Retirement Straight Ahead

With 10,000 baby boomers retiring every single day, the time to start planning is now. You simply can’t afford to kick the can down the street and hope it all works out. Give yourself a shot at a successful retirement by revisiting your current financial situation. If you need assistance, Snider Advisors is always here and happy to help.

Happy Birthday ETFs!

Exchange Traded Funds, more commonly known as ETFs, celebrated their 20th birthday on January 29, 2013. SPY, an ETF that tracks the S&P 500, was introduced to the market on January 29, 1993. Today, the ETF industry is booming with thousands of different funds and over $2 trillion in assets.

Creating Perfectly Powerful Passwords

If you’re like me, you decided that it was better to find the perfect Christmas gift while sitting in front of a computer screen instead of fighting the crowds at the mall. In fact earlier this year, the National Retail Federation estimated that 51.8% of U.S. Consumers would shop online this holiday season.

However, shopping online isn’t without its own set of hassles and perils. Perhaps the most common online shopping mistake is using passwords that can be easily hacked. Luckily, this error can be remedied with just a little effort.

Financial Surprises for Baby Boomers

Last month, the National Center for Policy Analysis published a new report, How Are Baby Boomers Spending Their Money?

Things to be Nervous About

by Jesse Anderson, CFA What are you nervous about? – European Crisis – Chinese Economic Slowdown – Our November Presidential Election – Massive Budget Deficits – 16 Trillion in National Debt – High Unemployment Do I need to continue? Can your investment plan handle all these risks?  Have you made the appropriate changes to handle what seems like an endless …

A Visual Guide to ETFs

After announcing the managed SIM-ETF portfolio we fielded a lot of phone calls from interested clients asking us to further explain exactly what ETF’s are. With over 1,400 exchange traded products on the market, it is not surprising that we regularly get this question, and as we have written before, not all ETFs are created equal.

The Market Recovered. Did You?

As I write this article, the Dow Jones Industrial Average sits at 13,000 – almost exactly double what it was during the market lows of March 2009. Good news, right? Not if you’re one of the many investors who chose to get out of the market over the last three years.

How Confident are You about Retirement?

Earlier this month, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released their 22nd annual Retirement Confidence Survey. However, the findings of the past several years indicate the report might be more aptly named the lack of confidence survey. Sadly, only 14% of Americans are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

Are you in charge?

I recently received a phone call from a client asking about our refresher courses for the Snider Investment Method. She took the Snider Method with her husband years ago, but her husband ended up doing all of the trading and record-keeping. He recently became ill and she will now have to take on the responsibility of taking care of their financial house.

“We are going to have a good year!”

Do you own shares of stock in the company you work for? Do they make up your entire 401(k) or just some of your “play money”? I’m amazed at the amount of clients and prospects I meet with that have a significant portion of their portfolio invested in their company’s stock. Familiarity and ‘insider knowledge’ seem to be the top reasons the hold the positions. They quickly forget stock picking is nearly impossible and even those with the greatest level of knowledge get it wrong.