Sun setting over a tropical beach
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Improving Investor Behavior: Retire to What?

If I asked you to define retirement, how would you describe it? Take some time and think about it. You’re probably envisioning white sandy beaches, trips to the golf course, and visits with family, free from the constraints of work and email.…
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior: The Positive Mindset of Investors

Pessimism is poison for investors. Following national headlines would have you believe we are moments away from catastrophe, teetering on the edge of sheer doom. It’s an easy narrative in which to engage, especially when we hear it every…
Steve Booren
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Improving Investor Behavior – Doubt, Sold with a Smile

Financial advice is usually broken into three steps. First, define your goals. Where do you want to go? Next comes a plan. This is the recipe for working toward your goals with actionable and measurable steps. Then comes implementation when…
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior – Know the “Why” for your Investments

As financial advisors, we receive questions about all types of investments. Here’s one we recently heard: I am a doctor, and many of my friends and fellow doctors are getting into real estate. There is a group that invests in local…
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior – Learn to Love a Falling Market

The financial markets have given investors quite a ride in the past few months. Not only have we seen a drop in the prices, but the volatility and multiple-percentage point days seems to have investors feeling a little seasick. The first thing…
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior – Focus on the Right Number

With the year coming to an end, 2018 has been a tumultuous one for investors. For the first time in 46 years, there has not been a clear winner in any asset class: from stocks to bonds, emerging markets to precious metals. As of this writing,…
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior – Managing the Pain of Regret

Regret may be the most enduring and damaging emotion investors grapple with during their financial lives. As financial advisors we see it from both sides: clients either regret having done something, or regret NOT having done something, or…
Silhouette of a spider web
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Improving Investor Behavior: Managing Your Fears

Shark Week is among the longest running and most popular cable programs in history. First appearing 30 years ago in 1988, the show has since been watched and celebrated by millions. Why would a program about sharks and their danger be so popular? I think it plays on the emotion of fear, and more interestingly, people’s desire to be a little bit scared. My point is this: sometimes our greatest fears are the most unfounded. Whether it’s an oversized fish or monsters under the bed, our worst fears take up an oversized portion of our conscious and drive actions that can be damaging and counterproductive. Fear is a powerful emotion and one you must learn to rein in if you want to be a successful investor.
A woman expressing anxiety on the phone
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Anxiety and Investing: Taking the Fear Out of Finances

The chances that either you, a loved one, or a friend have had an incident with, or an ongoing relationship with heightened anxiety are likely. Almost 20 percent of the population expresses some sort of anxiety disorder in a lifetime. It comes…
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior – Fear of Missing Out

When you are stuck in traffic on the interstate, creeping along, do you find yourself wanting to switch from one lane to another? Do you glance to the left and see the “fast lane,” and are envious of how quickly they are moving? You look…
Pat Alfano

An Open Letter to Employers

There is a national debate right now on how to make 401k plans more effective for retirement plan participants. The question isn’t “how do we supply the workforce with access to retirement savings vehicles?”, but rather “Why are so few employees taking advantage of these important benefit offerings?” In the end, it’s about a lack of familiarity and trust.
Dave Anderson

The 8th Wonder of the World – Compounding Interest

I would like to take a look at the concepts of compounding and inflation. The principles of the two are identical. One works for you in a positive growing way, the other in a silent negative manner.
Dave Anderson

Patience Isn’t a Virtue, It’s a Necessity

With the increased fluctuations and heightened volatility we have experienced in the markets in the past several months, I would like to share my thoughts and perspective. I feel the most important point I would like to state is: short-term volatility is normal. We will look at some statistics shortly, but first I desire to express that volatility is to be expected. We do not let volatility sway our opinion of the investments we own.
Steve Booren

Improving Investor Behavior – Myths & Language

Many people believe the stock market is risky. It’s often described as a casino, using words like crash, falling, and my favorite Wall Street word: “correction” meaning falling 10 percent or more from a previous high price. My definition…
Steve Booren

Invest in Businesses Rather than Renting Stocks

Most business owners can feel the pulse of their business. If you own a coffee shop for instance, you can go to the location, see and interact with your employees, touch your inventory, and keep your customers happily caffeinated. You can smell the aroma of your business. You can feel it. What if you had that same feeling as a shareholder of a public company?