I’ve been thinking a lot lately about portfolio construction, especially for retirees, in these computer-algorithm dominated investment markets which swing wildly every time someone from the Fed speaks. Markets today are unbelievably short-term focused and my clients aren’t paying me to day-trade their retirement portfolios. This means that portfolios which are built with a long-term…
Retirement Planning, Part 3: Retirement Income from Bond Interest & Dividends
I spoke with a client earlier this week who called to make sure he’s doing everything needed to retire on time. He was recently surprised to hear that a family member who retired a few years ago needed to go back to work. My client wanted to make sure he’s on track and saving enough…
New Stock Buy for Income/Dividends
I’ve followed the agricultural industry closely for years now as it remains one of my favorite long-term investment themes and I think the fundamentals are setting up nicely to see things begin to improve for related companies in 2015 and beyond so I recently added a new position in Terra Nitrogen Co (TNH), a maker…
A Divergence in Stocks & Why it Concerns Me
Over the past two quarters I’ve noticed a pretty big divergence in the strategy that companies are starting to follow. A large portion (maybe 70% or more of large caps) are on the “return cash to shareholders” trend, while fewer and fewer seem to be executing a growth strategy specific to their business. I see…