Top 10 Mistakes #9
August 28, 2009 Most investors fail to make dividends their #1 priority. When it comes to stocks, if you are retired or saving for retirement within the next decade or so, dividends and dividend growth must dominate your thought process. If the results of the last decade have taught conservative investors... Read the full story
Don’t Miss the Boat: Investment Advisers See Inflow of $108 Billion
In 2008 alone $108 billion flowed into the top three custodians for investment advisers while the big-four Wall Street brokerages had an outflow of $8 billion, according to The WSJ. If you have a 401(k), I suggest you do what many others have already done and roll it over to an IRA the moment you are... Read the full story
Top 10 Mistakes #10
August 21, 2009 In the coming weeks, I will lay out the 10 biggest potential tragedies and traps for investors this summer. Number 10 on my list is not recognizing that the recession is over. The media have largely missed the transition. But let me prove to you that the worst of the recession ended in... Read the full story
Protect your Portfolio from the Blindside
On day one of football training camp, the first lesson many players learn is to play to the whistle. My coach used to drill this into all the new players. He’d say, “I don’t care if the ball is 50 yards downfield, you play full speed until the ref blows the whistle.” When the... Read the full story
The Magic Number
The magic number for retirement is four, as in a 4% annual draw on the initial balance of your retirement portfolio. Thus, if your portfolio totals $1 million, you draw $40,000 in year number one. In future years, you draw 4% or $40,000 annually, whichever is less. To achieve the 4% goal, you will want... Read the full story
A Strategy for the Current Stock Market Rally
The S&P 500 is up 15% since July 10 and up close to 50% from its March low. What’s the catalyst for recent gains? A strong second-quarter earnings season. More than 75% of S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings beat analysts’ estimates. Strong second-quarter earnings gave the... Read the full story
The 401(k) is Broken
The 401(k) is broken. Year-end 401(k) assets were $2.4 trillion, down $600 billion from year-end 2007 including the inflow from employer match and employee contributions. Average participant investment performance was down 27%. That’s average. Many did much, much worse and some people are retiring... Read the full story
Telling Stories
Last week, I wrote about a possible bubble developing in the Chinese stock market. If you missed it (we experienced some technical difficulties) you can read it here. Every great bubble is accompanied by a great story. In the dot-com stock bubble, investors were mesmerized by the awe-inspiring potential... Read the full story
Earnings Will Soar
August 7, 2009 More than 75 million Americans began retiring last summer. And as a result of the ferocious 2008-2009 economic collapse, for thousands of them, retirement began a lot sooner than expected. Overall, jobs in the economy are being lost by the millions. See any winners here? I do, and big... Read the full story
