Mortgage rates recently hit an all time low & if you haven't already refinanced your mortgage, now might be the time to do so. We have found a new mortgage resource that is very professional, timely, and offers competitive rates. If you would like a referral, please feel free to contact us.
Discusses the impact of proposed regulation for the financial services profession in Financial Planning Magazine.Click Here to read the full article we are featured in.
Follow this link, to read Sandy's feature in this month's Financial Planning Magazine. The print edition of the article Opportunistic Retirement Investing has pictures from the photo shoot the magazine did of Sandy at our office.
Changes for retirement contributions beginning in 2012:
Many of us today enjoy the convenience of managing our finances via the world wide web. I personally enjoy the ease of record keeping, bill pay, and lack of trips to the bank that online banking, and the like, has brought. However, every benefit has it's cost. In the case of online account maintenance, the biggest potential cost is identity & monetary theft from hackers. One of the greatest protections from this risk is choosing a password that is difficult for a hacker to guess. Mashable Tech published a good article on the top 25 most vulnerable passwords of 2011 as well as tips on choosing a secure one. Click on this link to read the full article.
August 2011- Asset Planning, Inc. is recognized in Advisor One's Top Wealth Manager report. The survey captures the largest and most successful independent wealth management firms – those that are owned and operated by advisors themselves. For 2010, Asset Planning Inc. experiences 20% growth in asset under management (AUM) compared to a12.8% return on the S&P and 18% average growth among peers. To view the rankings click here.
As many of you know, the markets have been turbulent, to say the least, followed by a sharp decline yesterday and a sharp rebound today. Though we understand such volatility is unsettling to all of us, we are seeing many indicators that this is an emotional panic driven sell off and not the beginning of a new bear market.
Probably the biggest indicator that the markets are acting irrational is yesterday's market movements where in wake of a US Debt downgrade people sold out of stocks and US treasuries rallied. The exact opposite should have happened, especially given reports of robust corporations earnings and cash surpluses.
Though there is some concern with our less than expected GDP numbers, true recession signs are nonexistent. Furthermore, while the European Union's debt problems are a big one, we must not lose sight of the fact that the growth economies of the world are becoming more significant to global GDP than Europe. We are not in the double dip recession camp and feel the S&P will end positive for the year.
Our latest Money Makeover was featured in this Sunday's LA Times. Click on the link to read the full article. This makeover was quite a departure from our previous ones, as the recipient’s money problems lay in him taking wealth accumulation to the extreme.
Full Article
In wake of the horrible earthquake and tsunami that has overwhelmed Japan, investors might be fearful of a prolonged market downturn. We are still optimistic on the market for 2011. Prior to the Japanese crisis, the market was experiencing a correction which was quite normal, considering the rapid pace of the upswing. It is our belief that Japan's natural disaster exaggerated this correction and caused panic selling in the last couple days. We do not believe this crisis will result in a prolonged market downturn. History has shown us that the contrary, in fact, happens in these types of situations. Typically, a natural disaster results in large stimulus spending for reconstruction. As ill-fated as the circumstances are, the Japanese economy and its major trade partners, such as the US, China and South Korea, will likely see growth in wake of what has happened. We continue to hope for the best for the people of Japan as we monitor the situation.
We recently stumbled along a website that acts like the white pages but instead of the old days when one could just find someone's phone number and address. Now one can find out your income, net worth, names of your family, pictures of you & your home, email addresses, and any other background information the can be dug up on the web.
The website is called Spokeo. To remove yourself from the site follow the below steps:
To find out additional ways to opt out of telemarketing lists visit The Federal Communications Commission Website and to opt out of pre-approved credit card & insurance offers go to OptOutPrescreen.com
