Can I offer you a coffee and a second opinion.

September 28, 2008 | By Mark Huber | In blog 

When the markets turn as volatile and confusing as they have over the past year, even the most patient investors may come to question the wisdom of the investment plan that they’ve been following.

As an advisor with over 22 years of experience, I’ve seen a lot of difficult markets come and go.
However, I can certainly empathize with those people who find the current environment troublesome and disturbing.

I would be pleased to help you out and to that end, here’s what I’d like to suggest…

A cup of coffee, and a second opinion.

By appointment, you’re welcome to come in and sit with us for a while. We’ll ask you to outline your financial goals – what your investment portfolio is intended to do for you. Then we’ll review the portfolio for and with you.

If we think your investments continue to be well-suited to your long-term goals – in spite of the current market turmoil – we’ll gladly tell you so, and send you on your way. If, on the other hand, we think some of your investments no longer fit with your goals, we’ll explain why, in plain English. And, if you like, we’ll recommend some alternatives.

Either way, the coffee is on us.

22 years ago, I learned a definition of the phrase “bear market” which has served me extremely well ever since. A bear market is a period of time during which common stocks are returned to their rightful owners.

When stocks of great companies are “re priced” at lower valuations does this mean that all of a sudden the management of these companies suddenly became stupid over night? Or that they suddenly stopped making the best product or service that they are noted for?

Of course not!

They are still showing up for work and continuing to manage their business to make profits and increase shareholder values…

While it is true that the economic and financial market news at the moment is difficult to digest and, on the surface, even more difficult to act on. But when you step away, it isn’t that different — or that much more difficult — than at any other time in the past several decades.

Now, without a game plan, one has nothing to act on and will simply invest by reacting to the latest scandals and market swings.

In the short run the stock market is a voting machine, and in the long run it’s a weighing machine.

As a voting machine, it responds to people’s emotions. There’s no literacy test for voting. You vote according to how much money you have, not according to how smart you are. So the stock market does some very silly things in the short run.

However, over the long run, it behaves quite rationally.

There is opportunity in every adversity…

And, you know, five years from now, 10 years from now, we’ll look back on this period and we’ll see that you could have made some extraordinary buys.

I do know that the American economy, over a period of time, will do very well, and people who own a piece of it will do well.

Actuarial projections show that the average couple will live 30 years past their retirement.

The risk here is not losing their money, but rather outliving their money, as inflation erodes purchasing power by an estimated 3% per year. At that rate, it will take $2.40 at the end of the 30 years, just to buy what cost $1 today.

There is only one asset class that can historically be shown to provide the returns needed to offset this erosion of purchasing power. It might make one uncomfortable, but one needs a healthy dose of stocks in their portfolio to reduce the real risk of outliving their money.

If you think in retirement, bonds are safe and stocks are risky, it’s the other way around.

How can you fail to achieve all your long-term financial goals in an asset class that’s been compounding at 10 to 12% since Lindbergh flew the Atlantic?

So, now, what are you going to do about it?

Start by turning off CNN and begin reading the comics section of the newspaper instead.

Focus on your life and achieving your goals

It’s up to you!

You have my permission to begin now!

Still better!

Click me below for YOUR 2nd opinion appointment!

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