Sound Advice

What Can A Good Financial Adviser Do For You? A good financial adviser can offer a range of services tailored to your individual needs and goals. Here are some key things they can help with: 1.      Financial Planning: They can create a comprehensive financial plan that covers budgeting, saving, and managing debt. This plan will help you understand how to manage your money in the short and long term. 2.      Investment Strategies: They can provide advice on investment options that align with your time horizon, investment experience, risk tolerance and need for current income. This includes recommending asset allocation (stocks, bonds, etc.) and specific investments for each asset class. 3.      Retirement Planning: They can help you set retirement goals and develop a strategy to achieve them, including choosing the right retirement accounts and estimating how much you need to save. 4.      Tax Planning: They can offer strategies to minimize your tax liability and make sure yo

Dow Jones Industrial Average: Up 50 times in 50 years Please feel free to find a better investment than the stock market, but judging by the results of the latest half century, you’ll be hard-pressed to come up with a better option.   Back on June 28, 1974, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 779.72, a level that’s occasionally been exceeded by one-day movements of that index in recent years.   Since that time, much has taken place: the collapse of the Soviet Union, the war in Vietnam, two oil embargoes, the 9/11 attacks, Brexit, Covid-19, the rise of the internet, smartphones, AI, and the rise of social media, just to name a few. What all of this adds up to is an average annual gain of 9.76%, by most standards a hefty advance.   Yes, that includes inflation, which was about 3.8% per year over the period.   So the real return of about 6% was still an impressive achievement, especially considering the seemingly endless offerings of what are billed as special investment oppo

Avoid New Investment Recommendations   When considering new investment recommendations from stockbrokers or other “experts” offering what they would like you to think is the key to great wealth, it's wise to approach them with a healthy dose of skepticism. Here are some good reasons to doubt new investment recommendations: Why are they being promoted? If the “strategy” works so well, you have to wonder why they don’t keep it to themselves and not try to sell it. Investment strategy improvements lose their edges in short order.   Once they’re widely adopted (usually quickly), they tend to lose whatever advantage they may have had. Lack of Transparency: If the recommendation doesn’t provide clear information about how the investment works, its risks, and the underlying assumptions, it’s a red flag. Overly Optimistic Projections: Be cautious if the recommendation promises high returns with little to no risk. Unrealistic expectat

Don’t Depend on the Better Business Bureau The dependability of Better Business Bureau (BBB) ratings can be questioned for several reasons: 1.      Subjectivity in Ratings: BBB ratings are not purely objective and can be influenced by various factors such as the volume of complaints received, the speed of complaint resolution, and whether the business responds to complaints. These factors may not always reflect the overall quality or reliability of a business. 2.      Not Based on Reviews or Complaints: That’s odd since comments, both positive and negative, from parties who had actually interacted should have been considered.   Perhaps a Ouija Board played a role in the grades assigned. 3.      Limited Criteria: The criteria used by the BBB to assign ratings may not cover all aspects of a business's operations or customer satisfaction. Some businesses may receive lower ratings due to factors that are not indicative of their overall performance. 4.      Pay-to-Play Allegat