Blog

11 Apr 2014 8 Ways to Improve Your Wealth With No More Risk

Posted at 09:55h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Efficiency and control are two words not generally associated with the process of active investing, but they should be. The disciplines of saving taxes, keeping expenses low, and ensuring you don’t under-perform the markets in which you invest, offer real and measurable improvements in your returns – in fact, some like Betterment and Wealthfront claim up to 4% or more. Our clients have enjoyed the benefits of control and efficiency for eight years. Here are eight ways we do it.

04 Apr 2014 Flash in the Pan?

Posted at 10:54h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

The latest flap about high frequency trading has everyone talking again about fairness of markets, with some, namely Michael Lewis, calling them 'rigged.' In essence, it's a story about a few trading on information obtained before the public gets the same information. Not surprisingly, the concept is not new.

28 Mar 2014 Persistence

Posted at 16:29h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Persistence, defined as "continuing without change in function or structure," can be a remarkably good force in our lives or a devastatingly bad one; depending upon our track. What we persist in, we generally accomplish; good or bad.

21 Mar 2014 Fed Chair Janet Yellen Connects the Dots

Posted at 12:47h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Janet Yellen's first Federal Open Market Committee policy statement as Fed chair caused a bit of a ruckus in both the Treasury and stock markets. As experts have pointed out, it wasn't so much what she said, but rather what the "dots" portend for future interest rate hikes. There was no surprise when the Fed announced they would continue to reduce their monthly purchases of Treasuries by $10 billion per month to a still very large $55 billion starting in April. The sell-off of short and intermediate Treasuries was triggered, according to Barrons by a chart of projections showing FOMC members' expectations of where the fed funds rate would be at the end of 2015.

14 Mar 2014 Is the market going to crash, and other concerns?

Posted at 13:13h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

We've had a number of questions lately reflective of the times, ranging from fear to hope to outright optimism. There have also been a lot of questions about investment choices and what to believe from all the hype lately.

07 Mar 2014 Should You Count On Social Security?

Posted at 13:00h in The Friday Brief by Geoff Hall, CFP®, RICP®

As a financial advisor, one of the questions I’m often asked is "how should I plan for Social Security?" More and more young people today are choosing to plan for their retirement as if it will not be around. While this approach may seem prudent its implementation can be costly. Planning for retirement as if Social Security will not play a role requires you to make accommodations for its absence.

28 Feb 2014 Don’t Fight The Fed

Posted at 15:24h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

One of Wall Street's wisest admonishments is to avoid positioning one's investments contrary to Fed guidance or actions. After all, they are the only buyer or seller in the US with an unlimited supply of money for their purposes. Since the Great Recession our Federal Reserve has been bent and determined to stimulate employment, with few references to the inflation it might cause. In fact, they have been far more concerned with deflation than with the threat of too much money driving up prices.

21 Feb 2014 How Much Social Security Will You Leave on the Table?

Posted at 13:57h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

One of today's hottest topics for people over 50 is Social Security; its viability and its potential to offer substantially more in benefits than the average retiree will see. Studies show that almost half of recipients receive just the minimum benefit, while less than 2% receive the maximum. The difference can be as high as $100,000 over a person's lifetime.

13 Feb 2014 Should You Hold More or Less Cash?

Posted at 17:32h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

As financial advisors we are often asked, "how much cash should we set aside?" while others wonder, "why hold it at all, given such low returns relative to equities and fixed assets?" A proper answer to the second question requires a discussion of Modern Portfolio Theory - an involved topic for another day. Today, we look at the question more fundamentally, in human terms. Cash means different things to different people.

31 Jan 2014 Do You Want to Win Big?

Posted at 14:07h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Despite an overwhelming amount of evidence that passive investing over a lifetime generates far more wealth than active, hands on investing, most people still hold to their losing programs. It doesn't sound logical because it isn't. Logic has been overcome by the emotion of hope - the hope of winning big. Logic alone doesn't really have a chance, it is outgunned. For real progress, there has to be a third component.