Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Imagine the ten most influential days of your life up to this point. I would assume the day you met your significant other would be up there, perhaps the day that you decided what college to attend and what career you decided to pursue. Could be the day you got that long awaited promotion. Now picture this. How would your life be different if for some reason you didn’t experience those days. If…
An active fund is an investment, typically a mutual fund, where managers actively pick companies for you to invest in. Essentially, these managers are professional investors who you hire to invest in companies on your behalf. When you invest your money with an active fund, your money is parceled out among the stocks of companies that these active managers select. In your typical actively managed mutual fund, active fund managers select a number of stocks. Therefore your money becomes diversified…
A passive fund is an unmanaged investment that tracks a particular index and like the name implies, it is indeed passive… go figure. Passive investing or “indexing” is typically a much cheaper form of investing because there is no management or stock selection (there are also other fees associated with investing in these type of products). Within a passive fund, your money is invested to mirror companies that are already within that index. The performance of your investment in a…
The question inevitably comes up more than I would want to answer to be honest. “What happens if my investments go to zero?” Well the easy answer here is that you will have no more investments left. You investments will equal the numerical value of zero. Your investments will have no quantity or number, naught, the figure 0. That’s the answer in the most literal sense but the real question they’re asking is what happens to them if their investment…
Being an advisor catering to the younger professional I’ve seen the full spectrum when it comes to personal financial situations. Some clients will have their financial lives in perfect order from the moment they walk in. We just make a minor tweak here, a minor adjustment there and check in again in a few months Others well… let’s just say there can be some room for improvement. But hey, that’s what I’m here for. I’ve noticed a pattern for these…
As a financial advisor I obviously get a lot of financial-related questions. Duh. But there is one question that seems to come up much more than the rest and that is, “what is the best way to invest my excess money?” To that question I typically respond with: What are you planning on using the money for? How much risk are you comfortable taking? When do you plan using the money? There are a myriad of factors that determine how…
It’s happened, finally! Your Vegas losing streak come to an end. Twas just one of those beautiful weekends where the Blackjack dealers kept busting and the chips just kept rolling in. Yeah, appreciate that type of weekend because it doesn’t happen all too often. You actually came back home with $1,500 bucks in your pocket. Well, minus your dignity but that’s a whole separate issue. Being the savvy individual that you are, you say to yourself, “Hey, I’ve been reading…
It’s been a tough couple days, weeks, months..years at the office or home. You’ve been beaten down, stressed out and just unappreciated so you’re finally fed up with it all. What do you do? I know! You have to treat yourself; get away somewhere, anywhere. But where? How about Indonesia, that sounds exotic. Sweet! Put the entire trip on the credit card; airfare, accommodations, food, booze and all other Indonesian-esque (yeah that’s a word) activities. You name it, it’s charged…
Your employer offers a 401k with a company match and you have that IRA forced upon you during your first job. Oh, and how about that tax-free Roth IRA and the $10,000 personal brokerage account you inherited when Great Aunt Sally passed away. With all of these saving options it can be a little difficult to decide where your money should go first. However, if you examine the underlying advantages of each account the decision may become a bit easier. …
What is Market Volatility? Stock prices go up one day; they go down the next five days and rebound the next week to only plunge again. This is market volatility in a nutshell. Large swings in stock prices over short time periods typically indicate times of high volatility. These swings can be both in the positive or the negative direction. The term market volatility has a negative connotation for most investors but I’m here to tell you that for the…