Personal Finance Archives - Page 7 of 8 - NorthStar Capital Advisors

Skin in the Game?

Would you eat at a restaurant where the chefs didn’t eat their own cooking? Would you have joined the Hair Club if the president weren’t also a client? Then why would you invest according to an advisor’s guidance if that advisor doesn’t follow his or her own advice?

Portfolio manager Mebane Faber recently wrote,

Next time you sit down with your advisor, ask him or her a simple question:

How do you invest your own money?

Don’t settle for a simple “well, uh, I have some stocks and bonds, and, umm, some CDs”…ask them specifically what their allocation percentages are, and what funds they use etc. Many find it very uncomfortable to disclose and many will refuse to do so!

As far as fund managers, many managers don’t even invest in their own funds. (Here are a few articles on how little managers invest in their own funds here, here, and here.)

In addition, many commentators are willing to provide you with plenty of advice but just try getting them to disclose how they invest their own money – impossible! How many commentators can you identify that invest in their own funds and are transparent with where they invest? They are happy to give you advice, but forbid they tell you how they invest!

We Eat Our Own Cooking!
The principals of NorthStar Capital Advisors place nearly all of their investable wealth in the same type of diversified stock and bond portfolios that we manage on behalf of our clients. We also inform and educate our clients on how we are cooking via this weekly blog, quarterly performance reports, and around the clock access via phone and email.

So, next time you are talking with your advisor or broker, or hear someone giving lots of financial advice, ask them one simple question: “What do you do with your money?”

Know More, Make More

A new academic study finds that more financially knowledgeable people earn a higher return on their 401(k) retirement savings.

Dr Robert Clark (NC State University), Dr. Annamaria Lusardi (George Washington University), and Dr. Olivia Mitchell (University of Pennsylvania) analyzed a unique dataset that combined 401(k) performance data for 20,000 employees plus financial literacy data for the same workers.

Investors deemed to be more financially knowledgeable than peers enjoyed an estimated 1.3% higher annual return in their 401(k)s or other defined contribution plans than those with less knowledge.

According to the study’s authors:
“We show that more financially knowledgeable employees are also significantly more likely to hold stocks in their 401(k) plan portfolios. They can also anticipate significantly higher expected excess returns, which over a 30-year working career could build a retirement fund 25% larger than that of their less-knowledgeable peers.”

Financially savvy people tend to save more and are more likely to invest those savings in the stock market. But past studies haven’t clearly demonstrated that these people necessarily make better investment decisions. The authors look at patterns in 401(k) retirement accounts and find that more sophisticated investors do indeed get better returns on their savings.

Source: “Financial Knowledge and 401(k) Investment Performance”

Elite Colleges Don’t Buy Happiness or Extra Money for Graduates

Attention high school seniors that were rejected by their first-choice college

A new Gallup survey of 30,000 college graduates of all ages in all 50 states has found that graduation from an elite college provides no discernible advantage over Podunk U.

“It matters very little where you go; it’s how you do it” that counts, said Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education.

Gallup’s data demonstrate that people that feel the happiest and most engaged are the most productive. Those successful people got to that point by developing meaningful connections with professors or mentors, and made significant investments in long-term academic projects and extracurricular activities.

This new study’s results are well aligned with the existing body of academic research. For example, economist Stacy Dale published an insightful paper in 2004 that found that students who were accepted to elite schools, but attended less selective schools, went on to earn just as much money as their elite counterparts.

“Individual traits matter more than where you went,” Ms. Dale said. “It’s a lot more important what you learn later in life than where you got your undergraduate degree.”

Source: WSJ

Sorry Banks, Millennials Hate You

A three-year study involving 10,000 millennials (born 1981-2000) reveals an overwhelmingly negative sentiment toward banks:

Banking is the most prime industry for disruption in millennials’ opinion
Banks make up four of the top 10 most hated brands for millennials
Millennials increasingly view banking institutions as irrelevant

Source: FastCo

American’s Wealth at Fresh High

Americans’ wealth hit the highest level ever last year reflecting a surge in the value of stocks and homes. A record-setting rally of +30% in the U.S. stock market drove most of the past year’s gains.

According to a Federal Reserve report released today, the net worth of U.S. households and nonprofit organizations rose 14% last year.

The Fed’s report shows that Americans have made good progress on repairing the damage caused by the housing crash and the recession (Dec 2007 – Jun 2009). Americans have been reducing their debt loads and regaining equity in their homes.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Oklahoma Schools Required To Teach High School Students to Manage Finances

Oklahoma high school students, effective this May, now must demonstrate an understanding in banking, taxes, investing, loans, insurance, identity theft and eight other areas to graduate.

The intent of personal financial literacy education is to inform students how individual choices directly influence occupational goals and future earnings potential. Successful money management is a disciplined behavior and much easier when learned earlier in life.

Real world topics covered by the Oklahoma standards include the following:

Earning an income;
Understanding state and federal taxes;
Banking and financial services;
Balancing a checkbook;
Savings and investing;
Planning for retirement;
Understanding loans and borrowing money, including predatory lending and payday loans;
Understanding interest, credit card debt, and online commerce;
Identity fraud and theft;
Rights and responsibilities of renting or buying a home;
Understanding insurance;
Understanding the financial impact and consequences of gambling;
Bankruptcy; and
Charitable giving

Market Timing & Emotions ~ Afflictions of the Average Investor

Click to enlarge

This chart of 20 years of market data vividly demonstrates a painful lesson. The average investor* badly trails all classes of investment assets.

The primary culprit for this deficit is ill-fated attempts to time the market and emotionally driven decisions to move in and out of the markets.

Most individuals claim to be long-term investor until their portfolio drops 10% and suddenly there’s panic.

Our primary role as an investment advisor is to help our clients have the discipline to ignore the gyrations of the markets and keep the long view when it comes to their investments.

* Average investor refers to individual investors across the United States

University of North Carolina Rated Best Value in the United States

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been rated the top value in U.S. public higher education for the 13th straight year by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

Kiplinger’s rates universities on quality and cost including metrics around admission rates, retention rates, graduate rates, sticker price, financial aid and graduation debt level.

UNC is the only school that meets 100% of students’ demonstrated financial need. UNC students graduate with an average debt of less than $17,000, far below the national average of $29,400 according to Kiplinger’s.

Other UNC system school that made Kiplinger’s top 100 include:

NC State University — 16th
UNC School of the Arts — 24th
UNC Wilmington — 28th
Appalachian State University — 30th
UNC Asheville — 58th

Source: Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; Charlotte Observer

Code Red! 8 Ways to Permanently Wipe Out Your Retirement Savings

Dana Anspach at MarketWatch recently wrote about 8 financially devastating mistakes (aka “Code Reds”) that must be avoided:

1. Believe in a stock
The company you work for is doing well. You understand the potential of the business. You should own a lot of company stock. After all, it shows your level of commitment, right?
WRONG! CODE RED!
You can lock in lifestyle by taking risk off the table. If trusted advisers are telling you to reduce risk, listen. You can’t take your “belief” in your company stock to the bank. Owning a lot of company stock doesn’t demonstrate a commitment to your company; it demonstrates a lack of commitment to your own personal financial planning.

2. Get reeled into real estate
Rental real estate is a good way to build wealth with someone else’s money, isn’t it? I mean, that’s what the infomercials say.
WRONG! CODE RED!
Investing in real estate is a profession in and of itself. With real estate prices on the rise again, don’t get reeled in with the lure of easy passive income. It isn’t as easy as it looks.

3. Follow a Tip
An opportunity to double your money is an investment opportunity worth pursuing. It could change your life, right?
WRONG! CODE RED!
Tips are great for your waiter or waitress. But where you family’s future is concerned, avoid the tips, and stick with a disciplined and diversified approach.

4. Change lanes — every year
Smart investors watch the market and frequently move money into the latest high performing investment, right?
WRONG! CODE RED!
You’ve probably noticed if you constantly changes lanes on a backed up highway, always trying to inch ahead, you usually end up farther behind. Driving this way isn’t effective; investing this way isn’t effective either. Pick a disciplined strategy and stick to it. Jumping from investment to investment is only going to slow you down.

5. Play the currency cards
Experts can deliver higher returns, right? Find someone who knows how to trade, and you’ll be set.
WRONG! CODE RED!
If experts could generate such high returns, why would they need your business? Don’t play the currency cards, the expert cards, or fall for any kind of outlandish promises. I’ve yet to see one of these programs work the way it was marketed.

6. Follow your ego
Better investments are available to those with more money, right? If you get the opportunity to participate in something exclusive, it is likely to deliver better returns.
WRONG! CODE RED!
If someone appeals to your ego, walk away. When it comes to investing, the only thing I’ve seen egos do is help someone lose money.

7. Follow their ego
You can trust prestigious people in your community. That’s why you should do business with them, right?
WRONG! CODE RED!
Checks and balances are good in government and in investing. One way to make sure checks and balances are in place is to work with an investment adviser that uses a third party custodian. The third party custodian sends account statements directly to you. The investment adviser can make changes in your account, but the transactions are reported to you directly by the custodian, who isn’t and should not be affiliated with the investment adviser.

8. Leverage up
Borrowing at low interest rates and investing in high growth assets is an excellent way to accumulate wealth, isn’t it?
WRONG! CODE RED!
Think twice before borrowing to invest. It causes ruin more often than it causes riches.

Visit MarketWatch to read Anspach’s full article.

Women Choosing Lower-Paying Jobs

Three weeks ago we wrote about The Most and Least Lucrative College Majors. An interesting aspect on this topic is the propensity for women to select lower-paying jobs. NPR’s Lisa Chow covered the story recently (Why Women (Like Me) Choose Lower-Paying Jobs).

Women are overrepresented among majors that don’t pay very well (psychology, art, comparative literature), and underrepresented in lots of lucrative majors (most fields in engineering).

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