Many of us look forward to a retirement full of travel and relaxation. But having a successful retirement requires a lot of early planning. You can’t just expect for all the pieces to fall into the right place if you aren’t taking proactive measures to improve your financial situation. Here are a few common planning errors that can drastically reduce your chances of retiring comfortably.
How the Stock Market Works Part I: Exchanges
The Snider Investment Method utilizes purchasing stocks and selling options like many other investment strategies. The moment an investor buys shares at market price, like magic, the shares usually appear in the account almost instantaneously. Many people accept the magic behind the process and move on. However, behind the scenes there is a lot more going on than a sprinkle of magic dust and whispers of abracadabra. There are many parts on the back end, from the exchanges, brokers, specialists, and market makers. This article will focus on the exchanges.
ANSWERED: The Top 9 Questions Potential Clients Should Ask Advisors
I recently read an article on the Top 9 Questions Potential Clients Ask Advisors. Having been in many meetings with potential clients, some of these are more common than others. Overall, I thought it was a great list for someone interviewing potential advisors. I’ve never had to sit on the other side of the table in one of these meetings, but these are questions you should ask and answers you should know about your investment advisor. Here are my responses to the top questions:
Should I contribute to my IRA, 401(k), or Savings Account?
Saving is a critical part of your personal financial success. But how much, when, and where you save can also have an important and lasting effect. When you have multiple accounts, you may not be sure where to start, but answering a handful of questions will help you prioritize the order in which you should make contributions to the various accounts available to you.
The Benefits of Working Longer
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s (EBRI) 2012 annual Retirement Confidence Survey, only 14% of Americans are very confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement. If you find yourself lacking confidence about whether or not you have saved enough for retirement, consider pushing back your intended retirement date. You’ve probably have a target retirement date in your head, but the benefits of continuing to work may be enough to help you get on track.
The Process of the Tender Offer
The stock market is a place where buyers and sellers congregate to trade. Usually, when you sell shares, you can just click sell and the broker will match a buyer on the other side and vice versa when you buy shares. However, there may be a special occasion where a buyer will contact you directly with a proposal in the mail, stating that you can sell your shares through a tender offer.
Emotional Risk?
You will often hear that investors are worried about the risks associated with investments. They are concerned about inflation risk, market risk, and liquidity risk. There is one type of risk that should be a major concern for you, but it is often ignored. Are you concerned about emotional risk? The risk that you make investment decisions based on fear, greed, or worse, doing what everyone else is doing.
Restoring Trust in the Investment Industry
The CFA Institute recently published “The Integrity List: 50 Ways to Restore Trust in the Investment Industry.” Wall Street has received a lot of bad press in the recent years. Whether it was the creation of destructive financial instruments, large bailouts, or a ‘failed’ Facebook IPO, Main Street has many reasons to feel upset. The root of many of these problems is the lack of understanding and education from the retail investor. Clearly, there was a fair share of people and companies who acted inappropriately, but too many other organizations and industry participants were categorized along with a small minority.
Questions Everyone Should Ask Before Retirement
With all the turmoil in the markets over the past several years many investors have been left questioning themselves whether they will have enough to retire the way they’ve always dreamed, or retire at all, for that matter. Whether your retirement years are right around the corner or many years off in the distance, there’s never a wrong time to evaluate your definition of retirement and what it means to you both ideologically and financially.
Transmogrification in the Snider Investment Method
Occasionally in the Snider Investment Method, we will issue a position alert notifying our clients to Transmogrify a position into a new one. This is usually due to a change in the company structure like a buyout or merger or an event that impacts the stock or options, such as options no longer being offered for a position. Without going into too much detail of the Transmogrification process, Transmogrification essentially swaps an old position for a new position.
