Bernard Baruch is not a household name, so a quick background is in order. He was a financier, a stock investor, a philanthropist, and an economic advisor to Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. Baruch once quipped, “The main purpose of the stock market...
November 2015 Monthly Insight: Budget Bill Changes Social Security Strategies
October was a wild month for the markets—and for many baby boomers who planned for retirement income by synchronizing and coordinating their timing for claiming Social Security benefits. The last week in October saw Congress put an end to two Social Security filing...
October 2015 Monthly Insight: Volatility is a Natural Part of the Market
Last month's letter talked about preparing yourself for major market moves, especially downward moves, by conducting "lifeboat drills" in order to dampen your "startle response", which might result in an inappropriate decision that would derail your long-term...
September 2015 Monthly Insight: Taming Your Startle Response
Last week Don and I sent out a special newsletter that highlighted historical market volatility and average recovery time it has taken the markets to return to previous highs. For example, investors can expect draws down of approximately 10% about once a year. A...
August 2015 Monthly Insight: The Viability of Social Security
Social Security offers U.S. Government-guaranteed, inflation-adjusted lifetime income. Having such a guaranteed income is of great importance to most retirees, and it’s important to understand how timing and claiming decisions for Social Security can have an impact...
July 2015 Monthly Insight: The “Greek Tragedy” of Debt Default
Over the last month, Don and I have watched with passive interest the long-running saga regarding the potential of Greece defaulting on its scheduled debt payment on June 30. This "Greek tragedy" has actually been running since at least December 2009. As a matter of...
June 2015 Monthly Insight: Savings vs. Investing
One of the important tenets of financial and retirement planning is to strategically match your upcoming liabilities (such as college funding, a second home purchase, or retirement income) to assets in your savings or investment accounts. Notice we mention two types...
April 2015 Monthly Insight: Takeaways from Warren Buffett’s Stellar 50-Year Track Record
What comes to mind when you hear the name Warren Buffett – investor, mutual fund manager, CEO, entrepreneur, stock picker, philanthropist, or billionaire? Or maybe something else comes to mind? Whatever you think, one thing is clear: he has made a lot of money...
March 2015 Monthly Insight: Maintaining the Course in Volatile Markets
Monday, March 9 is the sixth anniversary of the S&P 500 hitting bottom after dropping over 57% from peak-to-trough over the previous 17 months. In other words, from October 2007 to March 2009 the market dropped 57% and then for no reason anyone can identify and...
February 2015 Monthly Insight: The January Barometer and Portfolio Risk
The January Barometer Historically, the S&P 500 performance in the first month of the year has an 88% chance of indicating where the index will end the year, according to Stock Trader’s Almanac. Since 1950 there have been only 8 years the trend didn’t hold....