Young Research & Publishing Inc.

Investment Research Since 1978

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Write These Six Words Down

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If you are looking for the best advice I can give anyone getting started in investing, you’ll need to travel back to November 1989. At the time, I was debriefing on the Blanchard’s NCMR New Orleans Investment Conference of that year, at which I had spoken. An attendee asked me a question, and my answer included the six most important words in investing. I wrote of the scene: THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS IN INVESTING I’ve just returned from speaking at the biggest investment conference in the U.S. I now speak at only one national conference per year, and Blanchard’s NCMR annual extravaganza is … [Read more...]

No Second-Guessing, No Deviation from Focus

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Here’s what I told you, all the way back in February of 2015: stay fully invested. I wrote: Stay Fully Invested As I’ve written ad nauseam, I do not get in and out of the markets. I maintain my fixed income/equities balance, adjusting as time passes (fast) for my age. For an investor who is crafting a dividends/interest-oriented portfolio to pass along to heirs, I can live with a 75/25% equities/ fixed income mix. But where income and safety in retirement is the target, the reverse ratio is optimal—no second-guessing, no deviation from focus, and no market timing to be … [Read more...]

The Most Frequently Asked Investor Question

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Throughout my years in the investment industry, the question most frequently asked by clients is probably “How are we doing?” In June 2015 I explained how I answer that question. I wrote: How Are We Doing? Throughout my first 28 years in the investment industry, I worked in the trenches, talking daily with clients and the financial media, as well as speaking at investment seminars around the world. All that changed in 1992, when I decided to move off the front lines and concentrate exclusively on research and writing, and Debbie and I moved to Key West, only 90 miles from Cuba. Hard to … [Read more...]

The Less You Spin, The More You Win

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Making fewer, more focused decisions with your portfolio is a vastly superior strategy when compared to ill-considered rapid fire trading in and out of stocks. In July of 1997, I wrote about the benefits of a minimalist approach in life. The moral of the story being, the less you spin, the more you win. Here’s what I wrote then: MONK!... That’s it. Four letters say it all. Thelonious Sphere Monk died on 17 February 1982, over 15 years ago. Still today, when the name Monk comes up in Jazz circles, no explanation is needed. From his early days in the San Juan Hill West 60s section of New … [Read more...]

A Record Breaking Stock-Market

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While I was speaking with clients this morning, we reviewed the current stock market and what may lie ahead. We talked about the record start to the year, with the S&P 500 on track for the best first four-months in more than three decades. We also talked about the bond side of their portfolio, and the role it plays. To me, this feels like what the late-great Richard Russell would refer to as the third phase in the bull market. The first is the low-hanging fruit, then the moderate advance—both climbing a wall of worry—into the “we can’t afford to miss the boat” third phase, when … [Read more...]

Want to Double Your Money in Investing? Read This First

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Over my five-decade career in investing I have placed high value on on-the-ground intelligence gathered from real people. That’s why Debbie and I have spent so much time travelling in America and abroad, meeting business owners and retirees, and talking to everyone from VIPs to bus boys. Each has a story to tell and information to provide. Along our way, Debbie and I have been to some of the world’s most interesting places. In November of 1995, I wrote to readers about our trip to the Biltmore Estate. Read my account here: The Largest Private Residence in America Biltmore Estate, … [Read more...]

How Many “Retirees” Will Keep Working?: Today’s Elderly Twice as Likely to Work than in 1985

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Americans aren't saving enough. That's not all their fault. The Fed has kept interest rates low, depriving savers of decent rates of return on their savings. And a decade of misguided monetary policy hasn't managed to get wages growing very much. So many Americans who would prefer to retire, cannot. They are being forced to work into old age, and today elderly Americans are twice as likely to be working as they were in 1985. Bloomberg's Suzanne Woolley reports: Just as single-income families began to vanish in the last century, many of America’s elderly are now forgoing retirement for the … [Read more...]

New Jersey Opens a New Front in the Fiduciary Fight

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Over the last few years the battle over the fiduciary duty of financial advisors has been fought at the federal level, but now New Jersey, a state that is home to many financial firms, is opening a new front in the war. New Jersey's governor wants to force financial firms registered in New Jersey to adopt a fiduciary standard. I encourage all investors to find advisors held to a fiduciary standard, as it's the only way to ensure an advisor has the clients' best interests in mind. Other advisors held to the much lower 'suitability standard' could be more willing to fill their clients' … [Read more...]

Dead or Alive? The Future of Long-Term Investing: Part III

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“If the phone doesn’t ring it’s me” -- Jimmy Buffett It’s funny how time heals temporary temptations and laps of reason. I wrote the piece below on October 16, 2014. Then the Dow was down from a recent peak and investors were scared. But those who followed their long-term investment plan and didn't panic, made it through. Yesterday the Dow closed at 26,157.16. Investors who panicked and sold missed all that. Tomorrow markets could drop again, but if you prepare yourself with a diversified, income focused portfolio and the determination to stick to an investment plan that avoids risk whenever … [Read more...]

Two Strategies to Avoid Outliving Your Money

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In July 2007 there was a sense of unease in the markets and I was warning investors to prepare themselves with a low draw on their portfolios. I also gave investors two ways to help prevent outliving their money. Read here: At the start, retired investors and investors saving seriously for retirement (76 million boomers will begin retiring next summer) must answer two basic questions: (1) What is the proper mix of stocks and bonds? (2) How much money can be drawn annually from an investment portfolio? I have used Ibbotson data and examined 20-year rolling time periods from 1926 on. I have … [Read more...]