Faith Based Investing

FREE 88 Page Ebook “10 Mistakes that Could Jeopardize Your Financial Future”:

Having success is often related to avoid deadly wealth destroying mistakes.  In this ebook, I share ten of the most common mistakes I have seen people make over the past 16 years of my financial advising career.  Come lean and make sure you avoid these mistakes like the plague!

Big Mistake #1: Paying too much $$$ in fees

Big Mistake #2: Getting advice from the wrong places

Big Mistake #3: Choosing the wrong places to store wealth

Big Mistake #4: Failing to plan ahead

Big Mistake #5: Failing to properly account for inflation, taxes, and long-­term health care

Big Mistake #6: Spending more than you make

Big Mistake #7: Failing to properly understand risk

Big Mistake #8: Failing to save regularly

Big Mistake #9: Using debt to consume rather than to conserve

Big Mistake #10: Gambling with your assets instead of investing

Download the ebook here:

10 Mistakes Ebook

2011 will not be remembered as a banner year on Wall Street!

No silver bullet has emerged to take care of the European Union’s debt problems, and after two strong years for U.S. equities, it appears stocks will make minimal annual gains or finish the year in the red.

If your pessimism increased this year, you aren’t alone. This is a very challenging environment, even for fund managers. A recent Wall Street Journal piece referenced that some traders are reluctant to make a decisive move for fear of triggering a big price swing on a particular stock. Liquidity has also been reduced in this market.

While this sounds gloomy, a little perspective is helpful. When it comes to stocks, it is really about the long term.

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Asset Allocation will get you 90%+ of your  overall return!

I know it’s not as fun as picking stocks, but most investors fail to take advantage of the greatest investment secret of all time, which is “how you allocate your assets is far more important than what stocks you pick”.

In any stock market climate, proper asset allocation matters. In a down market, you could argue that it matters more than anything else.

Did you have a well-diversified portfolio during the fall of 2008? That was a time when the importance of having a bond allocation and proper equity diversification really hit home. Nearly all investors were hit hard, but some were hit harder than others. What percentage of your portfolio was held in Treasuries (or cash) at that time?

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When will Wall Street learn?

Memories of 2008 are still fresh: The credit crisis; the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual; the federal takeover of Fannie and Freddie; the market downturn. There’s little doubt Wall Street would like to erase it all from its conscience, and maybe it has.

Part of the anger of the Occupy Wall Street movement comes from the perception that nothing has changed. While the Dodd-Frank Act (designed to make the financial system more accountable and transparent) is now taking effect, the Volcker Rule (intended to stop banks from trading for their own accounts) may be watered down or put off. Beyond that, the U.S. economic recovery from the Great Recession has sputtered and made people question the recent bullish sentiment.

Stocks have rebounded strongly since 2009, but there are still many factors to worry about; this may lead to a little contrarian thinking.

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This year, assorted economists and journalists have contended that the U.S. is on the edge of a newrecession. Yet recent indicators hint that the economy is doing a bit better than some analysts think.  So will we or will we not double dip?

Let’s take a look a few encouraging statistics:

U.S. retail sales were up 1.1% in September

This is the kind of monthly number that you might expect during a typical recession recovery, and it surpassed the +0.7% consensus forecast of economists polled by Bloomberg News. Additionally, the Commerce Department revised August retail spending (formerly flat) to +0.3%. The year-over-year numbers in the September report really impress: we see annual gains of 7.9% for overall retail sales, 10.1% for online retailers, 6.9% for the restaurant and nightlife component, 7.6% for clothing shops and 6.5% for home and garden stores.

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Is a rally ahead?

You may have heard that stocks tend to do well in the fourth quarter. History affirms that perception: while past performance is no guarantee of future results, the last quarter of the year has historically been the best quarter of the year for U.S. equities. As data from Bespoke Investment Group notes:

• The S&P 500 has averaged a +2.44% performance in fourth quarters since 1928.
• In the last 20 years, it has averaged +4.57% in fourth quarters.
• In the last 30 years, it has advanced in 24 of 30 fourth quarters with an average price return of better than 7%.

Will the Street put its anxieties aside? Right now, you have a lot of uncertainty. Many analysts see a stock market unimpressed by tepid domestic growth and waiting fearfully for the other shoe to drop (meaning Greece).They see more pain ahead for U.S. investors. On the other hand, there is also talk of when a point of capitulation might be reached, i.e., is Wall Street simply ready to rally even in the face of the debt troubles in Europe and the slow recovery here.

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HOW does Greece impact me?

Is it all negative, or are there opportunities to consider because of the crisis?

Many economists think a Greek default is inevitable. As we enter 4Q 2011, Greece has a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 160% (and that percentage is rising). While Greece accounts for less than 3% of Eurozone GDP, ripples from a Greek default could strain the European banking sector and global financial markets.

Struggling for the best worst-case scenario. Greece is redoing its financial system, but it is still facing one of five potential (and painful) outcomes.

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