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Factor In Your Income Sources When Seeking Diversification

September 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Are You a Stock or a Bond

When it comes to diversification, you have to look at your entire life and not just your portfolio.  Several years ago there was a book I really enjoyed that dealt with this topic called Are You a Stock or a Bond?: Create Your Own Pension Plan for a Secure Financial Future. It explained some professions, like tenured professors, are like bonds - there is little risk of you ever losing your job, the pay it steady and almost fixed with small incremental increases based upon inflation, and you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Recommendations, Diversification Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Interesting Day Both for Our Businesses and the Stock Market

April 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Exciting day ... quite a bit of stuff happened at the companies, but I'm not comfortable discussing it (and probably won't at any time in the future).  Suffice it to say, an opportunity presented itself that could have huge growth potential for one of our major businesses.  It just changed my plans for the rest of fiscal 2010 because it requires my attention.  It is a key component in our intentions for this business over the coming 36 months. Bought Some More Berkshire Hathaway Shares The … [Read more...]

Filed Under: My Businesses, Stock Market Tagged With: , , , , ,

Some Changes in the Portfolio

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Aaron and I are wrapping up all of the tax documents for fiscal 2009 before shipping them off to the accountants, listening to the new Goldfrapp album, and tweaking the investment portfolio a bit. I liquidated a respectable portion of the LEAP stock options we bought on General Electric during the crash now that it is approaching $19 per share, or at least was during today's trading session.  The time premium was no longer adequately reflecting the risk, in my opinion, especially relative to … [Read more...]

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People Who Are Drowning in Student Loan Debt

February 23, 2010 By 10 Comments
Student Loan Debt information

Victims of the Student Loan Industry or Irresponsible Borrowers? I was reading a site called Student Loan Justice as well as a piece at the Huffington Post where people are talking about their "overwhelming" student loan debt that is - wait for it - $15,000 or $30,000.  Basically, less than the value of a car.  Or a couple both of whom smoke a pack of cigarettes each day for five to ten years. Or 4 to 8 months of pre-tax income for the average American household. Rational, full-grown legal … [Read more...]

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What Asset Classes Should I Consider for My Asset Allocation Portfolio?

December 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Asset Classes for Asset Allocation

When you are ready to begin investing with a disciplined asset allocation plan, you may wonder which asset classes are appropriate for your strategy.  According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the best way to determine the best asset class is to consider two factors - your time horizon and your risk profile. Your Time Horizon: Certain investments and asset classes are only appropriate if you have a long-time horizon of 10 years or more.  Others are only rational if you want to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asset Allocation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Passive Income Asset Allocation Model Portfolio

December 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Passive Income Portfolio Asset Allocation Model

Asset allocation models designed to generate passive income for investors remain among the most popular of all time because everyone wants to be able to live off their money.  Whether you are retired and need to augment your Social Security income, or you are wealthy and want to generate passive income without touching your principal, this asset allocation model may be a viable solution to your investing needs. Asset Classes in a Passive Income Asset Allocation Model The most popular asset … [Read more...]

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Growth Asset Allocation Model Portfolio

December 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Growth Asset Allocation Model Portfolio

For young investors in their 20s, 30s, and even 40s, with decades until retirement, steady jobs, and plenty of savings, an aggressive growth asset allocation model portfolio may be the best choice.  The caveat: If the investor cannot handle volatility, watching their assets drop 50% on paper one year or skyrocket the next, they should go for a balanced asset allocation model portfolio instead because they will be emotionally happier, even if it means they won't be as rich as they could have … [Read more...]

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Use ETFs to Make Asset Allocation Investing Even Better

December 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
ETFs Are Great for Asset Allocation

ETFs, or exchange traded funds, are like mutual funds only they trade on the open market as if they were stocks.  (I've written about them over at Investing for Beginners many, many times.)  This means ETFs can be shorted, or fall above or below the net asset value, unlike a traditional open-ended mutual fund.  ETFs often have very low cost structures and allow you to acquire very broad diversification for the cost of a brokerage commission, which is often below $10 today at most national … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Asset Allocation, Exchange Traded Funds ETFs Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,