Portfolio Advisors Blog

In his article, “The Top Ten Money Excuses,” Dimensional Funds Vice President Jim Parker suggests that we often deceive ourselves when it comes to our own money. How can this happen, one might ask? It can happen by constructing a façade of logical-sounding arguments that can often lead to decisions that are counter to our own long-term interests. Read on to learn about those top ten arguments and excuses along with how to avoid them.

From time to time, you may have the need to calculate the cost of a loan, or you may need to calculate the impact of increasing or decreasing contributions to your retirement plan. You may be interested in knowing if it is better to lease or buy a new vehicle. Perhaps you are curious about whether an auto rebate is a preferable choice versus securing a lower interest rate.

A wide variety of on-line tools can be found on our website and can be helpful with these and other common financial questions. In addition to those mentioned, you can also find a 1040 tax calculator, an amortizing loan calculator and a Roth IRA Conversion calculator to name a few. These useful tools can all be found on the Portfolio Advisors website at Online Tools.

Quiz Question: What do these companies have in common—Whitbread of the United Kingdom, Molson Coors of North America, Qantas of Australia, Honda of Japan, and Adidas of Germany?

Dimensional Funds Vice President, Jim Parker, provides the answer in his column “Sharing the Wealth: The Case for Equities”.

Portfolio Advisors, Inc. is proud to announce that Tina Mistry has completed her financial planning training and has passed the CFP® Certification Exam. She has obtained her Certified Financial PlannerTM certification, demonstrating that she has met the standards required by the CFP® Board.

The year 2011 could be remembered for the unsettling volatility seen in the S&P 500 index, a measure of large company US stocks. January offered a promising start with a 2% gain and by April, the S&P was up 8%. Wobbling followed during May and June, and volatility really began in mid-July with the index diving 17% in just 11 days. In August, the index rose or fell 4%+ on 5 of 6 consecutive days.

Happy New Year! We hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday season.

With the New Year comes along new reporting from Schwab for taxable accounts. The purpose of this posting is to address some new IRS tax reporting requirements and to explain how the changes might affect you.

I was listening to a news commentary on PBS last night and the discussion revolved around the state of the economy, 8 to 9% unemployment and the housing and financial mess that we continue to face. All agreed that these are indeed tough times. However, one of the guests reminded the others that tough times are not new and that over time we have always worked our way through seemingly impossible situations.

When you refer someone to us, we regard it as a sign of trust and a compliment of the highest order. Referrals, after all, are the lifeblood of our business and are the largest source of new business for our firm. As such, you should know that we will do everything we can to meet and exceed the expectations of people you refer to us.

Thanks to all for attending our “Investment Strategies in Turbulent Times” presentation held on Nov. 14 at California State University Fresno, University Business Center. There were over 90 in attendance.

October was quite a month from an S&P 500 standpoint. The index grew 10.9%, its largest growth month since 1991. This growth spurt followed, as you may recall, 5 consecutive months of decline.

We’re certainly seeing big daily, weekly and monthly swings in stock market indices…. turbulent times indeed. But, with stock markets, shouldn’t we expect a degree of turbulence? Since 1980, for example, the average intra-year (that is, during each calendar year) S&P 500 decline exceeded 14%. Restated, the average high-to-low decline during those calendar years exceeded 14%.