Pat Alfano

How Dividend-Paying Stocks Are Like Tenants

In real estate, people tend to invest for rental income today and the possibility for more an increased price tomorrow. But in the stock market, I've found that many investors focus on price and ignore the long-term potential of dividends. They're taught to buy low and sell high—and they forget about the income opportunity between those two points.
Growing Old Will Your Money Keep Up?

Living to 85? Will Your Money Keep Up?

Did you know there’s an 80% chance that a 60-year-old couple will have at least one spouse reach the age of 90? And about 1-in-10 adults will live past age 95, according to the Social Security Administration. That’s a problem for most investors. Few retirement plans account for such a long period (sometimes more than 30 years!) of time. So the typical question becomes: what’s going to last longer, you or your money?
Your Income Should Not Depend on Market Whims

Market Up or Down: Your Income Should Not Change

If the market dropped 10% during your first year of retirement, how would that affect your income? What effect would a 5-year bear market have on your plans? These are the questions we encounter time after time. Investors want to understand…
Brannon Brown

Joy and the Successful Investor: The Upward Spiral

In my decade plus time advising clients, I have seen this truth—my most joyful clients are my most successful investors. Not the other way around. The rewards follow the joy, not joy the rewards. They view the future as bright and invest faithfully in it knowing that no amount of market return will ever be able to generate an internal joy, but that prudent stewardship and a long-term perspective can perpetuate the upward spiral of joy.
Brannon Brown

Feed Your Focus. Starve Your Distractions

Daily living, marketing, and the widespread adoption of mobile devices and social media have made it increasingly difficult to remain focused. Often, it is difficult to even know where to focus, much less maintain it over it time. But I’ve come up with a little reminder that I like to review from time to time, and I want to share it with you.
Steve Booren

The Crystal Ball of Context

The advisors at Prosperion don’t make short-term market predictions – you see, we don’t have a “crystal ball”. Like you, we aren’t sure when the next market correction (or major upswing for that matter) is going to happen. But we can say with certainty that one will happen… eventually.
John Booren
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For These Financial Areas, Emotion is More Important Than Logic

Money is hard. Take it from us, we are honored to have very intimate, fragile conversations with clients like you every single day. And if you’ve been a part of those conversations, you know that it can be very emotional. Sometimes we think myopically that money is just about numbers—it’s spreadsheets and calculators. All we need to do be completely rational and figure out how to get the most out of an investments. But that’s not all money is. You may have heard the phrase: “Personal finance is a whole lot more PERSONAL, than it is finance.” There is so much truth in those words.
Nelisha Firestone

Ladies, Use These Tips to Give Your Financial Confidence a Boost

I recently came across an article titled, “Warren Buffet invests like a girl.” As a female financial advisor, I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or jab. Reading deeper into the article- they explain women, like men bring some gender-linked qualities to investing that can actually help. Women tend to do their research, invest calmly, and exercise patience. These are all great attributes to sticking to a long term plan.
Mid-Year Outlook 2017

Mid-Year Outlook 2017 – A Shift in Market Control

The LPL Research team proudly presents Midyear Outlook 2017: A Shift In Market Control. Thus far in 2017, an important shift has taken place in this economic cycle. The Federal Reserve has shown increasing trust that the economy has recovered and that market forces can keep it steady. The gauges say growth engines and market drivers may have changed: power down monetary policy, power up business fundamentals, and potentially take fiscal policy and economic growth off standby.
Steve Booren
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With Markets at All-Time Highs, is Now a Good Time to Invest?

It’s a fair question and one we’ve heard a lot lately with the DOW and S&P continuing to push into record territory. Our little bull market has grown up and is about to start third grade. We’re due for a correction right?

The Right Perspective

Today I want to address what I believe is the very core for successful financial behavior – an optimistic disposition. 2016 is a great example of why it is so important to have an optimistic perspective. The optimists “won” and pessimists “lost”… again. Whether attempting to follow financial folklore such as, “as the first week of January goes, so goes the market for the year”, or that saying “sell in May and go away”… speculators who believe in superstition and let it influence their actions are bound to fail.
2016 Taught Us These Things
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2016 Taught Us These 3 Lessons

If 2016 has taught us anything, it is to expect the unexpected. So as we wrap up a rollercoaster of a year, I find myself looking back to three surprises and the lessons they taught us. In the same way the bottom of a cup is revealed only when the liquid is quickly stirred, sometimes it takes a whirlwind of the unexpected to remind us of a few simple truths.
3 Keys of a Modern Retirement

The 3 Paychecks of a Modern Retirement

On November 29th, the oldest living person in the world, Emma Morano will turn 117. Based on my research she is the last living person to have been born in the 1800s. While some people might marvel at all she’s seen and been through, I ‘m curious about what she did during her more than 50 years in retirement.

“Revolution” by Brian Westbury

"Elections have consequences and the impact on U.S. economic policy of last week’s election will be enormous. We’re sure we’ll be writing about all of these issues in much greater depth over the next several months, but, for now, here’s…
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The Fear of Uncertainty and the Uncertainty of Fear

“We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” With those words FDR accepted the presidency of the United States in 1933 during one of the most turbulent times in American history. Lesser known are the words that surround that key sentence.