Trovena Weblog

My Experience with Kiplinger's "Jump Start Your Retirement"

Last week Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) teamed up to offer free financial advice to thousands of Americans both by phone and online.  Pretty exciting stuff, and I didn't want to miss out.

As a NAPFA Advisor, I volunteered to field questions in their online chat room for one hour.  From 10:00-11:00am Pacific, I took questions like rapid fire.  If you want to see the questions that I got and the responses that I gave, go to the Kiplinger site, click on "show all 93 entries" and scroll down about halfway.  When you see questions answered by "Eric" you found me.

It was pretty exciting.  The questions were thought provoking and challenging.  I definitely would have gone into more detail given the time on a couple of them.  I'll give you an example of one of the more interesting questions:

I'm gonna help some folks jump start their RETIREMENT!

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) has teamed up with Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine to offer "Jump Start Your Retirement" days.  I will be a volunteer NAPFA advisor this Friday, January 25, taking questions from Kiplinger readers and the general public about their retirement planning or any other financial planning matter.  I am taking questions "virtually" through the chat room that they are setting up for the day.  My time slot is 10:00am-11:00am pacific time.  So, get online and shoot me a question!

Here's the press release from NAPFA:

Navigating Volatile Markets

This is an ugly market.  If the month closed today, then this would rank in the worst 3% of months since the 1920s.  The only months that were worse for the S&P500 since the Great Depression in the 1930s have been October 1987 (-21.6%), August 1998 (-14.5%), September 1974 (-11.7%), September 2002 (-10.9%), November 1973 (-10.8%), March 1980 (-9.9%), and the current month (-9.2%).  There are still seven trading days left, so it could get much worse.

Fed Cuts Fed Funds Rate by 0.75%

Following the deterioration of the Global markets yesterday, the Federal Reserve came together early this morning in an unscheduled meeting to slash their key rate by 75 basis points.  The move didn't necessarily shock Fed watchers, but there are a number of things that jump out at me.  Let's put this in perspective, shall we?

Fidelity Magellan Opens to New Investors

And in other news...

Fidelity Magellan, flagship fund of the behemouth Fidelity Fund Family, announces that it is reopening to new investors.  My reaction to this?

Or infinitely more adorable...

C'mon, tell me you didn't just yawn.  But I guess people are actually interested in this non-story.  I searched for "Fidelity Magellan Reopen" in Google News, and found 62 stories.  Not random blog posts like you found here, but the big boys.  Bloomberg, Forbes, Reuters, MarketWatch, even the British paper, Financial Times.

So, the question is, why is this a story?

Scott and Eric Featured in the Los Angeles Times!

This isn't exactly "news" in that it's about a month and a half old.  But in case you missed it, Scott and Eric were featured in a Los Angeles Times column, Money Makeover.  The article ran in the Sunday print version on November 25, 2007, Thanksgiving weekend, under the headline, "A Revised Plot for Writer's Retirement."  I hope you arose from your tryptophan coma to read Scott and Eric's advice in the Sunday morning Times Business section.

The headline was changed for the on-line version, "Aspiring Screenwriter Needs a Rewrite."  We met with Glen in the early stages of the Writer's Guild strike, and had no way of knowing the strike would last this long.  Seriously, did you see the Golden Globes last night?  Nice attempt at salvaging a difficult situation, but a far cry what is usually the most watchable of all the Hollywood award shows.

But I digress.  Read the article, and let us know what you think!

Ben Stein on Equity Risk Premium and Cash Holdings

"The whole reason you get paid so much more to be in the stock market than in cash is that it fluctuates so much. You get paid to be scared. But do follow the good advice of my pal Ray Lucia, and keep plenty of cash on hand so you won't have to sell your stock (or at least not much of your stock) at a low price. Cash on the order of a year's living expenses is a sensible idea. It makes a lovely cushion."
~Ben Stein

Bueller?  Bueller?  Known more as the deadpan high school teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or for giving his money away in a quirky game show, Ben Stein is actually an accomplished lawyer, economist and author.  Not to mention, he’s almost spot on in this quote.  That is, if you can be “almost spot on.”

Stock Pickers Watch 2008

The financial advisory business has long been obsessed with stock picking.  In big growth markets like we saw in the late 90s, the worst dart throwers become the best stock pickers.  Even in tougher markets, you will never find a shortage of "analysts" claiming to have a hot stock pick.  The worst culprit of them all is the financial media.  "Investment Pornography" as we call it.  Sadly, magazine covers featuring the headline, "Continue to Buy and Hold Low Cost, Tax Efficient, Passively Managed Funds Like We Told You Last Year And The Year Before That" doesn't sell a lot of copies.  "8 Hottest Stocks to Own in 2008" for better or worse is a guaranteed seller.

Do some analysts pick winners?  Of course.  And some people leave Vegas with more money than they brought.  Is it a learned and masterable skill?  Well, let me put it this way.  If I played a game of one-on-one against Kobe Bryant, first to 11, I would lose.  100% guaranteed.  Probably 11-0.  Unless he went easy on me and stood back as I launched a lucky 33 footer.  If I had three at bats against Roger Clements, I'm going to strike out three times.  Juiced or not juiced, he'll probably notch three strikeouts in nine pitches.  I could go on here (a round with Mike Tyson, a set with Roger Federer), but you get the idea.