December 2014

Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving enjoying family and friends. We took a few days off ourselves, and got to enjoy some time with the kids over the holiday weekend. Seems as we get older, being thankful for everything we've been blessed with is more and more important.

Kelly and I have been very busy with "end of year" updates, training, and education to prepare for 2015 on how to better serve our clients, and potential clients moving forward. We continue to evolve with our teams of experts, and the learning process never stops.

Having said that, I'd like to introduce a new process we'll be introducing soon called "Hidden Levers". This process will allow us to enter all your portfolio data into a proprietary software program that allows us to predict how virtually any economic situation would affect your current portfolio! And guess what? You get to determine what economic condition you'd like to see, and how it would affect your current portfolio. Will it go up? How much could it go down? What can you do to protect yourself?

Once you have these answers, it allows us to put into place strategies that will protect you in nearly any economy! This is an awesome tool that's been in development for years, and is only available to a select group of advisors, and fortunately Kelly and I are part of that group. So, anyone that receives this newsletter and has been "on the fence" about making any changes to their portfolio, feel free to give us a call to learn more about how this process could be of benefit to you.

We wish all of you a happy holiday season! Enjoy this month's articles, and don't forget to contact us if there is anything we can do for you. We'll be starting up our educational workshops again in January, and don't forget to listen to our "Safe Harbor Retirement Planning Show" on WSIC radio 1400AM and 100.7FM on Wednesday mornings at 8:00am, and Saturday mornings at 10:00am. You can also click the link on the right of this newsletter to access our archive of previous shows.

NEWS FLASH! My new book, "Finding Safe Harbor in Retirement" is in the final stages and should be done soon, I'm hoping by the end of the year. If anyone would like to get a signed copy, then let Kelly know and we'll be happy to save one for you.

Note: We will be out of the office for some days around Christmas and New Year's, so please be sure to let us know sooner rather than later if there is anything you need to meet with us to discuss, so we can be sure to get together before that.

Until next month,

James Stillman

An End of Year Review,
and Happy Holidays!

Lake Norman Magazine, December 2014

Wow! Where did the year go? Seems the older I get, the faster time moves. Maybe it's because Kelly and I have kept quite busy this past year. We hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving and got to spend some time with family and loved ones. Now that the boat is put away for the winter and the year is coming to an end, it's time for our annual review of the articles we've published this past year. All of these articles are uploaded to our website for anyone who would like to read them.

I would like to personally thank all the kind folks that have complimented us on the articles or have called the office to schedule a visit to learn more about some of the things we've discussed over this past year. THANK YOU! We truly appreciate it. So here we go with quick review of this past year's articles.

January 2014 - Reverse Dollar Cost Averaging: What the Heck Is That?

- This article discusses the dangers of drawing down assets from a market based portfolio during retirement. If markets turn ugly and you're taking money out, it doesn't take long to dig a hole you may never recover from. We call this "asset erosion" and don't advise it with your total portfolio.

All content is intended for informational purposes only. Any guarantees are for insured products only and are dependent on the claims paying abilities of the insurer. All investments carry some risk and you should be advised by your personal financial advidor before implementing any strategies discussed, as they are not suitable for everyone. James D. Stillman is an Investment Advisor Representative of JDS Wealth Management Corporation and Global Financial Private Capital.

JDS Wealth Management Corporation's outgoing and incoming e-mails are electronically archived and subject to review and/or disclosure to someone other than the recipient. We cannot accept requests for securities transactions or other similar instructions through e-mail. We cannot ensure the security of information e-mailed over the Internet, so you should be careful when transmitting confidential information such as account numbers and security holdings. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to this message and deleting it from your computer."

This Month

An End of Year Review, and Happy Holidays!

The Best and The Worst of Equity Markets

Volatility Does Not Measure Risk