personal finance (retirement plan, fund, pay, financial advice)

[Kalbo]

Kiplingers is a good financial magazine that is well written for the average person. They have a nice website to: link

[NorthmeetsSouth]

When you open up accounts with T Rowe Price, Vanguard, Fidelity, etc you get their newletters. If you are doing a Roth IRA every year ( which you should be doing!) why not open it with these companies? then you will get their literature for free.

[Joe107]

Originally Posted by silverfox

Nothing wrong with what you suggest. The difference though is Bob Brinker tells exactly what to invest in and when to do it, with a top proven conservative track record where as most all books just enlighten you on the finacial world and help you with how to invest under varying circumstances.
Some of those books may even be on his list and I do like those authors as well, but at some point you have to walk the walk and talk the talk.

Books......The list goes on and on.
Save time and get right to the heart of the matter.
Time is money.

Silverfox

Brinker is an ego maniac who cherry picks his "good calls" and ignores his bad calls. His Nasdaq QQQ call in 2000 was a total disaster, but you won't hear him bring that up.

His pulling in and out of the market significantly increases your overall risk and many of his recommendations are vague as he is constantly covering his arse.

[silverfox]

Originally Posted by Joe107

Brinker is an ego maniac who cherry picks his "good calls" and ignores his bad calls. His Nasdaq QQQ call in 2000 was a total disaster, but you won't hear him bring that up.

His pulling in and out of the market significantly increases your overall risk and many of his recommendations are vague as he is constantly covering his arse.

Joe,


I'll give you the one about his QQQ call. That was a disaster for me as well and you are correct about his denial on admitting it was a terrible call. Luckily I had enough common sense to liquidate on my own before I went down the tube.
That has been his only significant BURP that I recall. Nobody is 100%

Your remark about his pulling in and out of the market adds risk.
I don't get it.
He is basically a long term investor and prides himself in his selections of low expenses and in my overall opinion far above average timming.
Look at his last major call on the S&P 500 index in the 800 range. He nailed it right at the bottom to the day, and has been 100% correct since by holding.
I would suggest that anyone concerned should listen to his broadcasts for a few months and see what his listeners have to say. One can do that for "No Charge" and then make up their mind how they feel.

My comments still stand as he has enlightened me over the years and I have profitted immensly.
I am willing to give up a few sour grapes for one bad call.....

My finacial successes have since reached a point whereby I can now invest outside of Brinkers exclusive recommendations and am currently making very large profits by making my own choices and decisions, but still following him carefully. He has in essence given me a valuable free financial education.

Silverfox

[Joe107]

I listen to him and like alot of things he says but not everything. He seems to be against buy and hold. A good author I like (and Brinker likes) is William Berstein who wrote intelligent asset allocator and 4 pillars of investment success. I would recommend bernstein before Brinker to a someone starting out. I just think brinker would confuse a new person with his "time to get in/time to get out" recommendations.

[Jaded]

As others have stated, Kiplinger is good. I also liked the book The Millionaire Next Door and have heard Dave Ramsey...he has a very useful website. Most of his advice is free there.

I also read David Bach's book Smart Women Finish Rich. He has others that are more general. Suze Orman is good, and her shows are free on TV and radio. Check her website for local listings. The Motley Fool is another free internet source which offers helpful tips.

One note of caution, try not to spend too much on the periodicals, Kiplinger and Money are very reasonably priced, some can be expensive, which would essentially eat away at money you could use for investing/saving.

Hope this helps!

[Dave1215]

Originally Posted by Jaded

One note of caution, try not to spend too much on the periodicals, Kiplinger and Money are very reasonably priced, some can be expensive, which would essentially eat away at money you could use for investing/saving.

Hope this helps!

BOTH ARE FREE (at the local library)... I visit there each month when the new ones come out for the month...

[silverfox]

Originally Posted by Joe107

I listen to him and like alot of things he says but not everything. He seems to be against buy and hold. A good author I like (and Brinker likes) is William Berstein who wrote intelligent asset allocator and 4 pillars of investment success. I would recommend bernstein before Brinker to a someone starting out. I just think brinker would confuse a new person with his "time to get in/time to get out" recommendations.

I don't follow every little thing he says myself, but I do take each item one by one and pick out what makes sense to me. That is what you should do.
One of my suggestions was to look at his reading list and John Vogal of The Vanguard Group would be another good conservative choice.

Personally I think the days of "Buy and Hold" are basically over.
I strongly believe in taking charge of your financial portfolio and manage it yourself. Buy and Hold was a good strategy when the markets were not so volitle and Enrons etc. weren't such an issue.
I refuse to stick my head in the sand and hope I will be rich at the exact time I want to retire.
There is to much money to be made by going with the tide instead of throwing out the anchor. Time should be used as an ally and not a locked entity.
I do not understand why Brinker is confusing by making vary rare buy and sell calls. That is the info you should want to hear especially if it is correct.

Just to remind investors of a very important fact why I don't Buy and Hold anymore.

Lets say the S&P is at 5000 and it tanks like in the year 2000. (You Sell)
Lets say it goes down 50% in value. now worth $2500. (You Buy)
When it goes back up to where it was when you sold it ... how much did you make ???
You not only made $2500 but you made " 100% " on your trade, not the 50% it went down.

If you did nothing you made nothing........You actually lost due to inflation.

Thats one reason I do not Buy and Hold.

Silverfox

[Joe107]

Originally Posted by silverfox

I don't follow every little thing he says myself, but I do take each item one by one and pick out what makes sense to me. That is what you should do.
One of my suggestions was to look at his reading list and John Vogal of The Vanguard Group would be another good conservative choice.

Personally I think the days of "Buy and Hold" are basically over.
I strongly believe in taking charge of your financial portfolio and manage it yourself. Buy and Hold was a good strategy when the markets were not so volitle and Enrons etc. weren't such an issue.
I refuse to stick my head in the sand and hope I will be rich at the exact time I want to retire.
There is to much money to be made by going with the tide instead of throwing out the anchor. Time should be used as an ally and not a locked entity.
I do not understand why Brinker is confusing by making vary rare buy and sell calls. That is the info you should want to hear especially if it is correct.

Just to remind investors of a very important fact why I don't Buy and Hold anymore.

Lets say the S&P is at 5000 and it tanks like in the year 2000. (You Sell)
Lets say it goes down 50% in value. now worth $2500. (You Buy)
When it goes back up to where it was when you sold it ... how much did you make ???
You not only made $2500 but you made " 100% " on your trade, not the 50% it went down.

If you did nothing you made nothing........You actually lost due to inflation.

Thats one reason I do not Buy and Hold.

Silverfox

Most research shows that market timing does MUCH more harm than good for individual investors

Dalbar study shows average equity-fund investor realized an annualized return of 5.32%, compared to 16.29% for the S&P 500 Index (mid 80s to 2000)

Why such a lower return for the investor? Trying to time/move things around



Dalbar - The Measurement of Success

[golfgod]

I agree with the posters above about how timing hurts most investors more than it helps. However Brinker is not an "in and out" timer. As silverfox said his "major" calls are few and far between. I don't think you really get the flavor of him by listening to the radio, in fact I seldom do.

IIRC in 2000 Brinker said to sell TRPrice Sci and Technology. I looked at it and decided to sell 1/2 of it, it then doubled over the next 11 months or so. However, on his next SELL (2001) we debated it for an hour and them my wife said; "if you're not going to take his advice, quit paying for the newsletter"!

Over the next 2 hours we liquidated 80% +/- of our portfolio.

golfgod