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| Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management |
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Newsletter
March 2005 |
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The Stock & Bond Markets -
After a rough January and recovering February, investors continue to be faced with uncertainty regarding the budget and trade deficits, falling dollar and uncertain Social Security debate while Alan Greenspan talks about a recovery and continues to raise interest rates. Regarding the dollar, Warren Buffet's just released annual report indicated he increased his bet against the dollar in 2004 to $21 billion from $12 billion which resulted in a $1.8 billion profit - and he sees no end in site to the dollar's decline.
Here's two more issues for concern: 1) we buy too much oil which means we aren't spending the money on other things like infrastructure, education, health care or reducing the deficits; and 2) we're selling too many of our bonds to foreigners who now own 43% of all U.S. Treasury Securites. If those foreigners start to get concerned and either begin to unload or reduce their buying of our Treasuries, things could get ugly quickly.
CELEBRATING 25 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.
Real Estate Bubble? -
Real estate is in its 14th year of expansion, the longest record in history. If you believe that things don't go up forever (remember 1993-5?), then being alert to warning signs is in order. These might include things like speculation (35% of all homes purchased in Santa Barbara County were for either investment or as a 2nd home in 2004). It might reflect in ratios like the cost of the monthly mortgage vs. the rent an owner could collect to offset the cost of buying (now at near record lows). Or it might be the migration to adjustable rate mortgages which are now 90% of all new mortgages issued. While this may not be the end of the party, it might be wise to consider not being the last one to leave.
| 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... »
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| Retirement Investing |
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 Investing for retirement is a science of principles. Once understood, these principles can be applied, implemented and monitored regularly to enhance ...
Full Story »
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| Family Limited Partnerships: Disinheriting Uncle Sam |
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 Creating or updating a will and establishing a living trust will likely reduce probate time and costs after death. One way business owners can protect assets while alive is the establishment of a family limited partnership.
Learn More »
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| 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 »
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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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Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management · 3905 State Street Suite 7173 · Santa Barbara · CA · 93105 |
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