Category: Investing

  • Is it Safe?

    Perhaps one of the biggest challenges that investors face is determining if “right now” is a SAFE time to invest (meaning not just the present, but any time). What makes it difficult for investors is a twofold issue: first, is a lack of historical knowledge and perspective, and second, their own emotions. Actually, if one…

  • Tax Time IRA Answers

    Let’s take down the age old question of “Should I invest in a Roth IRA or a Traditional IRA?”   Before I jump into this, you must know that neither one is a bad choice, and it all depends on your situation and goals.  Both accounts are considered “Qualified Accounts”, meaning they have tax advantages over…

  • Second Quarter Market Returns

    There have actually been complaints in the media and news about how “boring” the stock market has been so far this year.  Boring is bad in sports, but in the stock market it is usually a good thing.  There has been slow but steady growth in every single sector and sub sector of the market…

  • What is a Hedge Fund?

    Are you missing out on the supposedly huge amount of profits to be made by investing with a “Guru” in his Hedge Fund? Hedge funds are like mutual funds, but they are managed by self titled experts who charge an enormous fee to try and beat the market.  Hedge funds and Investing Guru’s are built…

  • Market Timing: The Myth

    So what is market timing and are you losing returns because your money manager is doing it?  Or even worse, have you been caught doing it all on your own. According to Investopedia, market timing is “The act of attempting to predict the future direction of the market, typically through the use of technical indicators…

  • Guide to a Baby Boomers Retirement

    The ripe age of 65 is no longer a valid number for those planning their retirement. As more and more baby boomers reach this age, demographers and researchers are skeptical as to just how long they will live. Not only does this uncertainty have effects on a national level, as to the cost of Medicare…

  • First Quarter Market Returns

    It is often hard to know what the market returns when all we see on TV or the internet is the minute to minute ticker.  As investors we need a broader view of how the market has done so we can know if we are getting market returns with our investments.  Matson Money does a…

  • Retirement Planning Basics: Investment Accounts

    Planning your investments to build a retirement fund can be a dizzying prospect. The various questions and options and details and accounts and amounts are enough to make anyone’s head spin. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a generic recipe for success? A nice neat list of step by step instructions on how to…

  • Equities in the Last 30 Years: A Retrospective

    Looking at a chart http://bit.ly/qSHuve covering the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the last century is a lot like looking at a chart of profitable business earnings at a cartoon enterprise meeting–it’s almost a caricature of itself, a steady upward slope punctuated by regular but far-between drops, always ending higher than it…

  • Should you Buy Gold as an Investment?

    We have all seen the advertisements and headlines that keep telling us that investors need to flee to safety and buy gold.  They will tell us that the stock market is going to crash worse than last time, and that investors need a hedge to inflation with gold.  They will say it with charisma and…