What to do when the market is down?
Buffett has often advised investors to buy quality stocks when they are on sale like now. He is doubling down on his energy bets like Occidental and Chevron. He bought more Apple too. Celanese is another of his dip buys. Will these be the winners of the future? Who knows? Even Buffett is not always right so you can diversify by buying an energy index on sale. Or you can buy shares in the largest growth firms like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla. Of course some of my readers buy quantum computing firms like RGTI or IONQ for the future. Some buy the Vanguard Top Ten on the assumption that these funds will continue to return 11% throughout their retirement.
https://www.amazon.com/Vanguards-Top-Ten-mutual-funds/dp/150073909X
Can a fee-only financial planner help you?
Goals, Inventory Identify Distribution, Tax, and Estate Issues and Opportunities are the steps you need to take to be assured of retirement income. For example, if you inherit an IRA from a non-spouse you are required to liquidate the balance of the IRA in a more compressed time frame than previously expected. “A good planner can help you understand the effect of current legislation and make appropriate adjustments to the financial plan to account for the changes.” Slight shortfall: If you will have less income than you planned, you can address gaps in income using some basic strategies. You may also need conversations about adjusting goals and ensuring those goals still fit your situation. Severe shortfall: If you have not prepared for retirement and it appears unlikely that you will meet your income goals, a planner can suggest strategies you may employ to improve the situation. You will need difficult discussions about redefining your family’s goals. A planner can help you implement your retirement income plan including when to start Social Security, pension, IRA RMDs, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Reset-Your-Retirement-Income-retirement/dp/1512304344
Should you claim Social Security benefits early?
Many advisors suggest you wait to claim benefits because every year you wait may increase your benefit by 8%. In our family, I was not able to find a new position after my financial services company was merged and I was “redundant.” I started at age 62 and have been receiving HALF of what I qualified for if I had waited until age 67, my full retirement age. Luckily my spouse kept working and filed after age 70 so the maximum possible benefits are being paid to make up for my decrease. For the rest of our lives, I will receive about HALF what my spouse receives. We were lucky we met with an SS rep so we qualified for larger benefits. Of course the rules have changed and they are complicated. I recommend you obtain an appointment at your local office if you can. If that is not possible, buy an analysis. It is important to understand what you could receive: benefits can easily top $1 million over 30 years of retirement for a couple.
https://www.amazon.com/Maximize-Social-Security-Benefits-Retirement/dp/1495439224
Is ‘Liability-Driven’
investing right for you?
Your advisor may have suggested this strategy. Liability-driven investing
attempts to match your portfolio’s investment strategy with future
liabilities. Liability-driven investing is typically associated with a
defined benefit pension, but is becoming more popular with advisors helping
individual clients investing for retirement. For most people this strategy
is the same as the investing
bucket strategy. You segment funds among different time horizons or risk
tolerance bands in order to keep a withdrawal rate that corresponds to time
left in retirement. Thus your money is sitting in 1. short-term bonds or CDs,
2. balanced funds and 3. long-term equities. Your ‘liabilities’ are your
expenses or obligations. If you need money available in 1-2 years, you tap
bucket 1 and so forth. Returns are usually greatest from your equity holdings
so you keep growing your assets for use later. Your advisor may be using more
sophisticated terms but the strategy is the same as the common sense one
Buffett recommends.
https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffetts-Vanguard-Funds-Retirement/dp/1496148592/
Investment behavior research and your biases
Why do we hold on to losers and sell winners? Why do we engage in vigorous trading when studies show we lose money? New studies about our way of thinking about money have provided some guard rails that may keep us from big mistakes. Fact: we spend more time planning a vacation than planning for our financial future. People with money have a plan—investment and retirement plan. People who most NEED a plan don’t think they need one. Set goals, find strategy, set up plan. List financial goal priorities. Know your biases and avoid them with help. For example, we buy a stock or fund that just went up. It goes down but we don’t face it and lose more money. Or if the stock goes up we feel we must sell to win. Instead of diversifying a portfolio for safety, we buy more of the same. Many keep buying their own company stock. We know this strategy is risky so we worry instead of investing in a plain index fund. Even with new information, investors stick with their original purchase. We tend to think we are super brilliant when our purchase does well. Most of us mistakenly rely on past performance. Usually winners become losers during the next period. Buffett’s strategy beat best advisors.
Let Warren Buffett be your advisor: https://www.amazon.com/Warren-Buffett-Your-Investment-Advisor/dp/1518690963
This is what your advisor says when they don’t want you
Advisors work in an industry that requires them to make money from your money. Are you happy with a service that you have no way of knowing if you are getting the right level of service? Advisors don’t want to lose you if you are going to give them $ millions in assets. They don’t want to lose you if you could have $ millions in assets. But they only have so much time and they must produce revenue for themselves and the firm they work for. They don’t want to waste time with you if you take up too much time for too little revenue. So how do they get rid of you without making you mad or worse making the person who referred you mad? The term they like is ‘FIT.’ You don’t ‘fit’ with their minimum revenue goal or you don’t ‘fit’ with their type of services. As sales people they have learned the kind of customer to seek and keep. Their object is to make money so if you don’t have enough or will cost them more time than they can spend, you will have to learn how to help yourself. Millions have had to learn to manage their own financial life. You must understand what your advisor means: time to leave or stay.
https://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Advisor-Really-Means/dp/1542964520/
?**********ACCOUNTABILITY**************?
Like 1776, this
period is a test
of democracy—We
rejected an "American
fascist" once
The
Path to Dictatorship: 2010-2030
Nov 2020 Wealthy
discredit election process
Jan
6 2021 Direct
assault failed: guns
& bombs ready
Trump
engaged in a "criminal
conspiracy" to stop Biden
“I
don’t f—ing care that they have weapons”
Trump was “detached
from reality”
Trump
used mafia-style intimidation on the defenseless
Parscale: “a
sitting president asking for civil war.”
Trump:
“Just
say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me”
GOP fascism: “RINO
hunt armed; no bagging limit” J6
comm threat
Trump’s Supremes END
personal rights & state
laws except for weapons
WMDs
Fascism: GOP
to stop women leaving state for abortion
It’s
not a court. It’s a junta: Two Americas
Jan 2025 Trump pardons
himself
How Govt wastes our money:
NC Supreme Court
rules against gerrymandered
NC legislature: biased to whites
NOT OK:
Celebs
got $ millions in payroll subsidy money from us: PPP loan given and forgiven!
TX
judge gives handgun permit to every teen: lifts Fed ban on age 21 minimum
Police
guilty falsifying search warrant to
cover-up killing of Black woman 32 rounds kill
Congress OKs wealthy
hide $2 billion income from the IRS: we pay rich’s tax bill.
Corporate profit
margins jumped to the highest level since 1950: taxes under 20%
SCAMS/SPINS:
Where does the Trump
terrorist mob lead us? Two
Americas
Mob boss Trump: “FBI
planted evidence” in Mara: FBI brought
those nuclear secrets?
Mob
lieutenants don’t like being questioned about the Boss
FL
election police ‘brown shirts’ scare voters: Broward Dem country target by
DeSantis
Mitch McConnell says
there is "very
little election fraud" Mitch admits it’s GOP B. S.
John Hancock caught
miscalculated termination for LTCI Policies: fine
Scott Kohn CA caught
Ponzi military veterans structured cash flows $310 million: 10 yrs
Mitchell Adjusting caught
taking $600,000 intended for policyholders
Single
stock ETF not suitable for investors: great downside risk; no
diversification
SCAMS: never send
money to these fakes
TicketMaster fakes: it
is not the real seller: you give them your CC and get nothing
SCAM: Crypto firms can’t track laundered
scam funds from N. Korean hackers/thieves
Voyager Digital’s 3.5 million customers ask refund
from bankruptcy court
Stupidest
Fees You Should Never Pay: just say NO
Common
car rental mistakes: there are ways to avoid them
Tesla
cars DO run over kids since the software cannot detect them in crosswalks
Jobs
US
firms return 350,000 jobs: tech and supply chain
Where
paychecks are rising fastest: is it worth a move?
Insurance
companies staffing up
Most
in-demand jobs pay well: HS diplomas plus for some
Who owns your account now?
HBO
Max removes nearly 200 episodes of ‘Sesame Street’: no explanation Wow
EV models that earn the Fed subsidy: our taxes help wealthy buy BMW, Audi, Tesla
Medicare Advantage Plans: J D Power ratings: Kaiser #1 again
Public wants more gun controls so fewer killings: Supremes: all can carry guns
Biden hasn't yet released the website where people can apply for loan forgiveness ??
Miracles:
Teens
on their way to school saved woman in trouble: “we just did the right
thing."
Flu
shot may retard Alzheimer’s: influenza vaccination associated with reduced
AD risk
Fish creates perfect love
nest for partner: no protractor or compass or ruler
Russian
soldier explains how war developed for him
Can
we save our trees? Extinction being helped by insects, climate, fires.
Feds
cancel $10,000 student debt for most: $20K for Pell: No
tax: payment pause Dec 31
MO
brings back child beating as school corrective: back back back we go
@
Light is both
a particle and a wave depending on how we look at the light.
I
don’t think that there is any such thing as a position or a velocity of a
particle.
Everything in
universe: galaxies to stones made of subatomic
energy ‘vibrations’
A subatomic ‘particle’
is the smallest possible vibration (quantum) of a quantum field.
Mass–energy
equivalence: E=mc^2. At the smallest
level; Everything is moving!
There is no TIME at this
level because of force fields come and go in all directions.
Inside protons,
neutrons, it
is the fields of the virtual particles that creates its mass.
“Empty space is a
boiling, bubbling brew of virtual
particles that pop in and out of existence in a time scale so short that you
can’t even measure them.” Space expanding.
The electricity we use comes
from the field around the wire not from election itself.
We can apply for
Medicare online: https://blog.ssa.gov/apply-for-medicare-online
We can apply for Social
Security online: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/
We can apply for
health care online: https://www.healthcare.gov/
IAN
973.746.2014
www.InsuranceAdvisorsNetwork.com
Alerts available
at http://dankeppel.blogspot.com/
