First Job

My daughter got her first job.  She will be refereeing for the local youth soccer league.   It's kind of a gig job, but it pays well, about $20/hour.   Each week the coordinator asks which people are available to ref.   Those that respond will get assigned 1 to 2 games.   If she has other commitments or we're on vacation, she can just not respond.   Pretty nice for a first job.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back Thursdays for a new segment.

This is not financial or work advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2018 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Tomorrow May Be Another Buying Opportunity

With the resignation of Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn, the stock futures have fallen about 1%.   Tomorrow may be another buying opportunity for us.   I probably will avoid buying at the open and wait to see if the markets continue to fall or immediately bounce back.

For more on  Ideas You Can Use , check back Tuesdays  for a new segment.

This is not financial or investing advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2018 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Waiting, Not Chasing

"Patience is a virtue." ~ old adage

Today's market advance prevented us from acquiring additional positions in our stock and ETFs.  I purposely didn't chase them and left the buy orders at  couple percent below Friday's closing price.

I expect that I will get more buying opportunities in the next month as volatility is now the norm.   It seems that market changes of greater than 1% are the new normal.   Waiting for the 1% drops will allow me to make purchases from our buy list at lower prices.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back Mondays  for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2018 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Trying a Robo Investment Account

A new investment option I am trying is a Robo Investment account at one of our brokerages.  This account will invest only in ETFs and charge no account fees.  The only fees we will pay are the fees built into the EFTs that are used.   The investment strategy we will be using has a .28% expense ratio for the ETFs.

At this time, I have opened but not yet funded the account.   My plan is to wait for a further decline in the market before funding the account.

My plan is to hold three different types of investment accounts to determine our long term strategy:

• Actively managed accounts.   We pay a 0.9 to 1.25% wrap fee for actively managed accounts.  The strategies are: Growth, Deep Value, Income with Growth, and Dividend Growth.  The Robo account falls into this category at a much lower expense ratio.
• Passive Index.   I have several accounts that each have the benchmark indices of the actively managed accounts.  Over time, I will decide whether to keep the managed accounts or the index accounts for the long term.
• Personal investment strategies.  These are REIT, dividend, and trading/speculation strategies.  I will likely keep doing these on a small scale even after choosing between actively managed accounts and passive indices for the majority of our investments.  Unless, of course, I consistently perform better than these options :-) 

I will likely hold all three types of investment accounts through at least one economic cycle to understand overall performance and volatility.   After that, I plan to start moving funds to the preferred types of investment accounts.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial  or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2018 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Taking Advantage of Volatility

"The sky is falling!" ~ Chicken Little

For me, the volatility of the past month has enable us to buy into market index ETFs and REITs at lower (a.k.a discount) prices.   I've been scaling in by purchasing small lots of ETFs and REITs on my buy since.   There is no cost to do this since one brokerage we use has given us 100 free trades a month, we don't pay any commission on our small lot trades.

At this point, I feel the market correction is similar to the taper tantrum in May 2013 when then Fed Chair Ben Bernanke talked about raising rates.  The market reacted negatively, but soon recovered.   Fed Chair Jerome Powell and President Trump seem to have also talked down the market with their points of view on interest rates and trade tariffs. 

So I am cautiously optimistic and buying on the dips.  If the market should reach new highs, I will also sell into the new rally.  Hopefully, that is the outcome that will occur.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back Saturdays for a new segment.

This is not financial or investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2018 Achievement Catalyst, LLC