Posts tagged as:

investors

The F in ETF Doesn’t Mean Free

July 25, 2010

Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs, those index funds that mimics those of the mutual fund world that trade openly on the stock exchange throughout the day have made investors who don’t use them wonder if they are missing something and those that do, want the F in ETF to stand for free. But they only [...]

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Congratulations, You were Warned

July 24, 2010

The line in the Vanguard press release dated October 6th, 2009 offered the following: “We also caution against using short-term performance figures—however attractive—to guide your investment decisions.”  Why would they say such a thing after the run-up, that even they suggested was, too-far-too soon?  And could the worry that this short-term outlook would tempt the [...]

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Hybrid Hallucinations: Pensions to 401(k)s

July 10, 2010

We all know that many state retirement plans (defined benefit plans) or pensions are in trouble.  We all know that many workers who have access to a defined contribution plan such as a 401(k) underutilize or simply do not participate.  So what do you get when you combine the two?  The smoke and mirrors effect [...]

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As Investment Pros Plan Your Retirement Plan

July 8, 2010

You can almost hear the lip smacking across the land.  Boomers are back in the news as respected news outlets  wonder if the net effect of 79 million baby boomers will bring the stock market down with their retirement goals. While 79 million Boomers sounds like a lot, they won’t be heading for the exits [...]

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Bumping Uglies: When the Markets do what the Markets do

July 2, 2010

Many investors began the year with great hope that this would the be the corner we were all hoping we would round.  Markets were poised to go higher and that belief spurred some interesting volatility.  But stock markets are very fickle mechanisms, designed to frustrate the experts and befuddle those who are not.  And now [...]

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Euphoria and Fear: New Rules for Wall Street

July 1, 2010

Could capitalism be the least worst?  At the heart of the recent effort by the government to try a create a system within a system that helps (us) and punishes (them), the point of what happened to Main Street was not completely Main Street’s fault.  Nor was it Wall Street’s. Alan Greenspan, appearing on CNBC [...]

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Blind Obedience: Following Another’s Investment Lead

June 30, 2010

There are a couple of things we know about the stock market, which is still the primary generator of wealth and retirement income.  The question is whether you follow what you know or follow what might happen. First among these facts is that although the price you see quoted at any given moment is based [...]

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Imagine Your First Day as an Investor is Today

May 25, 2010

If you have been a long-time investor you know certain things about not only yourself but the markets as well. You don’t necessarily need to be a student of stocks or even understand the nuances of global economics to grasp the nature of investor behavior. You may be one of those investors who react with [...]

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Does Inflation Matter?

May 16, 2010

Will inflation impact our retirement plan? In all likelihood the answer is yes. But how, is less clear. Inflation impacts us in ways we may not realize. It works its negative effect on the price of our goods although when it comes to indexing the number, some of the more volatile components are not included. [...]

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Which Boomer are You?

May 15, 2010

Where you are in the retirement planning stage of life has more of an impact on your chances of recovering your pre-2007 portfolio values than you might think. Having enough to retire on is important. But some Baby Boomers had an added boost that may not be available to younger investors, even if they work [...]

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