We are reminded of the John F. Kennedy quote, “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” The turmoil we are experiencing due to the trade war with China might be described as a crisis. And it certainly holds both danger and opportunity. If you are in retirement and taking from your investments for regular living expenses, you may feel that your well-being...
Recently, a client asked-"Why should I buy bonds when interest rates are rising? It’s my understanding that when interest rates rise, existing bonds decrease in value.” Typically, bonds play an important role within our portfolios as volatility reducers. Also, if you will need to withdraw investments for current needs over the next 1-5 years, it is important to maintain bond investments as “safe assets.” We choose to invest in bond funds rather than individual bonds...
Understanding your risk tolerance is one of the most important elements of investing; knowing how your risk tolerance effects your investment decisions is vital to the health of your portfolio. Risk tolerance is most prevalently understood as a measure of one’s financial ability to withstand losses. On the risk-reward continuum, the more risk one takes, the greater the reward should be expected, and vice versa. For example, an investor who can withstand a 25 percent...
Have you made up your mind on just about everything, even before you know what it is? For instance, when you meet someone, is your opinion of the person formed from the first impression? Or, when you hear a political argument from the other side, is your mind opened or closed? Are you able to concede the “good points” the other side make, or do you dismiss the whole argument? We encounter people and ideas...
If you’ve ever played the Game of Life board game, it becomes clear that compressed into the colorful path there are various stages of life. Each stage holds its own major financial challenges as well as prospective profits in addition to surprises and forks in the road. In the real world game of life, much is the same, but with sound financial planning throughout the different stages of life, you can have much more control...
After the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, we dig up our hopes & dreams and make some resolutions; getting back in the gym, losing weight, and eating clean, are usually at the top of the list. But what about your finances? The health of your accounts, spending habits, and investments are just as important to evaluate. When it comes to your financial resolutions this year (and beyond) use these tips to actually keep and...
The stockings are already hung, candles lit, lights strung, and carols sung but the financial stress has begun to peek from behind the corners of brown paper packages tied up with string. Everything’s shiny and cozy but you can’t shake that feeling that you went way over budget this holiday. You’re not alone; holidays are a particularly stressful time for many financially. The average American spends $700 on holiday gifts and goods bringing the total...
Retirement doesn’t mean the end, it just means a new chapter—a paradigm shift of what life is beyond long days and meetings and bosses. You’re not solely defined by the question, “What do you do?” However, it doesn’t mean you should stop defining the answer for such an inquiry in your retirement era. When you have a vision of what you want life in retirement to be, your golden years can really shine. Consider these...
After several years of wallowing in financial upheaval caused by a severe recession and financial crisis, Americans are looking to the future once again. A renewed confidence has many people setting their sights on long term goals that may have seemed out of reach just a few years ago. However, as too many people have painfully learned, simply having a long-term goal is not enough to realize your ambition. Financial peace is a life destination...
Chances are good that if you read or watch the prime time news on any given day, one of the top stories will relate to emerging risks around the world. Whether it’s strife in the Middle East, tensions with Russia, or the ever-shifting balance of power between global powers, this much seems obvious: we live in a time of both unprecedented global complexity and the technological capability to watch events unfold in real time. Without...
All investors – be they conservative, moderate or aggressive – need to understand that the level of return they expect to generate is directly related to the amount of risk they are willing to assume – the higher the return, the higher the amount of risk. Regardless of where you put your money, you assume some element of risk. For instance, if you focus solely on keeping your money safe from the possibility of loss...
Investors are prone to many behavioral mistakes that can cost them dearly. Trying to time the market, trying to pick the winners, chasing returns, trying to go it alone are among the most common. But the one that can inflict the most damage over a period of time is when they succumb to investing inertia. What is investing inertia? In physics, inertia refers to an object’s amount of resistance to change in velocity. Without some...
