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Index To Investment Content

What is the primary reason we invest ? It is to get a rate of return, hopefully a market rate of return. There are so many different investment avenues that can be pursued the volume of material is staggering. If you were to search the word "investment" on the Internet there would be more material than would be humanly possible to consume in a lifetime. We've separated the wheat from the chaff in the below articles. Take a look, then at go to the 20 question quiz and see how you're doing?

Get That Monkey off Your Back

11/04/2011 by

“A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts.” – Burton Maikiel, from A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

This observation from Maikiel prompted the WSJ to run a Dartboard Contest to test this theory. Over a ten year period, starting in 1988 and ending in Oct 1998, there were 100 such contests in which the results of monkeys throwing darts at a stock page were compared with the results of the best and brightest of Wall Street. Slam dunk for the “pros”, right?

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Portfolio Construction: Navigating the Fog of Investing

09/18/2011 by

Excerpts from Navigating the Fog of Investing. The world finance is lauded with manufactured perceptions and techniques designed to create transactions. The revenue created from transactions, that is stocks and […]

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What Do You Buy Gold With?

09/16/2011 by
It's Your Money
It's Your Money
What Do You Buy Gold With?
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This week, Paul Nichols, the president of Financial Abundance gives his thoughts on the gold blowup. Paul gives some very pointed advice on this subject and market timing in general along with the market update as of 9/15. The “Investor Coach” hits another home run this week!

Financial Abundance, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor based in Central Pennsylvania with offices in State College and Lewisburg in Centre County.

Visit Financial Abundance’s website and send Paul a note about the show or a question that you would like to have answered under the “Ask the Coach” link.

http://www.FinancialAbundanceInc.com or 866-867-5745

Thank you

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Who Wins with Market Timing?

08/22/2011 by

  Market timing a concept that has been excepted for decades as a strategy for managing different investments held in ones portfolio or overall of estate. The idea is that […]

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Stock Picking…Folly or Fact

08/22/2011 by

Stock picking, market timing and track record investing are techniques devised to outwit the stock market. Can the market be beat?    

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Portfolio Construction and Market Portfolio Theory

08/19/2011 by

  Modern portfolio theory was brought to us by Henry Markowitz winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic, 1990 along with Merton Miller and Williams Sharp. Modern portfolio theory is the […]

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Are You a Market Timer?

08/19/2011 by

The avoidance of Market timing is by far the hardest aspect of investing. Market timing requires the most prudence, the most disciplined, the most long-term vision in order to not […]

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Home Bias Investing

07/13/2011 by

Whenever I review a prospective client’s investment portfolio, I rarely see one that is truly globally diversified. The biggest problem I see is that most people are woefully over-weighted in US stocks. To make matters even worse, its usually exposure to just large US company stocks.

Their advisors might have placed them into General Motors, GE, Verizon, Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and similar large stocks.

The problem here is that the investor thinks he or she is properly diversified, but in reality, they have several sectors representing only two asset classes. So when one of the stocks rises, generally they all rise. But when one drops in price, more often then not they all drop. The result: unintentional wild swings in account values.

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Smorgasbord Investing

06/01/2011 by

Many people walk through life trying to be good stewards and prudent investors finding on the eve of retirement that they basically acquired a huge pot luck of various investments […]

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Portfolio Construction: The Mideast Wants Free Markets

03/15/2011 by

A client called and asked somewhat nervously if, with all the turmoil going on in Northern Africa, were we invested in Egypt and Libya? The implication was that if we were invested in one of these two countries, should we sell? Or, if we were not invested in one of these countries, should we buy?

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401(k) Accounts & the DOL

03/08/2011 by

Last weekend’s Wall Street Journal had a front page article called Retiring Boomers Find 401(k) Plans Fall Short. The article begins by noting that “The 401(k) generation is beginning to retire, and it isn’t a pretty sight. The retirement savings plans that many baby boomers thought would see them through old age are falling short in many cases.”

This article peaked my interest since 401(k)’s are the retirement saving vehicles of our time. The old traditional defined benefit plans that promised a certain benefit every month after retirement until death are dinosaurs. The burden has shifted to employees to fund their own retirement through these and similar plans.

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Investment Answers with Gordon Murray

02/17/2011 by

“Well, I’ve never heard of that.” I’ve heard this statement through the years and have always thought it to be a mix of arrogance and ignorance. “Well…what else, my friend, in this massive universe have you not heard of?” It’s interesting how many times the late Mr. Murray must have heard this question from interviewers about his best selling book in the month before passing away.

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Achieving Market Returns

01/31/2011 by
It's Your Money
It's Your Money
Achieving Market Returns
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This week, Paul Nichols, the president of Financial Abundance gives a market update (as of 1-28-11) and talks about achieving market returns. Do you consistently and predictably achieve market returns? Most people don’t know what market returns are and that’s why we do this podcast and provide the education that we do through our classes and via our website. Financial Abundance operates under the core belief that education plus understanding leads to clarity and confidence resulting in peace of mind.

Financial Abundance, Inc is a Registered Investment Advisor based in Centre County with offices throughout Pennsylvania.

Visit Financial Abundance’s website and send Paul a note about the show or a question that you would like to have answered under the “Ask the Coach” link.

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Retirement & Municipal Bonds

01/11/2011 by

As you know, we are not big fans of Municipal Bonds. You will not find a single Municipal Bond among the 10,000 – 14,000 holdings in any of the Academically Managed accounts that many of you own through me. But often, retirees and those preparing for retirement are heavily invested in municipal bonds and bond funds. Unfortunately, in many cases, their advisors may not have disclosed to them the significant risks that such a strategy bears.

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The Rule of 72 Can Be Revealing To You

01/01/2011 by

Have you ever noticed that the published 3 year, 5 year and 10 year annualized returns on your mutual funds and investments often show 10%+?  I’ve always found this interesting […]

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