Investment
Alternative Investments
Many investors are less than enthused about the current valuations of traditional investments like stocks and bonds. After a decade-long bull market where the S&P 500 averaged more than 16% per year as of April, stocks are trading at historically high valuations. Bonds are offering very low yields compared to prior decades and the Federal…
Read MoreStrategies to prevent outliving your money
According to the Social Security Administration, if you are 65 you have a 25 percent chance of living to age 90 and a 10 percent chance of living to age 95. This means, not only do you need to have enough income to provide for your desired lifestyle at your retirement age, but that income…
Read MoreIs your portfolio too risky?
Many investors who have watched their account values consistently rise over the last decade are very happy with their investments. However, during times of low volatility and steady gains, investors may tend to under estimate the risk of their portfolios and overestimate their own investment prowess. Eventually, the stock market will have a bad year…
Read MoreRed October
After an extended period of steadily rising markets and low volatility, October was a very bad month for stocks. The S&P 500 fell about 10 percent from the beginning of the month before finishing the month down 7.3 percent. The technology-laden NASDAQ index fell even further before finishing down about 9 percent. Many investors…
Read MoreIs the market going to do well?
It’s not uncommon for new clients to ask me how I think the market will perform. I guess some people expect their financial advisers to have a unique ability to predict the future. Many advisers will actually offer their opinion about how they believe the stock market will perform in the near future, either because…
Read MoreInvestment portfolios face troubling realities
We have all heard the phrase “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” The average 60/40 stock portfolio has performed quite well since 1982, with an average return of about 10.2 percent1, although the average equity mutual fund investor typically earned less than 4 percent2 during that time, but that’s another story. The last…
Read MoreInvestor sentiment
Back in 1999, I recall meeting with clients regarding their financial planning. At the time, most people were enjoying stellar returns in their tech-heavy portfolios and they tended to be unrealistically optimistic. When I would suggest the assumptive rate of 10 percent for future planning purposes, they would typically chastise me for proposing such “conservative”…
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