Bob Doll Judges His Top 10 Predictions for 2013

My Comments: I met Bob Doll some twenty years ago when he was a regional VP for Oppenheimer Funds. At least that’s what my memory tells me about him. Today, he is one of the most influential money management gurus on the planet. His thinking is more often than not, spot on. By Joyce Hanson, …

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Egypt: Persistent Issues Undermine Stability

My Comments: This article comes from Stratfor, a reliable source of information about global politics and economics. The conclusion is not a good one. And if you happen to wonder why a financial planner is Florida gives a tinker’s damn about what is happening in Egypt, it’s because it will influence how life plays out …

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When a Family Member Dies; A Financial Checklist

My Comments: My wife of almost 43 years and I have been very fortunate in that the only deaths we’ve experienced among our extended family has been our respective parents. But I’ve had many a client pass away and from time to time, chaos has followed, along with hard feelings and despair. The quicker everyone …

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Happy 4th of July !

This expression is unique to America. With it we celebrate the declaration of independence from Great Britain with fireworks and such. As someone born in Great Britain, but now a certified citizen of these United States, the 4th of July is an established part of psyche. But memories of my childhood include the celebration of …

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US Deficit Falls Faster Than Expected

My Comments: It would be easy to get overly excited about this. Certainly it’s good news but to believe it’s a fundamental shift in the economy is stretching things. For one thing, the sequester that happened recently simply means that the Federal government is spending less money. But for those of us looking for good …

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The U.S. Tax System: How Did We Get Here? Pt. 1, the Early Years

My Thoughts on This: I was taught long ago that no one has a responsibility to pay more in taxes than is required. It’s up to you and I to figure out what is required. So we push the envelope and either through good fortune or because we really know what we are doing, we …

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Farnarkeling

Farnarkeling is a sport which began in Mesopotamia, which literally means ‘between the rivers’. This would put it somewhere in Victoria or New South Wales between the Murray and the Darling. The word Farnarkeling is Icelandic in structure, Urdu in metre and Celtic in the intimacy of its relationship between meaning and tone. Farnarkeling is …

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Obama Planned Big Budget Cuts All Along

My Comments: I’m trying to decide if the author of this article is fundamentally to the left of the Obama administration and therefore critical of his lack of fire in promoting new revenue sources for the country, ie higher taxes, or whether the writer is critical because virtually everyone on the right is critical, regardless …

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Big GM Investment in China

My Comments: Not talked about much during the recent election campaign but in the back of my mind as I pondered the merits of the GOP vs Dems. The neo-con crowd who were backing Romney were the same people who pushed as hard as anyone to get us into Iraq in 2002-03 and have been …

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3 Self-Defeating Investor Behaviors:

By Joyce Hanson, AdvisorOne The intricacies of investor psychology shed light on what people are doing to miss out on long-term opportunities—and on how advisors can help them overcome those behavioral hurdles, according to a recent report from Franklin Templeton Investments. Behavioral phenomena can have a negative impact on investor psychology, says Franklin Templeton in …

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