Hi LAUSD Colleagues. Welcome back to my blog. Exciting News! Below is my open letter to my colleagues on the Retirement Investment Advisory Committee (RIAC). But before I get to my letter, I want to introduce why I wrote the letter. I am so excited because our advisory committee (Retirement Investment Advisory Committee, RIAC) …
Open Letter to LAUSD’s 457(b) Advisory Committee: “A Modest Proposal” Read More »
I am a proud underachiever and late bloomer. However, it was not like that in my youth and young adulthood. It took years of painful growth, earning three college degrees after age 30, learning from financial mistakes, and my Buddhist spiritual practice to get to this positive status. Here is my academic underachiever list: missed …
NO! This is no surprise–Jordan’s story shows just how complicated and disastrous to your retirement nest egg having your financial adviser as a friend.
When he learned I write this blog, Jordon was eager to tell his incredible and lengthy financial story so that other teachers (and all investors) will learn how to protect their money. As a retired Los Angeles Unified School District English and theater arts teacher, he knows how difficult our colleagues experience with people we trust to provide objective financial information.
He goes into excoriating detail. At times it seems complex and uninteresting. But it reflects our retirement planning system—the 403(b) is a mess by itself but having a financial adviser as a friend makes the deplorable situation worse. In addition to Jordan being sold horrible 403(b) annuities, he and his friend/financial adviser got caught up in the real estate mania just before 2008. It is possible for an ordinary investor to get caught up in investment manias, but the crucial lessons are that Jordan’s financial adviser got caught up in the mania too. YES! Professional financial advisers make huge mistakes too! When people trust a financial adviser, people are blinded to the risks as Jordon’s story will show.
Jordan’s story covers two crises, one is the 2008 stock market crash and Jordon’s serious heart attack. Jordon made a lot of serious mistakes, buying too much real estate with borrowed money (because his financial adviser friend invested in the same real estate complex in Florida!) just before one of the most serious real estate and stock market collapses in history, 2008. But read this story about Jordon’s adviser’s additional recommendations! Learned how Jordan finally said NO.
I am adding on a third tale and the purpose of this blog post: Financial advisers are astute, interesting and social, but never, NEVER, have as a friend. Like other professionals you hire, keep the relationship professional. Better yet, learn to manage your money without an adviser. Jordan manages his money without an adviser.
The first 100 Retirement Investment Workshop participants will get a complimentary paperback copy of Fighting Powerful Interests! (You can also get my free book right now on this blog as an eBook).
To register for the Saturday, April 16th workshop at UTLA headquarters, call Evy Vaughn, UTLA Conference Secretary (213) 487 5560 or register online by clicking “Learn More” below.
The next financial coming of age story has a frequent theme. Many people have money in different financial institutions, different banks, different mutual fund companies, different asset classes, sectors, or individual company stocks. Therese, my guest author, had little idea what, where and who was minding her money! Her money was so convoluted that a Rubik’s Cube was easier to solve. Soooooo, there is plenty of room for simplicity. Discover how Therese’s portfolio evolved from a complex and incoherent mess to a simple Vanguard portfolio after one visit with a fee-only financial adviser from Garrett Planning Network.
An epiphany is defined by “a moment when you suddenly feel that you understand, or suddenly become conscious of, something that is very important to you.” Read this short story of my good friend’s financial epiphany and how all of her questions were answered by who she describes as an “independent financial adviser” she paid by the hour.
The first six weeks of the new year was a bust for the stock market. But in the seventh week something magical happened–it turned bullish. Oil prices went up and our Federal Reserve Board remarks on the status of the economy was neutral, along with a thousand other economic moving parts. I ignore all of the noise and stick with my planned portfolio allocation.
In this post, I share in detail my Morningstar printouts at each of the four weeks in January 2016. You can see first-hand how volatile even my conservative portfolio can get. The news reported, ad nauseum, that the stock market was volatile, wondering if this was a start of a major and long lasting crash. Oil prices sank to ten-year lows, China’s economy stalled and everyone watched what the Federal Reserve was going to do next with interests rates. When oil prices rebounded from $28 per barrel, and Japan’s central bank lowered their interest rates with some folks saying that our Federal Reserve might ease our rate increases from 2 times this year instead of 4, by the end of January all the major stock and bond markets came roaring back. This recovery made a $50,000 loss in mid-January into a $20,000 loss by the end of January.
For a decade, I have listened to Paul Merriman’s podcasts. His list of financial topics spans every conceivable idea and common sense investing strategy. His understanding of the investing process and constructing a simple or complex portfolio is top notch. In this post, I recommend that you listen to one of his podcasts. Here’s why. …
White Coat Investor by James Dahle, MD Reviewed by Steve Have you ever vacillated about reading a book because you weren’t the author’s targeted audience? Dr. Dahle’s fine book’s is aimed towards MDs and other ultra-high earning professionals (Attorneys, Dentists, CPAs, and Engineers). Still, there are four reasons I read this book, gave it five …