Click here for a link to a conservative plan on how to stimulate / improve our economy and jobs. This plan, by a conservative group called American Solutions, stands in stark contrast to the pork-laden bill proposed by Obama and the Democrat Congress that serves more to stimulate the growth of liberal government than our economy. I especially like the parts in the American Solutions plan about increasing our own supply of energy, lowering capital gains and business taxes, creating a more flat income tax, and eliminating the death/estate tax.
If implementing a plan like this means that the government needs to have layoffs, cuts in spending, and right-sizing, then so be it. Welcome to what the rest of us are going through!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Musical Friday, Delirious Solid Rock
See below for a new song our band is working on for our church, Delirious' Solid Rock. We're trying to get Wes, our bass player, to dress and bop his head like Delirious' bassist (see 2:00 point in video). No luck yet.
I wonder if I put on some horn-rimmed glasses if I'd look like Delirious' keyboard player...
I wonder if I put on some horn-rimmed glasses if I'd look like Delirious' keyboard player...
How to Taste Wine
Came across a really good article in Forbes on the basics of how to taste wine. See here.
Mutual Fund Show / Store / Adam Bold / 401K
I started listening to Rush Limbaugh many years ago, in 1992 or so. I enjoy him not because (as his critics often assert) he's making me a mind-numbed conservative robot, but because I'd found someone in the media that, for the first time, was articulating the way I felt about many issues. He also does so in a very entertaining way.
Well, about 4 years ago, I came across someone that had a similar affect on me regarding investing for retirement. His name is Adam Bold, and he hosts a weekly radio show called The Mutual Fund Show. It airs on KLBJ 590 AM in Austin Saturdays 11a-12p, but I prefer to listen to the recordings on his web site, which are edited down and distill 3 hours of radio in different cities into about 50 minutes.
The radio show is an outgrowth of his financial services company called The Mutual Fund Store. His is the first fee-based financial advice / management firm for middle-class investors instead of the wealthy (although they have wealthy clients too).
Most financial advisers to the middle class are commissioned sales people, that make a living by selling you investments from certain mutual fund / annuity families. They usually make an up front percentage / load off of putting you in a certain fund. This means the advisers' incentive is to sell you a certain fund, not to grow your money as best as possible. While some commissioned advisers may indeed have their clients' best interest at heart, the way they're compensated does not correlate directly.
Fee-based advisers like Bold's firm instead offer advise based on a percentage of the total value of your portfolio. Thus, as your money grows through their (hopefully) good selection of funds, then you have more money and they make more. They do not take any commissions from any fund family and thus their interests are to put you in the best funds possible. I love this business model, which promotes honesty and transparency and an incentive for them to provide you with the best investing advice possible. I like this much better than firms like Ameriquest or Edward Jones, which are commissioned advisers that typically only recommend funds which pay them better commissions, regardless of whether it's the best-performing funds.
The cool thing is that Adam goes on the radio (which is free) and recommends funds in the various asset classes. He of course, doesn't mention all of his recommended funds, but gives enough to help me make good selections for my 401k.
I'm very fortunate that at my company, we get the option to invest in a self-directed 401k plan. Most companies' 401k plans only offer about 10-20 funds you can pick from. But with our plan, provided you keep a minimum amount in one of the basic fund selections (which include some good ones Adam has recommended like the Julius Baer International Fund and the Calamos Growth Fund), we can put our money in just about any fund out there. We even can access funds that normally have up-front loads for net asset value (NAV), or load-waived prices.
I'll post more later about his investing ideas / philosophy. For now, let's just say you want to invest in funds without loads, and you want to stick with mutual fund managers who have consistently out-performed the market indices over long periods. And mom, if you're reading this, don't ever buy an annuity!
Well, about 4 years ago, I came across someone that had a similar affect on me regarding investing for retirement. His name is Adam Bold, and he hosts a weekly radio show called The Mutual Fund Show. It airs on KLBJ 590 AM in Austin Saturdays 11a-12p, but I prefer to listen to the recordings on his web site, which are edited down and distill 3 hours of radio in different cities into about 50 minutes.
The radio show is an outgrowth of his financial services company called The Mutual Fund Store. His is the first fee-based financial advice / management firm for middle-class investors instead of the wealthy (although they have wealthy clients too).
Most financial advisers to the middle class are commissioned sales people, that make a living by selling you investments from certain mutual fund / annuity families. They usually make an up front percentage / load off of putting you in a certain fund. This means the advisers' incentive is to sell you a certain fund, not to grow your money as best as possible. While some commissioned advisers may indeed have their clients' best interest at heart, the way they're compensated does not correlate directly.
Fee-based advisers like Bold's firm instead offer advise based on a percentage of the total value of your portfolio. Thus, as your money grows through their (hopefully) good selection of funds, then you have more money and they make more. They do not take any commissions from any fund family and thus their interests are to put you in the best funds possible. I love this business model, which promotes honesty and transparency and an incentive for them to provide you with the best investing advice possible. I like this much better than firms like Ameriquest or Edward Jones, which are commissioned advisers that typically only recommend funds which pay them better commissions, regardless of whether it's the best-performing funds.
The cool thing is that Adam goes on the radio (which is free) and recommends funds in the various asset classes. He of course, doesn't mention all of his recommended funds, but gives enough to help me make good selections for my 401k.
I'm very fortunate that at my company, we get the option to invest in a self-directed 401k plan. Most companies' 401k plans only offer about 10-20 funds you can pick from. But with our plan, provided you keep a minimum amount in one of the basic fund selections (which include some good ones Adam has recommended like the Julius Baer International Fund and the Calamos Growth Fund), we can put our money in just about any fund out there. We even can access funds that normally have up-front loads for net asset value (NAV), or load-waived prices.
I'll post more later about his investing ideas / philosophy. For now, let's just say you want to invest in funds without loads, and you want to stick with mutual fund managers who have consistently out-performed the market indices over long periods. And mom, if you're reading this, don't ever buy an annuity!
Pets with teeth
My wife relayed a funny conversation she had with our kids this morning. This weekend we plan to go to San Antonio to meet Natasha's good friend Petra (she's named after the cool-looking lost city in Jordan, see photo below) for lunch, and then I plan to go window shopping for watches at a watch shop called Tourneau, which I think has much better watch selection than any store in Austin.
Petra, Jordan
On hearing the name "Petra", Daniel (age 5) said, "I want a pet! I think I want a dog." Natasha asked, "what about a cat?" Daniel replied, "No, a cat has sharp teeth!"
Natasha: "Well, dogs have teeth, too."
Daniel (pausing to think for a minute): "Ummm, how about a fish? I want a Nemo."
Lauren (age 4): "I want a GIRL fish!"
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Borrowing logo from Sassy Golf Balls
I have a new logo I'm trying out. The golf balls with various mixed drinks / martini / etc. on them just seem like a good combo of my interests. I found these on a web site called Sassy Golf Balls, link here.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Super Bowl, long labor
This weekend, we had a few friends from our neighborhood over to watch the Super Bowl. With me currently having the big plasma TV among my circle of friends, it's something I'm obligated as a man to do as a labor of love. Speaking of labor...
Things took a little twist in the party plans when one of Natasha's doula clients went into labor right around kickoff. So she left to go be at the hospital with her client and I had to go between hosting the party, watching the game, and checking on my kids (what are they screaming about NOW? ... can't they see I'm watching football!?). So I didn't really see quite as many plays or commercials as I would have liked, but I caught most of the important ones, including the unbelieveable 100-yard pick-6 that ended the first half. See my favorite column Tuesday Morning Quarterback's Super Bowl analysis here.
We were all pulling for underdog Arizona to win, so we were all very excited when Larry Fitzgerald scored the go-ahead touchdown to bring the Cards back from 20-7 down to lead 23-20. But then we saw that there was about 2:30 left on the clock. Pittsburgh's o-line started playing better, Arizona's d-backs stopped covering Santonio Holmes very well, and a few plays later, Pittsburgh scored on a somewhat decent catch in the corner of the end zone by Holmes.
Photo by Scott Boehm, Getty Images
Things took a little twist in the party plans when one of Natasha's doula clients went into labor right around kickoff. So she left to go be at the hospital with her client and I had to go between hosting the party, watching the game, and checking on my kids (what are they screaming about NOW? ... can't they see I'm watching football!?). So I didn't really see quite as many plays or commercials as I would have liked, but I caught most of the important ones, including the unbelieveable 100-yard pick-6 that ended the first half. See my favorite column Tuesday Morning Quarterback's Super Bowl analysis here.
We were all pulling for underdog Arizona to win, so we were all very excited when Larry Fitzgerald scored the go-ahead touchdown to bring the Cards back from 20-7 down to lead 23-20. But then we saw that there was about 2:30 left on the clock. Pittsburgh's o-line started playing better, Arizona's d-backs stopped covering Santonio Holmes very well, and a few plays later, Pittsburgh scored on a somewhat decent catch in the corner of the end zone by Holmes.
Photo by Scott Boehm, Getty ImagesSo although we didn't like the outcome, it was cool that it was a great / exciting game. We also had some great stuffed jalapenos (Jackson and Hart variations), chili (Natasha), smoked pork ribs (Vic), and sugar cookies (Sarah). Originally I thought about 15+ people were coming and we made enough food for that number, so with fewer people we ended up with several pounds of chili left over ... guess what I'm eating this week?
Natasha's client, a first-time mother, ended up in labor for over 24 hours, and Natasha didn't get home until almost midnight Monday night / Tuesday morning. This was by far her longest labor, and I was a little worried about her driving home from across town late at night after being awake for over 36 hours straight. But she finally made it home safe, and I'm expecting a glowing recommendation from these clients!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
