Aug
Uncategorized
Aug
10
2016
Financial Literacy, How Bad Is It?
There is no question; America has a financial literacy issue. A report from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation says that two out of every three American adults “lack financial literacy” and that approximately 37% of Americans could pass a basic economic/financial knowledge test. More from the study: 9% are underwater on their home mortgage 21% have overdue medical bills 18% of respondents spend more than...
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Aug
03
2016Make More or Spend Less?
Many people think the key to a successful retirement is making more money. However, believe it or not, focusing on how much you spend (your expenses) may help more. Reducing your debt before entering retirement can also help make those years less stressful. To test this theory, we ran a hypothetical scenario through our financial planning software. With all other factors remaining constant, we ran...
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Jun
01
2016
It’s an Election Year! Stocks Have to Behave Differently
Well, the reality is that stocks don’t just perform differently, they perform better*. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has had an average total return of slightly better than +11% in all election years. There have been 22 elections since the S&P 500 index began; 82% of the time the index was positive. When a Republican was elected, the return was +15.6%. When a Democrat was...
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Dec
16
2015
It Pays to Stay!
It’s easy to let the emotions of greed and fear drive our investment decisions. I once heard another financial professional say, “We don’t have people with investment problems, we have investments with people problems!” I do see some truth to this. To be fair though, it’s easy to see why investors repeat bad investment behavior. After all, we are human. I mean, if somehow we...
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Oct
27
2015
Investing Can Be Soooo Scary!
With Halloween upon us lets discuss some practical ways to make investing less scary… Unless you have the knowledge, desire and time (and lots of money) stay away from picking individual stocks. There are plenty of more efficient ways to invest in equities. Diversify, diversify, diversify. I know, sounds rhetorical, but believe it or not, American investors do very poorly at this simple concept. Studies...
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Sep
24
2015The Long Term Care Dilemma
As advisors, our job is to make sure the client is prepared for unique retirement situations. One of the biggest issues currently facing many retirees is the growing need for long term care. The statistics for long term care are overwhelming: *At least 70% of people over 65 will need long term care services and support sometime during their lives (2015 Medicare and you report)...
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Sep
18
2015
Don’t Forget About Mid Cap…
Most investors have heard of Large Cap stocks and Small Cap stocks but the “sweet spot” with asset allocation may exist in the Mid Cap space. Mid-size companies are often described as the “sweet spot” of investing. They combine some of the best features of large and small companies. Many investors are underexposed to Mid Caps even though they can be more mature businesses but less...
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Sep
02
2015What has market volatility taught us?
Wow. What a week! One day the markets are 600 points down, then 600 points up the next. Crazy stuff! As advisors, we tell our clients not to watch this stuff, but it is hard to avoid when we have so much access to what’s going on in the world around us. It’s like rubbernecking. We all are so drawn in by the wreckage, we...
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Aug
24
2015The Art of Delegating
I know I have been told by some that I have a big ego. I don’t dispute that. I have been a competitor my whole life, in sports when I was younger and now in business. One thing I do believe has helped me along the way is the faith I have in other people. Let me put it this way, my ego is not...
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