Monthly Archives: September 2009
Fill Your Buckets – Utah Business Magazine
I wrote an article appearing in the September issue of Utah Business Magazine which describes how to merge your investment portfolio with your daily cash flow management. The article, titled “Fill Your Buckets: Ensure Liquidity in Investment Portfolios,” explains the benefit of specifying the short, medium, and long-term portions of a nest egg. Swing by [...]
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An Argument Against Home Ownership
Today, it was reported that the median price of a single-family home dropped 2.3% in August. The stock market sold off on the news. For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, this chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 39 years. Housing prices increased at a [...]
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Two-Thirds of Investors Don’t Have a Financial Plan
Despite increasing pressure to slash debt and rebuild retirement funds, two-thirds of consumers do not have a written financial plan, according to the 2009 National Consumer Survey on Personal Finance.
The survey, released today by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, found that 64% of respondents do not have a written financial plan in place, [...]
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How Much Slack is in the U.S. Economy?
The past six months would indicate the U.S. economy has bottomed out and begun to turn around. All leading indicators are positive, and trailing indicators are coming in relatively strong, compared to the downturn. However, there is a lot of room for growth. These stats provide some insight into how much the U.S. economy must [...]
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An Update on Pension Plans and Social Security
Melanie Waddell of Investment Advisor magazine recently provided updated data concerning the continued viability of corporate pension plans and Social Security:
A new study by global consulting firm Mercer has found that the funded status of pension plans for S&P 1500 companies fell again in July for the third consecutive month. According to Mercer, “although equity [...]
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Is Diversification Back?
Many financial advisors are currently trying to attract clients by offering non-traditional methods of investing. They justify these non-traditional approaches by claiming diversification among common asset classes is no longer effective.
Admittedly, diversification did not protect investor’s portfolios in 2008. The performance of all equity asset classes – such as large cap, mid cap, small cap, [...]
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Chart of the Day: The Dow / Gold Ratio
For some perspective on the current rally that began back on March 9th, today’s chart presents the Dow divided by the price of one ounce of gold. This results in what is referred to as the Dow / gold ratio or the cost of the Dow in ounces of gold. For example, it currently takes [...]
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What to Do Now?
These financial planning tips never go out of style.
DO:
Have a financial plan documenting where you want to be and how you are going to get there.
Have an investment policy statement detailing how you will make investment decisions. This will prevent you from making emotionally-charged investment choices.
Work with a financial planner who is compensated to provide [...]
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Chart of the Day
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Today, the Labor Department reported [...]
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FDIC Falls Into the Red