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| Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management |
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Newsletter
January 2004 |
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2003 proved to be an incredible year in the world and the stock markets. After three consecutive years of percentage declines not seen since the 1930's, the S&P 500 rose 26% while the NASDAQ rose 50%. While this is good news, investors should remember that continued gains at that level are not sustainable - the S&P 500 is still down 25% and the NASDAQ is down 60% from their March 2000 levels. The housing market continued to record levels due to interest rates falling to their lowest levels in 45 years. What does all that mean for 2004?
2004 is off to a robust start and presidential politics during an election year will only add to investor's exuberance. Stock market increases are likely to be more modest (the average expectation is 10%). Bonds, which on average declined in total return last year for the first time since 1999, are likely to underperform this year as well. With the path of least resistance for interest rates appearing to be up, this means downward pressure for bonds. Investors should focus on shorter bond maturities and/or inflation protected bonds in order to maintain income while lowering their principal risk. The housing market is anyone's guess (I've been wrong for a couple of years expecting a bubble to pop in this market like it did for the internet stocks in 2000). Still, with a record number of bankruptcies and mortgage foreclosures in 2003 and interest rates likely to rise for those with adjustable rate mortgages, housing growth (if there is growth) should be much more modest than that of the past couple of years. Diversification seems to be a more important strategy than ever.
CELEBRATING 24 YEARS
Since 1980, I have been providing financial advice to investors and I'm proud to say that our service and performance (see "Bottom Line" section on the right) continue to be superior to the market and our peers. Thanks for your support.
| Selecting an Advisor |
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 Warren Buffet, the most successful investor of the 20th century learned his craft from Benjamin Graham, author of several books including the legendary "Intelligent Investor." This has been recently updated by Jason Zweig who includes 16 key questions to ask your advisor and 11 an advisor might ask...
Read on... » |
| Investment Strategies for 2004 and Beyond |
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 Go through the 9 steps for successfully accumulating and growing your wealth and investments ...
Full Story » |
| The Prospects & Perils of Fiduciary Investing |
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 If you have direct (or indirect) responsibility for your company's retirement plan oversight, you need to be aware of the increasing enforcement of accountability by the Department of Labor and the IRS. We offer several solutions to bring your plan into compliance and reduce your liability.
Full Story » |
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 Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management has given presentations to Fortune 500 companies as well as many local groups and organizations. If you are looking for a professional presentation on topics ranging from investments to estate taxes to business or tax law, please contact us
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| The Bottom Line |
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| This is where we provide the performance of our conservative, moderate and aggressive portfolios and compare these to the S&P 500 and NASDAQ Indexes. While they are an important consideration, performance is only a portion of the evaluation investors should consider when evaluating investment management. Other considerations include the risk taken to generate the returns, the quality of the service, the reasonableness of the fees and, more important now than ever, the integrity of the investment manager.
Find out more.... |
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email: cbloom@cfiemail.com
voice: 805.886.3624
web: http://www.swimllc.com/
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