Category Archives: Investing

Becoming Financially Responsible | Vanguard

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  • Live within your means by earning more than you spend.
  • Prepare for both an income shock and a spending shock.
  • Build a strong credit history.
  • Continue to learn and grow your financial literacy muscle

Most people do fall somewhere on the spectrum of financial responsibility.

Keep income > spending

The math behind living within your means is simple: When you subtract what you spend from what you earn, the result should be positive. If it’s negative, you’re living beyond your means.

If you’re in the positive, keep it up. Try to save even more, if you can. If you’re in the negative, don’t panic. Take control:

  • Distinguish between your wants and needs. This may be easier said than done. If you don’t have easy access to another form of transportation, a car is a need. A nice car is a want.
  • Create a budget. Just having a general goal in mind for how much you can spend on certain expenses—food, entertainment, housing, transportation—over a certain time frame can help you make smarter spending decisions.
  • Avoid your spending triggers. Do your best to maintain your discipline, and try to resist temptation. If bargain shopping is your downfall, unsubscribe from promotional emails to reduce temptation. If you overfill your cart when you go to the grocery store before dinner, don’t shop on an empty stomach.

Prioritize your savings

Prepare for an emergency

Having emergency money means you’ll be less likely to need a loan from a friend, a family member, or an institution if your car breaks down or your roof leaks. Even if your emergency stash falls short, it can still lower the amount you have to borrow (and pay back, possibly with interest).

There are two types of emergencies you should prepare for: a spending shock and an income shock. A spending shock pertains to a onetime unexpected expense, such as paying for car repairs after an accident. An income shock represents a sudden loss of continuous income (for example, experiencing a layoff).

Getting started may feel daunting, but begin small and build your savings over time. We recommend setting aside at least $2,000 to prepare for a spending shock. Consider keeping this money in a low-risk investment like a money market fund. That way, your money will be easy to access and won’t change much in value over time.

For an income shock, aim to have at least 3 to 6 months of living expenses set aside. If you’re retired, try to have 12 months of living expenses saved. Don’t be afraid to start small and work your way up: Tally your unavoidable living expenses for one month. Divide the amount by 12. Save that amount each month. When you reach that savings goal in one year, do it again until you have a few months of savings to fall back on.

It is recommended to save money for an income shock in an easily accessible account like a taxable money market account.

Get ready for retirement

You’re responsible for your retirement savings. The details of your retirement—the age at which you stop working, where you live, and how—are up to you.

Here are the top 3 things you can do to prepare for retirement:

  • Enroll in your employer’s retirement plan if one is offered. (If you don’t have a retirement plan benefit, you still have options, such as an IRA.) 
  • Save, or work toward saving, 12%–15% of your gross (pre-tax) annual income, including any employer contributions.
  • Invest your savings in a diversified, low-cost portfolio that complements your time frame and risk tolerance.

You’ll need to consider your monthly expenses when you retire. Most of them will most likely stay the same, but you may need to review new items in your budget (such as Medigap or long-term care insurance) as well as expenses you’ll no longer need to consider (such as payroll taxes, clothes, and gas for work). You’ll also need to determine your monthly income from Social Security, pensions, or any other part-time work or passive income that you may be expecting in retirement.

Give yourself credit

Your credit history refers to how you use money. Your credit report is a record of money-related activity (balances, charges, and payment history) on credit cards, some bills (such as utility bills), and loans associated with your name and Social Security number. A credit score is a number based on your credit report giving potential lenders a sense of how you handle debt payments and bills.

You need to establish a credit history to get credit. If you don’t have a credit history, it can be hard to get a job, a credit card, an auto loan, an apartment lease, or a mortgage. Before a potential employer, lender, or landlord takes on the risk of giving you something, they want to see evidence you can handle it. In the eyes of a potential lender, your credit report and credit score are good measures of how financially responsible you are. Having a strong credit history and a high credit score can also lower your cost to borrow by qualifying you for a lower interest rate.

For example, if you have excellent credit and qualify for a $20,000 auto loan with a 1.5% interest rate for 5 years, you’ll pay about $772 in interest over the course of the loan. If you have fair credit and qualify for a loan with a 3.5% interest rate for 5 years, you’ll pay over $1,800 in interest—a difference of over $1,000 that you could’ve saved or invested.

Review your credit report for accuracy each year. You’re entitled to a free copy of your credit report once a year, but there may be a charge for getting your credit score.

It’s go time

Smart money management skills can take time to develop. Start by holding yourself accountable for the financial decisions you make. You have a lot to gain by spending less than you earn, preparing for an emergency, taking control of your credit, and saving for retirement. But if you don’t take steps to be financially responsible, you also have a lot to lose.

References:

  1. https://investornews.vanguard/becoming-financially-responsible/

Net Worth Statement

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The process of calculating personal net worth may well be the only exercise in financial planning that savers and investors actually enjoy. It, with a personal cash flow statement, provides savers and investors with a financial scorecard of where you stand along the path of financial security.

“A personal income and expense statement [cash flow] goes hand-in-hand with a net worth statement because it allows you to see sources of income and expenses while working and retired,” David Bizé, a financial professional in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, said. “It helps you determine how much can reasonably be saved for financial goals as well as project whether your financial goals will be satisfied long term.”

Calculate your net worth

A net worth statement is a list of what you own (assets) and what you owe (liabilities).

Your assets would include any possessions of value, including:

  • Bank and brokerage accounts
  • Real estate
  • Retirement accounts (IRAs and 401(k))
  • Pension plans
  • Stock options
  • Cash value life insurance
  • Other property, such as artwork

To estimate the value of the personal property in your home, a good rule of thumb is to use 25 percent to 30 percent of its fair market value.

Into the liability column falls any debt you may have, such as:

  • Mortgage
  • Car loans
  • Student loans
  • Credit card balances
  • Child support
  • Alimony
  • Back taxes
  • Medical debt

To calculate your net worth, simply subtract what you owe from what you own. If you own more than you owe, your net worth will be positive. If you owe more than you own, it’s negative.

Appearances can be deceiving, the numbers never lie. Your neighbor with the big house and the luxury cars, for example, may exude a high net worth lifestyle, but if they’re up to their nose in debt, or not saving for their retirement, they may have a smaller net worth than the family next door who lives more modestly.

As a rule of thumb, your net worth should be roughly equal to six times your annual salary by age 60, or that your net worth by age 72 (the new age at which required minimum distributions from your IRA must begin) should be 20 times your annual spending. Other financial pundits suggest that you should aim to be net worth positive by age 30, and have twice your yearly salary socked away for retirement by age 40.

According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, the average net worth of all families in the U.S. rose 26 percent to $692,100 between 2013 and 2016, the most recent year for which data are available.  But the average net worth by age group breaks down as such:

  • Younger than age 35: $76,200
  • Ages 35-44: $288,700
  • Ages 45-54: $727,500
  • Ages 55-64: $1,167,400
  • Ages 65-74: $1,066,000
  • Ages 75 and older: $1,067,000

The ideal net worth differs for everyone and depends on your lifestyle, geographic location, income potential, and investment returns. The age at which you plan to retire also plays a role. The longer you work beyond your full retirement age, the less you need saved.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that your net worth is appropriate for your future financial plans, your financial goals and your lifestyle.

References:

  1. https://blog.massmutual.com/post/net-worth-calculate?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social_pd&utm_campaign=brand_traf_contentsyndication&utm_content=static_election_6200129223294_learn&utm_term=demo_fin_int_all&fbclid=IwAR1x-0otWLiM1UTNrFC5pLTEcXYkRr-wls4qucKmW6VfVjCjSry1dZr4Frg
  2. U.S. Federal Reserve, “Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2013 to 2016: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances. Table 2: Family median and mean net worth, by selected characteristics of families, 2013 and 2016 surveys,” September 2017.

Asset Allocation

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Asset allocation is one of the most important factors in your success as a long-term investor according to many financial experts. It’s a hundred times more important than any stock pick and more important than knowing the next hot country to invest in… what option to buy… what the housing market is doing… or whether the economy is booming or busting.

Asset allocation is how you balance your wealth among stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, commodities, and precious metals in your portfolio. This mix is the most important factor in your retirement investing success.

Ignorance of this topic has ruined more investment and retirement portfolios than any other financial factor. Many investors have no clue on what a sensible asset allocation should be. So they end up taking huge risks by sticking big chunks of their portfolios into just one or two investment assets.

For example, people who had most of her wealth in real estate investments in 2008 experienced significant losses when the market busted in 2009. Or consider employees of big companies that put a huge portion of their net worth or retirement money into their company stock. Employees of big companies that went bankrupt, like Enron, WorldCom, Bear Stearns, and Lehman Brothers were totally wiped out. They believed in the companies they worked for, so they kept more than half of their retirement portfolios into company stock.

And it’s all because they didn’t know about proper asset allocation. Because of this ignorance, they lost everything. These examples demonstrate why asset allocation is so important because keeping your wealth stored in a good, diversified mix of assets is the key to avoiding catastrophic losses.

If you keep too much wealth – like 90% to 100% of it – in a handful of stocks and the stock market goes south, you’ll suffer badly. The same goes for any asset… gold, oil, bonds, real estate, or blue-chip stocks. Concentrating your retirement nest egg in just a few different asset classes is way too risky. Betting on just one horse or putting your eggs in a single asset basket is a fool’s game.

Spread your risk around.

A sensible asset mix should include five broad categories… cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, and precious metals. And, a favorite asset of all long-term investors should be cash. “Cash” simply means all the money you have in savings, checking accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and U.S. Treasury bills. Anything with less than one year to maturity should be considered cash.

It’s best to keep plenty of cash on hand so you can be ready to buy bargains in case of a market collapse. Investors flush with cash are often able to get assets on the cheap after a collapse – they can swoop in and pick things up with cash quickly, and often at great prices.

Generally, it’s recommended to hold between 10% and 15% of your assets in cash, depending on your circumstances. In fact, one of the major tenets of good financial planning is to always have at least 6 to 12 months of essential living expenses in cash in case of disaster. If you haven’t started saving yet, this is the No. 1 thing to start today.

Next, you have conventional equity stocks. These are investments in individual businesses, or investments in broad baskets of stocks, like mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Stocks are a proven long-term builder of wealth, so almost everyone should own some. But keep in mind, stocks are typically more volatile than most other assets.

Just like you should stay diversified overall with your assets, you should stay diversified in your stock portfolio. Once, a well-known TV money show host ask callers: “Are you diversified?” According to him, owning five stocks in different sectors makes you diversified. This is simply not true. It is a dangerous notion.

The famous economist Harry Markowitz modeled math, physics, and stock-picking to win a Nobel Prize for the work on diversification. The science showed you need around 12-18 stocks to be fully diversified.

Holding and following that many stocks might seem daunting – it’s really not. The problem is easily solved with a mutual fund that holds dozens of stocks, which of course makes you officially diversified.

Next you have fixed income securities, with are generally called “notes” or “bonds.” These are basically any instrument that pays out a regular stream of income over a fixed period of time. At the end, you also get your initial investment – which is called your “principal” – back.

Depending on your age and tolerance for risk, bonds sit somewhere between boring and a godsend. The promise of interest payments and an almost certain return of capital at a certain fixed rate for a long period of time always lets me sleep well at night.

Adding safe fixed-income bonds to your portfolio is a simple way to stabilize your investment returns over time. For people with enough capital, locking up extra money (more than 12 months of your expenses) in bonds is a simple way to generate more income than a savings account.

Another asset class is real estate. Everyone knows what this is, so we don’t need to spend much time covering this. If you can keep a portion of wealth in a paid-for home, and possibly some income-producing real estate like a rental property or a farm, it’s a great diversifier.

Precious metals, like gold and silver, an important piece of a sensible asset allocation

Precious metals, like gold and silver, are like insurance. Precious metals like gold and silver typically soar during times of economic turmoil, so it’s wise to own some “just in case.” Avoid the mindset of the standard owner of gold and silver, who almost always believes the world is headed for hell in a hand basket. You should remain an optimist, but also a realist and own insurance. Stay “hedged.”

For many years, the goal with hedging strategies was to protect wealth and profits from unforeseen events. Wealthy people almost always own plenty of hedges and insurance. They consider what could happen in worst-case scenarios and take steps to protect themselves. Poor people tend to live with “blinders” on.

So just like wearing a seat belt while driving or riding in a vehicle, it’s important to own silver and gold – just in case. For most people, most of the time, keeping around 3% to 5% of your wealth in gold and silver provides that insurance.

Asset allocation guidelines

There’s no “one size fits all” asset allocation. Everyone’s financial situation is different. Asset allocation advice that will work for one person, can be worthless for another.

But most of us have the same basic goals: Wealth preservation… creating safe consistent income… and safely growing our nest egg. We can all use some guidelines to help make the right individual choices. Keep in mind, what I’m about to say are just guidelines…

If you’re having a hard time finding great bargains in stocks and bonds, I think an allocation of 15%… even 20% in cash is a good idea.

This sounds crazy to some people, but if you can’t find great investment bargains, there’s nothing wrong with sitting in cash, earning a little interest, and being patient. If great bargains present themselves, like they did in early 2009, you can lower your cash balance and plow it into stocks and bonds.

As for stocks, if you’re younger and more comfortable with the volatility involved in stocks, you can keep a stock exposure to somewhere around 65%-80% of your portfolio. A young person who can place a sizable chunk of money into a group of high-quality, dividend-paying stocks and hold them for decades will grow very wealthy.

If you’re older and can’t stand risk or volatility, consider keeping a huge chunk of your wealth in cash and bonds… like a 25%-35% weighting. Near the end of your career as an investor, you’re more concerned with preserving wealth and keeping up with inflation than growing it, so you want to be very conservative.

As a guideline, the big thing to keep in mind with asset allocation is that you’ve got to find a mix that is right for you… that suits your risk tolerance… your station in life. Whatever mix you choose, just make sure you’re not overexposed to an unforeseen crash in one particular asset class. This will ensure a long and profitable investment career.

In summary, asset allocation is how you balance your wealth or net worth assets among stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, commodities, and precious metals in your portfolio. It is the single most important factor in your success as an investor.

References:

  1. https://stansberryinvestor.com/media-article/328231?fbclid=IwAR2z_5CGah4ZGsSJPoMsSX8Tb9jExRTJIWmedbMI7Il18Wjii8RtjzFTDLg
  2. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/harrymarkowitz.asp

Owning a Successful Business Is the Single Best Way to Accumulate Wealth

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Successful investing for the long term and accumulating wealth are about owning a portion of a successful business. It is the single best way to accumulate wealth.

It is extremely difficult for individuals to accumulate wealth by earning income and slugging their way through a 9 to 5 job. It’s very hard to get truly wealthy by renting out your time. Bottomline…you can only work so many hours. 

Even high earners like corporate executives, doctors and lawyers don’t typically earn millions of dollars a year. Instead, the path to amassing vast fortunes is paved by owning assets like stocks of a successful business and allowing the assets to to appreciate in value and work for you.

The single greatest wealth-building secret on the planet and the path to amassing vast fortunes is paved by owning a successful business through investing for the long term in stocks. Controlling vast sums of stock market wealth is a common thread among the world’s wealthy.

That doesn’t mean you have to create and build the next Tesla, Amazon or Walmart. You can “piggyback” on billionaire CEOs like Bezos by buying shares of their companies on the stock market.  This is the playbook many wealthy folks follow.

Recent data from investment bank Goldman Sachs shows the wealthiest 1% of US households own more than half the stocks in America. At the end of 2019, they controlled $21 trillion in stock market wealth.

Over long term, ownership of companies through stocks have outperformed bonds and most other asset classes. This makes sense when you think about it. Stocks are riskier than bonds, so you expect to earn a higher return on capital. 

When you save for the future by paying yourself first and invest for the long term your capital in a successful business, you accumulate assets that earn money while you sleep. For example, by owning Amazon shares, every time the stock soars, your net worth increases.

When Amazon crushes earnings, you win, too. Think of it as a second income that often brings in more than your main job.

References:

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephenmcbride1/2020/08/19/why-owning-stocks-is-the-single-best-way-to-get-rich/#6ede923248ec

Bach Wisdom—16 Timeless Truths

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16 FINANCIAL TRUTHS, ACCORDING TO DAVID BACH, YOU CAN TAKE EVERYWHERE!

Advice from David Bach, author The Automatic Millionaire

  1. Always spend less than you make – your life will be much easier and less stressful.
  2. Pay yourself first – at least an hour a day of your income – you’re going to work 90,000 hours over your lifetime you should keep at least an hour a day of your income.
  3. Don’t budget – you’re too busy, and you will just get frustrated and fail–instead automate your financial life. When it’s automatic you can’t fail.
  4. Be an investor, not a borrower – investors get rich borrowers stay poor.
  5. Buy a home, don’t rent. Renters stay poor – homeowners and landlords build wealth.
  6. Don’t lend money to friends or family (you will lose both) — and you’re not a bank.
  7. Never invest in things you don’t understand. If the investment can’t be explained to you on one piece of paper it’s too complicated. Pass.
  8. Invest for the long-term – building wealth takes decades not days.
  9. Don’t try to time the market, it won’t work. Investors who time the market always fail.
  10. Never invest on margin – leverage kills you when things go wrong.
  11. This time is different — it’s never different. Things work until they don’t work. Never bet the farm, you can lose it.
  12. Once you become rich — stay rich. It beats starting over (ask anyone who has had to).
  13. Give back — because the more you give the more you grow – and you make the world a better place.
  14. Never give up. No matter what happens, no matter how many times you fail as long as you get up and try again you haven’t lost.
  15. Compound interest really is a miracle that works when you work it. Save $10 a day at 10% interest in 40 years you’ll have $1,897,244. Earn half of that and you’ll have close to half a million dollars. That will be way better than not having saved. Trust me. Your older self will thank you.
  16. To find the money to save and invest you need to find your Latte Factor. The Latte Factor is the simple metaphor that will teach and inspire you to realize you are richer than you think and small amounts of money can change your life – if you invest it! Come check more at www.thelattefactor.com.

———————————————————————-

These truths, according to David, have come from over 30 years of learning. Mostly from experience and also mentors. Feel free to pass them along. Peter Lynch, the genius money manager from Fidelity, definitely gets credit for #7.

Take what you love and leave the rest behind.

You don’t have to believe in them all…but, according to David, most of the truths will help you financially.

****AND SHARE AWAY****BECAUSE SHARING IS CARING.

Source: Bach Wisdom—16 Timeless Truths

David BachDavid Bach is a financial expert and bestselling financial author. He has written ten consecutive New York Times bestsellers with more than seven million books in print, translated in over 19 languages.

His book The Automatic Millionaire spent 31 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. And, over the past 20 years David has touched tens of millions through his seminars, speeches and thousands of media appearances. He has been a contributor to NBC’s Today Show appearing more than 100 times, and a regular on The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, CBS, Fox, CNBC, CNN, Yahoo, The View, PBS, and many more.

Kevin O’Leary: Financial Freedom

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Dividends have produced forty percent (40%) of market returns.

The Ten Steps to Financial Freedom, according to Kevin O’Leary, Chairman of O’Shares ETF, and better know as “Mr. Wonderful”,  are::

  1. Get committed to a plan. Start by coming up with a clear “why”. Know your purpose and incentives for wanting to achieve financial freedom.
  2. Know your numbers. You must create a budget.
  3. Cost planning. Live within your means. Think twice before spending. Cut cost in order to save 10% to 15% of every paycheck.
  4. Go to war against debt and never surrender. Debt is the opposite of passive income; it erodes your asset base while you sleep. Don’t indulge your inner spending.
  5. Income plan. Focus on increasing income more than decreasing spending. Earning more is key. Before you spend, save. Invest surplus cash before you spend. Purchase assets that pay cash flow like dividend stocks, bonds or rental real estate.
  6. Emergency planning. Your the CEO of the business of your own life. Have cash reserve of three to six months of essential expenses. Remember, your psychology is always working against you and achieving financial freedom.
  7. If it matters, measure it. Know your expenses and income. Keep track of everything to ensure you can course correct if something goes wrong.
  8. Tax planning. Think about how much money you can save with simple tax planning. Use traditional IRA or Roth IRA. Also, consider donating to charities.
  9. Financial advisor. Hire a financial coach to help manage your money.
  10. Freedom formula. Freedom is when you have enough passive income generated from your assets to cover your essential expenses.

https://youtu.be/HsUQoEOu_bE

5 ways to win your financial marathon | Regions Private Wealth Management

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Sponsored content from Regions Private Wealth Management
Jan 31, 2017, 4:41pm EST

By making a regular habit of saving and monitoring progress toward your financial goals, you can build stamina to reach the finish line and bask in the glow of a race well-run.

Whether preparing for your first marathon or your fourteenth, you know that you can’t finish the race without preparation and discipline. With 26.2 miles to cover, it’s most certainly not a quick sprint. The same can be said for financial goals.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re establishing relatively short-term goals, such as paying down credit card debt by year-end, or taking a longer view and planning for a first home, child’s college education or retirement, Regions Bank has some healthy financial habits that can move you closer to the finish line.

1. Create a plan

Going from couch potato to long-distance runner won’t happen overnight. Just as you’d need to plan a training regimen and determine milestones before tackling a long race, you’ll need to do some research and planning to figure out how to best reach your financial target.

Maybe your goal is to buy a first home, so start with some research to determine exactly what dollar amount you’ll need and when. Online savings calculators can provide details on how much you need to set aside each month to reach your goal. Once armed with that information, develop a budget around that goal and track your spending to be sure you stay on course.

2. Create a support network

A training partner can offer motivation and support before and during a race, and it’s no different with household budgets. Spouses should work together to keep tabs on their spending and savings, as teamwork can help everyone stay on track and focused on the ultimate goal.

Even kids can play a role, such as by helping to grow a college fund. By setting aside birthday or babysitting money, children can learn about the importance — and the rewards — of sacrifice and hard work.

3. Be flexible and change things up

Training with the same workout every day can not only result in losing interest, but it can make progress stagnate. If a budget is too restrictive and resulting in frustration, then it may be time to take another look. If you’ve focused on belt-tightening, think about how you can bring in additional cash to allow for some breathing room and an occasional treat. Consider working extra shifts, selling unneeded belongings, or renting out a room or parking spot.

Once you’ve made progress, look for other ways to supplement your savings. If you’re maintaining investment portfolios to help reach your goals, periodically rebalance them to make sure they reflect changing risk environments and to free up capital to take advantage of any new opportunities.

4. Adjust for the final stretch

As a big race approaches, it’s important to maintain conditioning while being wary of regimens that could bring on an injury from which you may not have time to recover. Similarly, with savings goals, as the need becomes more immediate, your savings and investment accounts will have less time to recover from a sudden dip in value, whether it’s from a market downturn or an emergency withdrawal.

For instance, when saving for retirement while in your 20s and 30s, higher-risk investments may provide greater growth potential over time. As you near retirement, however, you’ll want to start protecting the growth achieved and consider lower-risk holdings that can help preserve value.

5. Prepare for the unexpected

Life throws us curves, and it’s not unusual for a training program to get off-track for any number of reasons. Our financial goals can also be at risk, such as from unexpected home or auto repairs, a job loss or an injury. To be able to meet these challenges head-on, prepare an emergency fund to cover expenses. Experts at Regions Bank recommend saving enough to cover three to six months of expenses. If you’re not at that level yet, consider adding this purpose to your monthly budget.

By making a regular habit of saving and monitoring progress toward your financial goals, you can build stamina to reach the finish line and bask in the glow of a race well-run.

References:

  1. https://www.regions.com/Insights/Wealth?WT.ac=VanityURL_wealthinsights
  2. https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/channels/cbiz/2017/01/5-ways-to-win-your-financial-marathon.html?page=all

Growth vs. Value

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“Empirical evidence suggests that value stocks outperform over the long term, even if growth has out performed value in recent years.” Bankrate

Recently, growth stocks, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla and Apple, have handily outperformed value names. But it’s not always that way, and many seasoned investors think value will once again have its day, though they have been waiting on that day for more than a decade.

The difference between the two approaches are:

  • “Growth investors look for $100 stocks that could be worth $200 in a few years if the company continues to grow quickly. As such, the success of their investment relies on the expansion of the company and the market continuing to value growth stocks at a premium valuation, as measured by a P/E ratio maybe, in later years if the company continues to succeed.”
  • “Value investors look for $50 stocks that are actually worth $100 today, not in a few years, if the company continues its business plan. These investors are typically buying stocks that are out of favor now and therefore have a low valuation. They’re betting on the market’s opinion changing to become more favorable, pushing up the stock price.”

“Value investing is based on the premise that paying less for a set of future cash flows is associated with a higher expected return,” says Wes Crill, senior researcher at Dimensional Fund Advisors in Austin, Texas. “That’s one of the most fundamental tenets of investing.”

Growth investing and value investing differ in other key ways, too, as detailed in the table below.

Many of America’s most famous investors are value investors, including Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Ben Graham. Still, plenty of very wealthy individuals own growth stocks, including Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, and even Buffett has shifted his approach to become more growth “at a reasonable price” oriented as of late.

Yet, sometime in the future, and unfortunately no one can forecast when, it appears guaranteed that value will outperform growths as an investment for a long period of time.

Typical investing wisdom might say that “when the markets are greedy, growth investors win and when they are fearful, value investors win,” says Blair Silverberg, CEO of Capital, a funding company for early-stage firms based in New York City.

If you’re an individual retail investor, it is wise to stick to fundamental investing principles or otherwise consider buying a solid index fund, such as the S&P 500 that takes a lot of the risk out of investing.

References:

  1. https://www.bankrate.com/investing/growth-investing-vs-value-investing/

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

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Three in five Americans pay more attention to how their friends spend compared to how they save.

Americans remain optimistic that they will be wealthy at some point in their lives, and two in five believe they will achieve that goal within a decade. Yet, many obstacles and bad financial habits stands as road blocks to successfully accumulating wealth.

More than a third of Americans admit “their spending habits have been influenced by images and experiences shared by their friends on social media and confess they spend more than they can afford to avoid missing out on the fun”, according to Schwab’s 2019 Modern Wealth Index Survey.

Americans struggle to save, invest and accumulate wealth…they:

  • Live Paycheck-to-paycheck – A majority (59 percent) live paycheck to paycheck
  • Carry Credit card debt – Nearly half (44 percent) typically carry a credit card balance
  • Lack an Emergency fund – Only 38 percent have built up an emergency fund
  • Spend on Non-essentials – On average, they spend almost $500 a month on “non-essential items”

“The burden to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ has been part of American for decades, but it appears that social media and the fear of missing out (FOMO) have increased the pressure to spend,” said Terri Kallsen, executive vice president and head of Schwab Investor Services. “Spending is not the enemy, but when we allow social pressure or other forces to lure us into spending beyond our means, it can impact long-term financial stability and become a larger problem.”

People need to gain more insights about their own habits of saving, spending, investing and accumulating wealth. Schwab’s survey shows that more than 60 percent of Americans who have a written financial plan feel financially stable, while only a third of those without a plan feel that same level of comfort.

References:

  1. https://content.schwab.com/web/retail/public/about-schwab/Charles-Schwab-2019-Modern-Wealth-Survey-findings-0519-9JBP.pdf
  2. https://www.aboutschwab.com/modernwealth2019
  3. https://content.schwab.com/modernwealth/?bmac=VEH

Top Americans by Wealth own Most of U.S. Equity Stocks

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Top 10% of Americans by wealth own 87% of all U.S. equity stocks

The top 10% of Americans by wealth owned 87% of all stock outstanding in the first quarter, according to research from the Federal Reserve. That share has grown over the past decade, from 82.4% in 2009.  Fed researchers say the increase in wealth among the top 10% is largely a result of that cohort obtaining a larger concentration of assets. These increases were mirrored by decreases for households in the 50-90th percentiles of the wealth distribution,” Fed researchers said.

The percentage of Americans who own stock, either directly or through retirement or mutual funds, is falling. It most recently stood at about 55%, according to an April Gallup poll, down from a high of 67% in 2002.

“The middle class has essentially been left out of the stock market surge,” said Edward Wolff, an economics professor at New York University. “The rich have taken off from the rest of society.”

S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes have closed at all time highs

The S&P 500 and NASDAQ have soared to a new high, wiping out its losses since the worst of the coronavirus-induced downturn in March. Stocks continue to shrug off historic unemployment rates and other economic warning signs.

The S&P 500, the benchmark U.S. stock index, has surged more than 50% since bottoming in March and is back at record levels, largely thanks to the unprecedented stimulus programs enacted by the Federal Reserve and Congress.

Although the stock market has erased its losses suffered during the pandemic, the economy appears to be telling a different story. It contracted at the sharpest rate on record in the second quarter, and the unemployment rate remained above 10% in July, after reaching nearly 15% in April.

The current disconnect between the stock market and the economy is extremely unusual.  The economy is not confirming the stock market’s strength. The stock market has surged since March 2020 lows, with the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes eclipsing all time highs in August 2020.

FOMC acknowledged that after the initial surge in job losses and plunge in economic activity, things have started to improve. According to the statement, “Following sharp declines, economic activity and employment have picked up somewhat in recent months but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year.”