When people ask me what I do sometimes I struggle with what terminology to use. Not because I don’t know what I do, but because all of the most accurate descriptors have been co-opted by an industry that I honestly don’t want to be associated with. As a result the term financial adviser has lost all significance in my opinion.
Last month Wells Fargo was hit with a $185 million fine by the CFBP for illegally opening upwards of 2 million fraudulent accounts for their customers over the past several years. Their response was to fire 5,300 low level employees and issue an apology, but where is the accountability for senior level management?
Bonds are an asset class that we have been giving a lot of thought to lately. Bonds are in bondage to the low rates created by loose monetary policy, and the question of what to do about it is one of the more frequent ones we field in client meetings.
This week’s Insight is an excerpt from a recent publication by 361 Capital regarding year-to-date performance, diversification and how portfolios are constructed. We especially like the analogy comparing portfolio construction to a chef preparing a meal, and we believe alternative investments are a key ingredient for helping our clients achieve their long-term objectives.
Last Friday we caught a glimpse of the extent to which financial markets are still addicted to monetary stimulus when stocks, bonds and commodities all tumbled in response to comments made by Fed officials. When everything is grinding upward, moving All Together Now is not a problem, but that sentiment changes quickly when asset classes begin to nosedive in tandem.
Home prices on a national basis have been on the rise for over four years now. This past June marked the 50th consecutive month of year-over-year national home price appreciation. With all of this positive momentum and the memory of the last housing crisis still fresh in everyone’s minds, many are wondering whether we are in yet another housing bubble.
Conventional wisdom says that you should invest in stocks when you’re young and then slowly shift into a more “fixed income” strategy as you age in order to reduce the wild swings and to generate the income needed to sustain spending in retirement. But what do you do when that income is nowhere to be found?
We a healthy respect for the market’s ability to make even the wisest of investors look like a fool on a regular basis. So if even the best investors can be made to look like fools over certain periods of time, how can we decipher what makes a skilled or just plain lucky investor?
One of the persistent questions faced by investors is whether stocks are undervalued, overvalued or fairly valued. After all, the “cheapness” of a stock at the time one invests is probably the single most important driver of the long-term result. Unfortunately most of the time ascertaining whether or not valuations are too high or too low isn’t that clear cut.
The number one reason people become a slave to their jobs/career is because they lack the discipline to save money. This week's post is about a young women who bucked the trend and retired at the age of 33 to pursue her dreams of traveling the world.
Zero interest rates are intended to induce growth in borrowing, lending and general risk taking throughout the economy. But what happens when ZIRP doesn’t have its intended effect on economic activity? You move to the next logical extreme: NIRP.
Stocks, bonds, hard assets and absolute return strategies alike have all offered up relatively muted returns in recent years. As we’ve stressed time and time again, it’s important in times like these to take a long-term view and realize that most short-term periods fall somewhere above or below expected averages.
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