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| Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management |
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Newsletter
July 2004 |
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Here's some trivia with which to impress your friends - everyone knows stocks have been number one in terms of investment returns over the past 75 years - what most people don't know is that municipal bonds are ranked number two, ahead of their government and corporate cousins and far ahead of CDs and money market instruments. You can learn more about bonds in the article below.
The stock and bond markets continue to trade in a narrow range. The S&P 500 is up a little for the year - the NASDAQ is down a little as are bonds. Conflicting information continues to dominate. There are, for example fewer jobless claims but "service sector" job growth is down and the average person moving from the unemployed to the employed status is earning 65% of what they did just a couple of years ago. Oil prices are up and mortgage activity is at the highest level in two months since 30-year mortgage rates dropped below 6%. A trading range refers to a market with prices "backing and filling" - with an uncertain Iraq and the November election approaching, it doesn't appear there is much to drive the market one way or another.
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... » |
| Understanding Bond Investing |
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 Bonds were the number one asset category in 2000, 2001 and 2002. This was due to a "flight to quality" from stocks as the dot-com boom crumbled as well as interest rates declining to the lowest level in 45 years. While rates jumped 25% in the past couple of months (from 4% to 5.25%), they appear to have leveled off and even dropped a bit below the 5% level. Conflicting economic data will keep rates in a trading range and bonds do pay a 400% premium to just leaving excess cash in money market accounts or CDs.
Full Story » |
| Offshore Trusts: Disinheriting Uncle Sam - Part 6 |
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 As a well-established asset protection strategy, "offshore" trusts provide protection for your assets and may also be the right vehicle to use to diversify your portfolio by investing internationally.
Learn More » |
| 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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