Tag Archives: Investing

Michele Clark in the News: Wealth Gathering’s Moneymentals Blog

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Should you get your investment advice from a couple of plumbers?  I did and it turned into a wonderful career for me.   Those plumbers were my grandpa and my dad.

Learn how I got introduced to investing at a very young age and how it has influenced my thinking about investing ever since by reading “Blogger Interview: Hourly Planner’s Michele Clark” at the Wealth Gathering website.

Michael Goldman at Wealth Gathering asked me some questions about;

  • My professional background and why I didn’t stay in the traditional, commissioned-based brokerage firm environment.  I have worked in a bank, bank brokerage firm, a full commission brokerage firm, and a full service discount brokerage firm.
  • How does my family balance living in the moment vs. saving for the future.  Such a great question, because it is the essence of financial planning.
  • Who is your financial role model.  I could have gone on and on with this one.  I think I will do a future blog post of my own.
  • And do I think everyone is capable of learning enough about personal finance to do it on their own.  This answer may surprise you!

I know Michael through the Garrett Planning Network.  He is like me, in that he owns his own financial planning firm.  In addition he has the Wealth Gathering site which is so unique.  It is designed to offer online tools, coaching, and peer support.  It is structured like a financial fitness program.   As you know, I am a fee-only financial advisor, so I do not receive any compensation from them, and am not affiliated with Wealth Gathering.  If you have a chance to look at the interview, take a look around at the other information on the website.  Especially considering this is the time of year that so many people are tackling financial To Do items.

Financial Resolutions

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I believe that just about everyone has some sort of financially related To Do item sitting on their To Do list.  And they have every intention of taking care of it.  However, so many other more time critical things seem to keep the financial items from getting to the top spot of the list.

If you are going to resolve to get some of your financial To Dos To Done, what actually matters – how it got done or that it got done?  I will come back to that thought in a minute.

When people come to see me they have accumulated a list of tasks, and it is so easy to see how  that happens in our busy lives.

You take a new job – a nice jump up the career ladder.  Something needs to be done with that old 401(k).  But what?   You’re busy with the new job right now.   So you put it on The To Do List.

Your income is higher now with the new job, should you have more life insurance?  Or is the life insurance at work enough?  You did buy some whole life from that guy that came to the house when you first got married.  Is that still the right policy for you or not?  So you put that on The To Do List.

Your kids are getting older, and you haven’t saved as much as you had intended for college.  How much can you afford to put away for their college vs. how much should you be saving for our own retirement?  Well, the kids are in middle school, you have a couple more years, so you put it on The To Do List.

At work they keep changing your investment choices and you don’t know what to pick.  You don’t have the tools to see all of your investments together and create a diversified portfolio that incorporates all of your accounts, but you know that you need to do it one day.  But you don’t have the time right now.  So you put that on The To Do List.

Sometimes when potential clients meet with me in the free Get Acquainted meeting they tell me that they feel bad about not taking care of these things themselves.  I stress to them, that I do not want them to feel that way.  I tell them that when I have electrical problems at the house, I call an electrician.  And when I have serious plumbing problems I call a plumber.  I have had a handy man come to the house a few times to work though lists of little things that were annoyances.  Sometimes you call in a professional to help you with your list.  And it feels great to work on that list.

So if you are making a resolution to get your financial To Do items To Done, make a plan to either do them yourself, or to contact a professional to help you do them.  Because when you mark them off the list, what actually matters – how it got done, or that it got done?

Resolve to take action today!

Have a Wonderful New Year!

Michele Clark in the News: US News and World Report “Your Retirement Benefits”

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US News and World Report quoted me in their article “Your Retirement Benefits: What to Expect in 2013” on their website this week.

I shared my thoughts on 401(k) fee disclosures.  401(k) providers are required to disclose the fees for the plan.  All things being equal, if two funds are simlar but one has lower fees than the other, choosing the fund with lower fees will allow the investor to keep more of their money invested for their future.

The article is full of information on a variety of topics.  It covers information about changes to contribution limits, the Roth IRA income limit increase, the saver’s credit, the pension insurance limit for 2013, the increase in Social Security taxes (expiration of the tax cut), and Medicare premiums and coverage.

Modern Portfolio Theory revisited

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Yesterday morning I attended the St. Louis Chapter of the Financial Planning Association meeting to hear a presentation titled “Modern Portfolio Theory 2.0.”  It was excellent, no surprise, because it was presented by Michael Kitces  MSFS, MTAX, CFP®, CLU, ChFC, RHU, REBC, CASL whom I often describe as a “walking brain” when discussing him with peers.  He is also the author of a reference book I own, and to which I often refer.

Michael came in from the Washington DC area to share his research on market and economic history, the accompanying signals and data, and what it has told us about subsequent market performance.  He also had ideas for how this information could be layered on top of Modern Portfolio Theory in a tactical way to mitigate some risk in client portfolios.

Modern Portfolio Theory

In the 1950’s, Dr. Harry Markowitz pioneered the idea of considering your investment portfolio as a whole unit, rather than as individual securities, when measuring risk and expected return.   He determined mathematically, that you could put investments in the portfolio that had a bit more risk (more volatility) and yet create less volatility in the portfolio as a whole.

This reduction in volatility was accomplished by having investments that were not completely correlated, meaning they did not move in tandem.  So when one investment zigs another one zags.  In effect, when you have multiple investments moving in different amounts of up and down directions at different times, it creates a smoother path overall.

There are different steps involved in implementing Modern Portfolio Theory.  I gave a “plain English” version of the Asset Allocation step in my blog post “Peter Cottontail Makes A Lousy Investment Advisor!” which explains the reasons for diversification and rebalancing a portfolio.

Modern Portfolio 2.0

In his presentation Michael pointed out three factors that make following Modern Portfolio Theory, without any adjustment, challenging.

  1. Returns – they seem to vary for an extended period of time
  2. Standard Deviation – there are distinct high and low volatility periods
  3. Correlations – became close to 1 during the recent crisis

He shared with us different valuation data points, macroeconomic information, and technical trend analysis information to evaluate when considering adjustments to Modern Portfolio Theory inputs.

I have seen Michael speak on similar topics and can see that his research is expanding, he shared more data points and ideas for implementation than in the past.  I look forward to seeing where the research leads.

Michele Clark in the News: US News and World Report

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I was interviewed by US News and World Report recently about 401(k)s.  My thoughts appeared in an article on their website this week entitled “10 Strategies to Maximize Your 401(k) Balance.”

When Emily Brandon from US News and World Report called me I shared with her an idea for making it easier to save more in your 401(k), and we talked a bit about the new fee disclosure rules in 401(k)s and what that means for employees.  We also talked about the importance of adjusting your investment portfolio as you get closer to retirement.

If you would like to read the results of our conversation, and how she interwove it with the conversation she had with two other advisors, you can read the article here: 10 Strategies to Maximize Your 401(k) Balance.