Helping investors make more informed decisions about their life savings.

Do I need a Will?

February 19, 2015 by Jason Soloman

Do you want the state to decide who the guardians of your minor children will be if you and your child’s other parent pass away?  Do you want the state to decide which of your relatives inherit your assets?

If you answered no to the questions above then the answer to the question Do I need a Will is yes!

A  properly drafted and executed will puts the power of deciding how your assets will be distributed and who will be the guardian(s) for your minor children if/when you pass on.   Its relatively easy to make and execute a will, but according to RocketLawyer.com almost ⅔ of Americans do not have one!

Ok, so now you know that if you have assets or minor children (or both) you probably want to learn more about Wills. [Read more]

Stock Market Trend Changes Can Rip Your Face Off

February 4, 2015 by Jason Soloman

It was February of 2007 and John and Erica were sitting pretty for retirement.  Their house was paid off and their liquid investments were valued near $1,000,000.  The fall of 2008 was just around the corner and it was going to be their last year running the cross country ski apparel line RaceDingo .

Lowe’s stock represented $550,000 of their wealth, after all it was a smart investment and a safe investment. The Motley Fool regarded it as a no brainer to have in your portfolio, (See Woes Slow at Lowe’s ) so what could go wrong?

A lot… take a look at the chart below.

Lowes shareholders felt pain in 2008/2009.

It’s a sad but familiar story.  In less than a year LOW was trading near the $13/share range and John and Erica had an unpleasant change to their retirement plans.  

Thank goodness John and Erica listened to their advisor and didn’t have all of their eggs in one basket.  They diversified across the following mutual funds:

• Fidelity Freedom Fund 2020- FFFDX
• Hartford Capital Appreciation Fund- ITHAX
• Vanguard Balanced Index Inv- VBINX
• Vanguard 500 Index- VFINX
• Cavanal Hill Intermediate Fund AAIBX

Let’s look at how these funds performed during the same time period.

Fidelity Freedom Fund Took a Pounding in 2008 and part of 2009.