Video: Caveat Investor & the Global Investment Firm

I've always been amazed how the larger investment firms get away with blatantly anti-consumer behavior. Obviously they have deep pockets to lobby Congress in addition to advertising heavily during Sunday's televised golf match. I know some very good investment brokers, but I have no idea why they choose to stay in that culture. This video has a funny spin on highlighting the differences between fiduciary advice and advice that is not necessarily in the client's best interest but deemed 'suitable.' It's worth a 5-minute break in your day.

Healthcare Reform Explained

If you're like me, you find the 1000 page plus Heathcare Reform Act a bit confusing. This nine minute animated movie -- featuring the "YouToons" -- explains the problems with the current health care system, the changes that are happening now, and the big changes coming in 2014, produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Kevin Kroskey, CFP, MBA

Will Apple Be the World's Largest Stock?

Stock prices slumped around the world yesterday [Monday, July 18], but shares of Apple Inc. shrugged off worries about a Greek government bond default and record gold prices and surged to an all-time high of $373.80. With a market value of over $344 billion, Apple has already shouldered aside Microsoft to become the world's largest technology firm measured by market capitalization and is now second only to energy giant ExxonMobil among US stocks. It has all happened so quickly that despite its heavyweight stature in the US stock market, Apple shares are still conspicuously absent from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Apple's innovative products are the gold standard for personal communication and entertainment gadgets, and the company's fresh approach to store design generates sales-per-square-foot numbers other retailers can only dream about. As the company goes from strength to strength and the billions pile up on the balance sheet, it's worth recalling how uninspi...

Diversification: Disciplinarian of Disciplinarians

Disciplined diversification works when you do and even when you don't want it to. Diversification in effect forces you to sell the thing that has been doing so well in your portfolio and to buy the thing that hasn't. While this makes rational sense, it is emotionally difficult to execute. Think back to the tail end of 2008--were you selling bonds and cash to buy stocks? Most likely you weren't unless your advisor or some sort of automatic trigger did it for you. Carl Richards of www.behaviorgap.com provided a good reminder of how diversification works in a recent NY Times blog post. The diversification he discusses here is more so related to equity asset-class diversification but also touches on the three basic building blocks--equities, bonds, and cash. He doesn't discuss alternative asset classes -- an asset class that doesn't fit neatly into the three basic categories -- being used to further diversification, but that's a detailed topic for another day. ...

Kevin Kroskey's Money & Mind

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