Greetings!
Hey, everyone!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving a couple weeks ago. We've been pretty lucky to have the warm weather hang around this long into the year, but it looks like it's starting to turn, so make sure you get your coats and scarves out!
We've been busy as usual here at the office. Jim recently started writing new articles every month for Lake Norman Magazine's Talk of the Town section, so if you get Lake Norman Magazine at home or see it while you're out and about, be sure to check it out and see what topics Jim's been covering. I'll probably be making all of our articles available on our website in the coming weeks, and I'm always adding new content here and there, so also be sure to check out www.jdswealthmanagement.com every so often to stay up to date!
We'll also be posting dates for upcoming workshops on our website soon. If you're not a client and would like to come, then keep your eye out for information. As always, clients of ours are welcomed to attend any workshop they'd like to enjoy a nice night out and catch up on some current information. We're always adding wrinkles to our presentation to try to keep people well-informed.
Christmas is right around the corner. Jim and I hope you and yours have a fantastic holiday!
 -- Tyler Stillman |
| Reeling in the Yields
Barron's, November 19, 2011
|  Not so long ago, you could build a reliable portfolio of income-producing investments with just a few simple steps: Buy some Treasuries, some corporate bonds and some munis, and then watch the money roll in. That kind of investing is a long-lost luxury. Yields on core bond holdings have been slim for three years in a row. And while 10-year Treasury yields, at 2%, are higher than they were a year ago, you aren't going to do much better any time soon. The Federal Reserve says it is going to hold rates low until mid-2013. Bottom line: Traditional fIxed-income portfolios don't work anymore, and "if retirement investors don't start thinking differently, they're going to run out of money," says Erin Botsford, CEO of the Botsford Group, a Frisco, Texas-based fInancial advisory fIrm.
Thinking differently, however, raises new challenges for retirement. Yields of 5% and 7% are attainable, but you have to look globally and across asset classes that may seem unfamiliar, such as emerging-market bonds, global infrastructure stocks, master limited partnerships and mortgage real-estate investment trusts.
The hunt for higher yields requires vigilance. Some risks are obvious: Greek sovereign debt, now yielding over 100%, clearly is no way to finance a leisurely retirement. But more often risk is difficult to spot.
Read more... |
Dismal Decade Offers Cautionary
Lessons for Retirees
T. Rowe Price
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Retirees should have a sound financial strategy for sustaining their income throughout retirement. But as the last decade has shown, the stock market is capable of upending even the best-laid plans.
Those who retired in 2000 appeared to have perfect timing. Over the prior two decades, the stock market had achieved an annualized return of 17.8%, including double-digit gains in excess of 20% each year from 1995 through 1999.
While more modest returns were expected for the next decade, few could have predicted an actual loss in value-it's only occurred about 5% of the time over rolling 10-year periods since 1926. However, that rarity became reality when 2000-2010 proved one of the worst decades in history, featuring two ferocious bear markets.
Those who initially may have felt fortunate were now faced with the misfortune of watching the market decimate the nest eggs it had helped them create.
How could retirees have coped better with such a dismal decade?
Read more...
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