Category: Personal Finances
145 posts categorized as "Personal Finances"
The Pros and Cons of Fixed Income ETFs
June 2, 2016
Content provided by Marc Pfeffer, CLS Senior Portfolio Manager Currently, there are nearly 300 fixed income exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the marketplace. That is four times as many as in 2008. Demand continues to be strong for fixed income ETFs, and for some good reasons. The Pros: Liquidity, Diversity, Price, and Efficiency Fixed income…
Gold, Emotions, and Poor Behavior
May 27, 2016
Content provided by Paula Wieck, CLS Portfolio Manager Gold is up about 20% so far this year. This is about the time when investors start asking if we have gold exposure in our portfolios. Whether we do or do not isn’t the point I want to drive home (we do have exposure to gold miners…
Six-Putts, Statistics, and Investing
May 3, 2016
Content provided by Scott Kubie, CFA, CLS Chief Strategist Ernie Els, an accomplished golfer, six-putted the first green of the Masters Golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia. Of his six putts, five were within 3 feet of the hole. A Bloomberg article examined Els’s history-making putting performance and determined it should only happen once in 10,000,000…
Fed Alters Its Rate Hike Forecast
April 7, 2016
Content provided by Josh Jenkins, CFA, CLS Portfolio Manager Last month, the Federal Reserve (Fed) released its monetary policy projection, commonly referred to as the “dot plot.” As expected, the median estimate for the federal funds rate decreased since the last iteration was released following the December 2015 meeting. The current median estimate suggests the…
Make Way for FinTech
March 30, 2016
Content provided by Brian Towner, CLS Separate Account Product Manager I’m the type of person that likes to look back to see where I’ve come from, before looking forward as to what to expect. Try doing a Google search for “FinTech 2006” to see where Financial Technology stood just ten years ago and you won’t…
Keep Risk in Check (And Your Spouse Happy)
March 18, 2016
Content provided by Kostya Etus, CLS Portfolio Manager My wife and I recently went through our annual risk review (a process I would recommend to everyone). We looked through each of our separate retirement accounts to determine if we are comfortable with the level of risk we’re taking (based on both emotional and financial capacity)….
Time is on Your Side
March 4, 2016
Content provided by Case Eichenberger, CLS Client Portfolio Manager I’m looking to buy a house. It’s a big move for me, as a 31-year-old single guy, but I know my financial advisor is right. Interest rates are at historically low levels, and now is a good time to jump into the housing market. I’ve spent…
How to Save You from Yourself
February 23, 2016
Content provided by Kostya Etus, CLS Portfolio Manager At CLS, our focus on global markets and balanced portfolios has faced tough headwinds over the past year. But does that mean we should abandon ship? If we tossed our investment plans overboard every time the waters got rough (to stretch a metaphor here), we would be…
Three Thoughts On The Primary Season
February 18, 2016
Content provided by Scott Kubie, CFA, CLS Chief Strategist Now that primary season is in full swing, the politically interested among us can practice switching channels to see who is saying what, while reading FiveThirtyEight to dissect the polls. As the Iowa and New Hampshire caucus results rolled in, my thoughts moved to what this…
DOL Prepares to Finalize Fiduciary Rule
January 29, 2016
Content provided by Mike Forker, CLS Chief Compliance Officer The Department of Labor (DOL) has finalized their proposed fiduciary rule, which would impose a fiduciary standard on all advice given to retirement plans and IRAs. This morning, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced that they had received a final rule from the DOL titled…