Today I want to discuss why you should actually embrace temporary market declines rather than fear them. I said temporary because they all are temporary and always have been temporary and will always be temporary.
It seems there are many people who can't distinguish between risk and volatility. Volatility isn't risk. They aren't the same thing at all.
If you follow financial "journalism" at all you will inevitably hear how volatile the market is and how you should take action to protect yourself from the volatility. However, when we turn off the "news" and look at things rationally, we can see a completely different story. One that is actually true. It's not the market that is volatile. It's the investors that are volatile.
The picture associated with this blog shows what the average investor not working with an advisor often does.
Retirement has two doors. One leads to a chance of success. One leads to certain failure. Which door will you choose?
Today I want to discuss, what I feel, is the single most important benefit the co-op offers you. And that is your NRECA 401k plan. It’s important because it’s the fastest and simplest way for you to grow your wealth over time.
In a society that has basically turned outperformance into a religion, the average investor is not only underperforming the markets, he is consistently underperforming his own investments!
Successful investing for retirement and in retirement is not that complicated. The planning process can be complicated, such as when to liquidate certain investments, how much cash to keep on hand, and sticking to your plan, but the investing process isn’t hard at all.
If you spend ten minutes this year reading economic forecasts, you've wasted ten minutes of your time that you'll never get back. By the way, time is your most valuable asset. Invest it wisely.
The three most common business structures that use the terms are Insurance Companies, Broker Dealers and Registered Investment Advisers. All three are very different in how they run their business and each will specialize in different areas.
On August 5, 2024 and you probably woke up to doom and gloom on the news today about Japan’s stock market and how it’s crashing and how that’s going to affect the US stock market and basically how the world is ending. The world is not ending by the way.
Everyday cooperative employees retire. Some of these retirees take the lump sum option and "rollover" that money to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or they "rollover" that money into their NRECA 401k. They may be working with a financial advisor or they may have decided that they don't want to pay an advisor and they want to do it themselves. This blog is speaking to the do it yourselfers.
Every single day each one of us is inundated and sometimes overwhelmed by the tsunami of noise from the 24 hour "news" cycle. Much of it centers around timing of the market and the perfect selection of funds. The "experts" say things like "Big correction coming soon!" or "Here's the three next big technology stocks to jumpstart your portfolio!" and "Inflation is coming, buy gold now!" on and on and on.
Typically, you pay an advisor the same reason you pay a mechanic to repair your car. If you wanted to repair it yourself, you probably could, but what's your time worth? Is that really what you want to do? Can you do it right? What is your strategy for doubling your income in retirement? What is your strategy for tax planning in retirement? What is your strategy for claiming Social Security in retirement? If you aren't sure of those answers, it would be wise to sit down and talk to an advisor about your retirement planning needs.
Inflation is affecting all of us right now. And for many of us, we personally feel the hit in our wallet and our bank accounts. I've calculated that it's costing me and my family right at $8,000 per year just on the basics like fuel, food, and utilities. I shouldn't have to write this disclaimer but in today's political climate, I feel I should. This is not a political or a partisan opinion. Although I do have plenty of both of those, I intentionally keep them out of my blog. So who or what causes inflation? The answer is very simple thus this blog will be short. Here's a hint: It's not the Federal Reserve.
The impulse to get out of the market before something bad happens is an impulse in all of us but it's at best only half of a strategy. What impulse would you listen to for re-entry to the market? Impulses don't make a strategy, but they can totally destroy a strategy.
