, I don’t have a problem with the mandate and while I have reservations about some of the provisions …
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Finance Can Fund a Revolution in Giving
My Comment: Finding ways to give back to your community is a classic step toward redemption. My friends would be hard pressed, however, to assign that motivation to me. I do it because it seems appropriate, because I can, and because it allows me to interact with other intelligent and motivated people. In these days …
How to Play Defense Against Volatility in Your Portfolio
My Comment: It’s sometimes helpful to look back a few months, sometimes a few years, to see what I was thinking at the time and to compare what was then with what we see now. For example, as investment advisors we have long embraced the idea of a diversified portfolio to minimize risk. Think Enron; …
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J.P. Morgan Weekly Market Recap – March 26, 2012
A summary of what happened last week, and might happen this week. Click HERE...
Helping Define Your Financial Future 