I do not hide the ball from my clients and prospective clients. I am more than straightforward with my advice about where to store their wealth since I even publish my recommendations. But there are dangers to being this overt and frank. One is the danger that my advice could be misconstrued or over-simplified. A (Continued)
When telling jokes one ought not lead with the punchline. Though I am not telling a joke, I will lead with the conclusion: It is impossible to escape the trials and tribulations of life and the more that we try to do so, the less we understand life itself…or the Giver of Life. On my (Continued)
Do you have an emergency fund? Is it large enough? When do you tap into it and how is it re-supplied? I ask these questions because, as I remarked in my book, “In all the years that I have practiced, I can safely say that less than 5 percent (probably less than 1 percent) of (Continued)
How would you like to feel better, make money, help the economy and sleep better at night? Think this is impossible? Expecting a sleazy sales pitch? Well, it is possible and it does not require you to buy anything. However, you will have to exert some effort. So what is this wonderment that can accomplish (Continued)
In a recent USA Today article entitled “Cash is King for ex-CEO of Pimco,” we are told that the former CEO of PIMCO, Mohammed El-Erian, is “keeping most of his money…in an unusual place – cash.” El-Erian explains, “That’s not great, given that it gets eaten up by inflation. But I think most asset prices (Continued)
What do you call a man trying to sell ice to Eskimos? “Unemployed”, of course! What do you call a man trying to sell debt to debtors? That would be: “Mr. President.” In his own words: Let’s do more to help Americans save for retirement. Today, most workers don’t have a pension. A Social Security (Continued)
Recently, a money manager that I otherwise greatly respect, said this rather despairing, if not delusional, statement: “Ultimately, there may be no such thing as a safe asset anymore and investors may want to take a diversified approach to something as mundane as cash.” [Emphasis added] The Rising Dollar Myth by Axel Merk. I know (Continued)
I apologize ahead of time for this somewhat “downer” blog, but today, I am fighting with my own industry and product providers about a new “interpretation of the rules” that could have deleterious effects on my clients. If we continue to allow the “rules of today” to mean something different tomorrow, then we will soon (Continued)
Perhaps the most important thing to know about finance is what are the unintended consequences of a proposed course of action. Unfortunately, these are very rarely discussed. What is discussed, rather, are over-simplified, numerical projections often with faulty inputs to boot. Then, armed with this false information, the consumer draws erroneous conclusions…often with devastating results. (Continued)
At the risk of being misconstrued, I will be short and to the point in this blog: There are no quick fixes to the problems plaguing our society, its government or our economic system. Just as the sky did not fall in the morning after we re-elected the one who is arguably the worst president (Continued)