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| Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management |
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Newsletter
March 2004 |
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Several people have commented that I have seemed rather "bearish" in my editorial about the markets but my purpose is neither to be negative nor a cheerleader. The goal is to pass along my analysis as well as that of respected individuals in the investment community - I trust you can decide for yourselves. That said (here we go again): 1) the markets have been correcting since their early-February highs and are now down in value for the year; 2) job growth has been negative (we need to add almost 200,000 per month just to stay even with population growth); 3) consumer debt hit a record $2 trillion (that's "trillion"); 4) bankruptcies for 2003 were also a record with 1.7 million families filing for bankruptcy protection; 5) the dollar has remained at a very low exchange rate; and 6) the S&P 500 and NASDAQ market indexes are trading relatively high valuation levels. Once a year, Warren Buffet offers his commentary on the market, part of Berkshire Hathaway's shareholder letter in the company's annual report, and he continues to claim that there are few bargains in the market, a reason he was holding $36 billion in cash at the time of the report's publication.
On the positive side, the economy has been chugging along nicely and real estate (I've been wrong about this one) continues to perform well. Better still, if you read the column at the right entitled "The Bottom Line," it doesn't really matter. If investors balance their portfolios between different asset classes (stocks, bonds, real estate and cash) as well as different sectors within each class (small cap, large cap, international) and re-balance these allocations regularly, the results should be better in good times and less painful in bad. Moreover, it takes the guesswork out of selecting the right place to be at the right time (not even the experts at Harvard try to do this). Instead, the re-balancing allows you to regularly sell high and buy low (better that the alternative), improving performance and increasing safety.
| 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... » |
| Coverdell Educational Savings Account |
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 Formerly known as the Educational IRA, this is an ideal savings plan for parents, grandparents, relatives or friends who wish to start an investment program to meet a child's future needs.
Full Story » |
| Living Trusts: Disinheriting Uncle Sam - Part 2 |
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 Last month, we discussed the importance of having a will, the first line of defense in protecting your assets in upon death. A more sophisticated strateg includes establishing a living trust.
Full Story » |
| Looking for a Speaker for Your Event? |
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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
Click here for more details » | |
| 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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