Financial advisors specializing in investments, life insurance, and retirement planning with investor coaching in Altoona, Lewisburg, State College, PA and the surrounding areas.
The month of July (and now August) must have been the worst nightmare for advisors who recommend market timing (otherwise known as tactical asset management) as the investment method of choice to their clients.
Market timers, of course, have to be right two times – they try to predict not only when to get out of the market, but also when to get back in. This is an impossible task during normal times, and doubly so last month.
Burton Malkiel had a great article in today’s WSJ. Malkiel is a highly regarded professor from Princeton and the author of the investing bible, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. Here’s a link to the article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903366504576492512709525754.html
The title really says it all….Don’t Panic About the Stock Market, Investors who resist the urge to get out during rough times like this will be glad they did.
Supposedly, Freud once posed the question: What do Women Want?
It seems to me the Financial Industry is still trying to figure that out. (But then again, aren’t most men?)
Smart Money reports that over 70% of women feel underserved and dissatisfied with the financial-planning services they receive.
This crazy economy has handed advisors a golden opportunity to reach out to women…who know they need help and, according to the question I get most often, are desperately looking for advisors they can trust.
Here’s where I believe the financial industry has missed the boat. Advisors are talking to women just like they do men…because the financial world is based on the male model of communication. Big mistake.
Women are not men!
You’ve probably heard Einstein’s definition of insanity…doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Seems that the majority of sophisticated institutional investors as well as individual investors could be deemed insane by Einstein’s definition. Seems like most people are looking for the money manager with the “hot” hand. This usually ends up with very disappointing results. Yet, investors continue the same process over and over again.
Listen to this short video were Larry Swedroe discusses this phenomenon.
http://moneywatch.bnet.com:80/investing/video/why-good-fund-managers-get-poor-results/6250481/?tag=video-river;video-load-river
What’s the Little Known Secret that many mutual fund managers wish you didn’t know? You won’t believe itwhen I tell you. Many mutual fundmanagers do not invest in their own funds. Kind of unbelievable, isn’t it!
Investment News, a trade publication that guys like me readat the breakfast table, recently ran an article about a new Morningstar study.(Morningstar is a company that tracks and rates mutual funds.)
According to Investment News, the Morningstar study foundthat only about 40% of fund managers actually invest in their own funds.
Would you like to know what percent of mutual fund managershad ownership stakes in the study Morningstar conducted two years ago? It was 49%. Not exactly going in the right direction.
Whenever I review a prospective client’s investment portfolio, I rarely see one that is truly globally diversified. The biggest problem I see is that most people are woefully over-weighted in US stocks. To make matters even worse, its usually exposure to just large US company stocks.
Their advisors might have placed them into General Motors, GE, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and similar large stocks.
The problem here is that the investor thinks he or she is properly diversified, but in reality, they have several sectors representing only two asset classes. So when one of the stocks rises, generally they all rise. But when one drops in price, more often then not they all drop. The result: unintentional wild swings in account values.
I often get the deer in headlight stare when I ask that question. My father was a taskmaster my whole life….to the point of annoyance as a young person. The […]
Just getting back from the Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) conference in Austin. Other than 104 degree temperatures, it was a great conference.
Anyways, I got to meet and talk to Eugene Fama and Kenneth French. They will probably win a Nobel Prize at some point for their ground breaking research on which our portfolios are based. They are some big brains!
I’d like to share with you a little of what French had to say. I love the consistency of his message. He doesn’t change with the wind. Based on his extensive research, he knows what works and he sticks with it through all market cycles. He only has ONE message.
Women More Likely To Consult A Professional Advisor
Women investors are more likely to consult a professional financial advisor than men, according to a new study of wealthy women investors released by the Spectrem Group on Tuesday.
According to the Lake Forest, Ill.-based consulting firm, around 46 percent of those with a net worth of between $100,000 and $1 million rely primarily on a financial advisor for their information. Women’s use of financial advice increases with wealth levels, according to the survey. Roughly 64 percent of female millionaire investors and 82 percent of female ultra-high-net-worth investors — with assets of $5 million and up — seek financial information from a professional advisor.
This weeks Weekly Clarity Coaching is also this months “Town & Gown coaching article that we create here at Financial Abundance. For those not local, T&G is a prestigious local magazine, a State College and Penn State tradition since 1966. This month article featured Deb Seward here in the office and she explains why most american’s end up with a lot of stuff in their portfolio. A short and informative read…
Many people walk through life trying to be good stewards and prudent investors finding on the eve of retirement that they basically acquired a huge pot luck of various investments […]
This weekend is very special! As a peace time veteran I did have often considered myself lucky not to have served in combat. My job description and duties as a crew chief in Ch-53’s would have put me in the line of fire. I often think of my military service with a humble heart and say to myself “there but for the grace of god go I” when pondering on those currently in harms way.
This weeks Weekly Clarity Coaching is coming from Deb Seaward here in our office. She has been working hard to add some coaching for women to our office, here is a taste of more to come.
Men no need to watch this one…..not!!!! Guys the ladies in our lives are far too important, lets all get coached up!
This week’s weekly clarity coaching is a video from Fox Business News discussing “How the Government Deficits Impacts How You Invest”. Mark Matson does a great job keeping the hype in check and once again providing a rational and prudent approach to the TRADITIONAL mantra “chase the market”.
Have you ever wondered why most of the financial information on the air waves is centered on short term news bites attempting justification for proactively managing our wealth?? Changing ones investment to correspond with the current economic environment?
This week’s weekly clarity coaching is a video I recently ran across of one of my favorite economists, Milton Friedman. It’s a 30-year-old interview. The interview is from March 21, 1982. I found this nostalgic and interesting because it’s the old panel format.
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