Even without congressional action, the retirement system won’t go broke for decades, so why all the fuss? It’s all about scaring voters. By David Morris, Senior Political Editor, The Kiplinger Letter That’s right. The sky is not falling. It’s not, as retiring rockers R.E.M. would put it, “the end of the world as we know …
Continue reading The Mythical Social Security Crisis of 2011
I’ve recently realized that for the past several years as an investment advisor, I’ve been doing my best to force square pegs into round holes. And it hasn’t worked very well. You’d think with all my experience, it would have become obvious much sooner, but apart from being uncomfortable, I had no clear understanding until …
This is a continuation of my recent argument in favor of a different approach to how you, as a consumer of financial advice, and we, as advisors, need to manage your retirement money. Or any money you have for that matter. In 2008, U.S. equities were gutted. 99.8% of all U.S. equity mutual funds had …
Continue reading The Case for Alternative Investments – Part XI
Are Americans financially prepared for life after work? By Jeff Schlegel. Timely article that appeared on the Financial Advisor website August 17, 2011. It helps contrast what I am doing for my clients today with what the industry as a whole is focused on (or not focused on, if that makes sense). A recent Google …
Here is your Weekly Insights update from Curian’s Asset Management Group. This informative capital market update is designed to help you stay informed about important developments in economics, the markets, and … Continue reading...
As we all know, the origin of the current financial crisis was the subprime mortgage meltdown in the United States. To be more precise, it originated in a financial system generating paper assets whose value depended on the price of housing. It assumed that the price of homes would always rise and, at the very …
Here’s your Weekly Insights update from Curian’s Asset Management Group. This informative capital market update is designed to help you stay informed about important developments from the past week, as well as provide thoughtful commentary on how these events might… CONTINUE…
It's based on data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Its significance is not partisan (who's "to blame" for the deficit) but intellectual. It demonstrates the utter incoherence of being very concerned about a structural federal deficit, but ruling out of consideration the policy that was the largest …
You are perhaps glad I’m now close to the end of this conversation about Alternative Investments. I know I am. This one is intended as a summary, based on a recent letter to my clients. It’s a little long but I encourage you to get to the end. Most of us have been struggling with …
Continue reading The Case for Alternative Investments – Part IX
When I started this series, I began with some definitions to help the reader understand some of the jargon inherent to the discussion. One word I forgot to define is “correlation”. In financial terms, it refers to the extent to which the value of different asset classes (bonds, stocks, gold, etc.) move in relation to …
Continue reading The Case for Alternative Investments – Part VI
Helping Define Your Financial Future 