| Making 401(k)s And IRAs More Like Pension Plans by Steve Selengut |
| I'm not sure that the good doctor grasps the distinction between a self-directed, defined-contribution, investment plan and a guaranteed, defined-benefit, pension plan. Most plan participants are led to believe that the former is just as secure as the latter. Sorry, Charlie. |
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| The Securities Investors' Bill Of Rights (SIBORAP): Part One by Steve Selengut |
| We the securities investors of the United States, in order to form more transparent financial markets, establish effective regulations, defend against destructive speculation and manipulation, promote financial well-being, preserve working capital, and protect retirement income... |
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| The Securities Investors' Bill Of Rights (SIBORAP): Part Four by Steve Selengut |
| All golden parachutes, separate "non-qualified" retirement plans, stock option and deferred compensation programs, and others that do not benefit all employees and shareholders will be unwound. |
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| Wall Street Garage Sale Produces Closed End Fund Bargains by Steve Selengut |
| Buffet, Bogle, Gross, Schwab, and Deep Pockets offer sound advice--- don't run and hide, it's time to hit the Wall Street Mall and go shopping! They've seen the indicators; they've been there before. So have many of you. Clearly, it's time for action. |
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| The Securities Investors' Bill Of Rights (SIBORAP): Part Three by Steve Selengut |
| We the securities investors of the United States, in order to form more transparent financial markets, establish effective regulations, defend against destructive speculation and manipulation, promote financial well-being, preserve working capital, and protect retirement income... |
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| Value Stock Market Crash Report by Steve Selengut |
| A cocktail of credit market laxatives is working its way into a constipated world economy. Relief is on the way. Today's prices may well be looked at as the lowest of the next ten years! Here's a list of things to think about or to do while Investment Grade value Stock prices are at ten-year lows: |
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| Retirement Income Investing and Your Portfolio by Steve Selengut |
| Brokerage firm monthly statements are designed to promote either fear or greed, depending on the current market environment. Nowhere on your statement can you find numbers that report your net investment, your total working capital, or your true asset allocation. Current and projected income numbers are given little attention |
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| Last Bank Standing-The Wall Street Mega-Crash by Steve Selengut |
| How many more businesses, jobs, and hopes will be killed by this irresponsible Congress? When will the average blogger realize that when a corporation fails, we all suffer? One would think that the informed and enlightened could take time out from their texting for a little research and education. |
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| Wall Street Bailout, Congressional Cover-up, or Sarbanes-Oxley? by Steve Selengut |
| More than 95% of Americans are making their mortgage payments right on schedule, yet there is no market for the financial products that contain these mortgages. Consequently, balance sheets reflect trillions of dollars less than the maturity value of the securities held by the financial institutions. |
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| Stock Market Meltdown - Watching Rome Burn by Steve Selengut |
| Scary markets are brought about by many factors, some normal, and some not so normal. It's often helpful to look backwards before getting too paranoid about the present. The S & L crisis of the early 80s might be an appropriate starting point. |
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| Amazon Investment Book Reviews: Have You Been Brainwashed? by Steve Selengut |
| Big publishers want to sell already big names; discovering new ones is not in their wheelhouse. Are they responsible for the problems in the financial markets? Of course not, but they do have a perverse, if indirect, impact--- they contribute to the brainwashing. Without a wider distribution of new ideas based on old wisdom, Wall Street as usual remains Wall Street as usual. |
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| Retirement Income Investment Planning - Step One by Steve Selengut |
| Employer provided pension plans, Social Security, and (always much too expensive) fixed annuity contracts, are retirement income providers. They are monthly income machines that you have paid dearly for but which may not be adequate to cover your retirement expenses--- most of us will need more income than our guaranteed benefits will provide. |
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| Why 401(k) Retirement Plans Really Don't Work by Steve Selengut |
| Although it is true that you do not pay income taxes on your contributions up front, during your earning years, you will undoubtedly pay through both nostrils when you attempt to retire. If your parents have planned poorly, you may find yourself trying to retire at a time when the stock market is not in a party mood--- |
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| Income Investing: Go Ask Alice by Steve Selengut |
| Don't let such uniformed thinking sabotage your retirement program; don't let the selfish advice of a product sharpshooter send you chasing rabbits when IRE (interest rate expectations) or other temporary market conditions shrink the market value of your income portfolio. Feed your head; feed---your---head. |
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| Preventing Investment Mistakes: Ten Risk Minimizers by Steve Selengut |
| Losing money on an investment may not be the result of a mistake, and not all mistakes result in monetary losses. Your own misconceptions about how securities react to varying economic, political, and hysterical circumstances are your most vicious enemy. Step away from calendar year, market value thinking. Avoid these ten common errors to improve your performance: |
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| Good News For Income Investors by Steve Selengut |
| Admittedly, even if your asset allocation has been fine tuned for years, lower portfolio market values in this area make stock market valuation shrinkage feel even worse. But the value of stable cash flow becomes painfully clear for investors who misguidedly depend on capital gains for their spending money. |
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| The Obama Tax Reform Plan For Long Term Economic Growth? by Steve Selengut |
| Most economic research suggests that tax code replacement surgery is essential for long-term economic progress. The goal of my plan is to make sure that you are not grumbling ten years from now about the same things that trouble you today. This is a fifteen-point plan to end the cycle of economic frustration. |
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| The McCain Tax Reform Plan For Long Term Economic Growth? by Steve Selengut |
| The plan outlined here is investor and economy friendly. Where jobs are lost, new entities will be needed, based of the premise that regulated capitalism can work well. As shoppers and homeowners, as retirees and employees, as business owners and investors, this is the reform plan we need. |
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| Corporate Income Tax Reform--- Seriously by Steve Selengut |
| At the root of the problem is the tremendous investment the major parties have in nurturing divisiveness, jealousy, and misunderstanding in the electorate. Politicians are much more interested in talking about change than they are in actually legislating it. |
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| When All Stocks Are Value Stocks - Think QDI by Steve Selengut |
| How do we create a confidence building Stock Selection Universe? Simply operating on blind faith with one of the common definitions may be too simplistic, particularly since many of the numbers originate from the subject companies. Here are five filters you can use to come up with a listing of higher quality companies: |
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| Quarterly Window Dressing - A Recurrent Wall Street Scam by Steve Selengut |
| Why aren't the wizards of Wall Street assuaging our nerves by explaining the cyclical nature of the markets and pointing out that similar crises have always preceded the attainment of new all time highs? Right, because the unhappy investor is Wall Street's best friend. Why can't politicians address economic problems with capitalist-economic solutions? |
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| Guaranteed Social Security Benefits: Make It So by Steve Selengut |
| This is a conceptual outline, a starting point for developing the nitty-gritty details, rules, regulations, laws, and agencies. All that is required is the will to change. Politicians like to debate changes to determine why new ideas can't be implemented. Here's a plan that must be implemented. Have a listen, throw out an incumbent. |
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| Volatility Rocks The Investment Markets by Steve Selengut |
| Much of the current skittishness in the financial markets is caused by multiple economic concerns and the incredibly naive resolution ideas being spouted by the presidential candidates. |
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| Zero Overhead Real Estate Investing--- Right Now by Steve Selengut |
| You buy these securities for the income, but always recognize that you have the bonus capability of selling your shares when they rise to an acceptable profit level... so when it comes to Real Estate, think: no attorneys, no debt, and no maintenance equal no problem. |
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| Strategic Investment Mixology:Finding the Holy Grail Cocktail by Steve Selengut |
| Investment portfolio mixology doesn't take place in the smiley faced environment that brought us the Cosmo and the Kamikaze, but putting an investment cocktail together without the risk of addictive speculations, or bad after tastes, is a valuable talent worth finding or developing for yourself. |
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