Browse by Tags

Recent statistics from the US Census Bureau indicate that more adult children are either moving back with mom and dad, or never leaving in the first place. Studies show that this is not just a US phenomenon, but is also occurring across the globe. While it's easy to see that the economy is a major factor in this demographic shift, my focus this week will be on a possible silver lining.

If adult children are moving back home due to lack of a job or not making enough money to make ends meet, this can be an excellent "teachable moment" for parents. The current economic environment is a way for parents to impart valuable wisdom about saving and investing to their adult children. While it's not always easy to get the attention of adult children, at least you won't have to convince them that rainy days happen since we're coming out of one of the worst economic storms we've ever seen.

Obviously, it's better to start teaching children about saving when they are young. To help parents or grandparents of younger children, I have also included a discussion about the best ways to approach teaching kids about money, along with some valuable Internet resources to help you along.

I think that all of us can agree that the wealthy, those with a net worth of $10 million or more, have a certain edge in their investments. After all, only the wealthy can play in the high-stakes game of hedge funds and other "private" offerings with minimum investments in the millions of dollars. However, there are times that all of us can learn valuable lessons on investing by paying attention to the habits of wealthy investors.

A recent study by Cerulli Associates is a good example. It found that many wealthy investors are now seeking the advice of multiple financial advisors. This week, I'll highlight the reasons that wealthy investors are using multiple advisors as well as the advantages of doing so. More importantly, however, I'm going to show how you can get the same benefit of multiple advisors for your own portfolio, even if you aren't a multi-millionaire.

Since the bear market low in early March 2009, US stocks have come roaring back, the last few days not withstanding. In fact, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 are within striking distance of their all-time highs. It is not surprising, then, that advocates for passive buy-and-hold strategies are once again singing their praises: See we told you, the market always comes back!

What they fail to mention, however, is that hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of investors bailed out of the stock markets in late 2008 and early 2009 and never got back in. The S&P 500 Index plunged almost 51% from its October 2007 high to the low in early March 2009. Not many investors had the stomach for that kind of collapse. Yet the buy-and-hold crowd would now have you believe that everyone held onto their stocks and mutual funds during that period. Not so!

Today, we will take a fresh, objective look at buy-and-hold versus the actively-managed programs we recommend at Halbert Wealth Management that aim to make at least market rates of return during up cycles, and hold downside losses to a minimum. I will give you the pros and cons of both strategies and show you how you can get these professionally-managed programs in your portfolio (if you don't have them already).