Sa For Fas

Mark Elliott of Elliott Asset Management in Boston is a gutsy investor whose past contrarian moves have paid off. His latest moves reflect his continuing love affair with hated investments, notably in MLPs and Puerto Rican bonds. In this podcast (23:28), Elliott explains a court appeal in which he is the lead plaintiff that he expects will reward holders of COFINA bonds. And he elaborates on his affinity for the most hated sub-sector within the most hated sector – MLPs.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retirement blogger Chris Mamula, writing on MarketWatch, offered some candid reflections on the things he got wrong two years into his very early retirement. This podcast (6:55) takes advantage of the opportunity to learn from somebody else’s mistakes, and offers thoughts on the experience, preparation and timing that should factor into one’s retirement planning.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Collaborative Fund’s Morgan Housel, on his blogpost yesterday, called “Risk is what you don’t see,” tells the story of the punch Houdini didn’t see coming. This podcast (3:46) notes a parallel between the Houdini story and the famous inattentional blindness experiment, in which about 50% of viewers fail to see a gorilla sauntering into the middle of a basketball game. Housel’s point is the risk that matters is the one you don’t see; mine is the only way to defend against such risk is to have a system in place that maintains portfolio stability.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A paper on “Trends in Retirement Income Adequacy” reports that households who have “outlived their savings” is the authors’ most concerning finding. This podcast (6:10) outlines the process of avoiding this fate, acquiring income and assets by making what I call “good trades.”Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Veteran Wall Street recruiter Mark Elzweig observes that though advisors are generally well paid, many are not happy, which is ironic because their position carries unique advantages conducive to being happy. In this podcast (14:04), Elzweig, the author of a free e-book called “The Path to Success and Happiness for Financial Advisors,” explores pathways leading to fulfillment including autonomy, a sense of mastery and a sense of purpose.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Surveying the past decade, one could say that macro-analysis fell into two camps, one questioning the propriety of the Fed’s balance-sheet expansion, the other saying “Don’t fight the Fed.” The Fedophobes lost big and the Fedophiles won big. But who’s to say that relationship won’t reverse this decade? This podcast (5:38) argues that the problem with macro-analysis is that it’s all too often a binary affair. A better approach, exemplified by Mohamed El-Erian’s recent interview in Investment News, raises good questions, warns of potential dangers and builds in portfolio flexibility.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pension protests in France and Chile are fueled in part by a feeling that retirement reality is more meager than they expected. This gap is also relevant to U.S. retirees. This podcast (5:19) suggests a way advisors can help clients better match expectations to reality to achieve a retirement they can afford.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beware of pundits advising portfolio changes on the basis of the U.S. drone attack on an Iranian general. Instead, position a portfolio for growth and resilience at all times. This podcast (5:38) argues that a better approach to trying to predict the unpredictable is to own stocks and keep cash, and buy cheap and sell dear.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Economist recently published a lead story on the so-called “young-old,” the Japanese term for workers aged 65 to 75, who the magazine expects to bolster their work participation this decade. This podcast (4:33) brings a medical anecdote to illustrate the physical and mental benefits of continued exertion, and suggests that financially secure retirees voluntarily undertake some sort of meaningful labor.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Process matters more than stock picks and stock pickers. This podcast (4:58) argues that, paradoxically, by going after attractive investment returns, investors often end up with poor investment returns. But by adhering to a process that captures investment returns, investors needn’t sweat the details.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Australian actuaries have developed a rule-of-thumb calculation for how much retirees can spend. This podcast (5:06) discusses this intriguing formula, but assumes it wouldn’t work in the U.S. context. Nevertheless, the obsession with formulas for how much to spend, which depend on unique variables, remind us of the one constant in retirement planning everywhere, which is that the surplus one spends in retirement stems from the restraint shown pre-retirement.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A portfolio should be tailored to the investor’s individual needs. That’s why people hire advisors, for a more objective view of their finances. This podcast (5:08) argues that advisors should build customized, resilient portfolios on the basis of broad asset classes, adding new items when they serve the client’s investment policy, restore balance and tilt the portfolio in a manner suited to client preferences.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quick-and-dirty approach to guesstimating one’s retirement income would be the formula landlords use to qualify a potential tenant, which is gross income three times the rent they are seeking. This podcast (5:46) suggests this yardstick may work because people’s standard of living is related to where they live and the lifestyle of those in their milieu. With this conversation starter, the next steps are to determine a path to reach that goal via saving and investing or by paring that standard of living.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My top ETF choice for 2020 is the iShares MSCI Israel ETF (EIS). This podcast (7:37) explains my search for an investment that offers appreciation potential, and yet which is also defensible against the ill winds that can bring stock prices down precipitously.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Secure Act does two innovative things: It facilitates the offering of annuities in corporate retirement plans, and it requires retirement plans to project monthly income streams from savings. This podcast (4:52) suggests that if investors can see how much, or how little, their savings translate into income, they may save more. For those who don’t save more, the annuity will at least distribute what they have over their lifetime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wealthfront’s latest article on Seeking Alpha offers reasons to be skeptical about investment real estate. This podcast (5:54) offers a range of pros and cons about real estate for the benefit of advisors who must strive to serve as an objective source of information about every avenue of capital deployment.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Generation Z, now graduating college, want to get ahead in life, and should learn now to steer clear from shallow media investment advice. This podcast (5:36) suggests that whether to prioritize a home or retirement depends on certain variables, but what is invariable for young people is the effective deployment of their human capital.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Washington Post discusses two new scientific studies published this month in the journal Nature, which together signal the risk of a global food crisis. This podcast (4:39) argues that the possibility of a food crisis should remind us of the value of hedging a portfolio with commodities investments, which rarely fall when stocks are falling.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retirement consultant Marcia Mantell is the author of the new book, “What’s the deal with Social Security for Women?” In this podcast (18:57), Mantell reviews some key Social Security claiming issues pertinent to widows, divorcees, married and single women.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neuroeconomics explains how the brain physiologically responds to stimuli and sometimes trips us up, based on the uneasy coexistence between primitive and advanced neural systems. This podcast (5:06) suggests we employ such insights to map our emotions rather than trip over them.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices