Our interaction with money and investments is always changing and evolving.  Our strategies need to change and evolve also.

Investment performance is not measured by return alone, but by our comfort level with a given return.

The best investment strategy is one the client understands.

Mutual funds are better for smaller accounts and money managers for bigger accounts.

Bonds are preferred to Bond funds for investments of any size.

Do not invest in Bond funds when interest rates are rising.

Do not invest in individual stocks except –

Ø      When you understand the company’s management, product line, and industry well.

Ø      When you believe in the investment philosophy/strategy of a money manager who buys stocks and/or bonds for you.

Ø      When you trust the trading decisions of a broker.

Do not hold more than 12 stocks with any one broker, or in your own trading account.  Additional diversification can be made with more brokers, money managers and mutual funds as needed.

Do not hold any more than 10 investment accounts.

Do not invest in mutual funds other than index funds except –

Ø      When you understand and agree with the mutual fund manager’s investment strategy.

Ø      When you believe that an industry sector has good potential and you want to invest in that sector.

Taxes should not be of primary importance when deciding whether to sell an investment.

Dollar cost averaging into mutual funds is a fine way to invest long term.

Buying more of a falling stock (average down) is often times a losing strategy.

Creating buy and sell rules and sticking to them is critical for stock investing success

No one investment or investment strategy is best for everybody. 

People usually talk about their investment successes, rarely of their failures.

Irrational investment decisions are usually caused by one of three emotions; Hope, Greed or Fear.

If investing was purely scientific then computers could invest for us.  But it has been proven time and again that this is not the case.  Therefore the ability to outperform the market consistently is more of an art than a science.  Some people are better at developing this skill than others but we all have some investing talents.  We just need to discover and develop these talents if we want to outperform the market as individuals.

Our goal with our clients is to have them become proactive in their investment decisions as opposed to reactive.