|
 |
| Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management |
|
Newsletter
June 2005 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Stock & Bond Markets -
With the French and Dutch "no" votes putting the European constitution in jeopardy, the dollar surged to a 7 month high against the Euro. Stocks rebounded in May while long-term interest rates continued to drop pushing bonds prices higher. Inflation seems tame, although prices have been rising, which has created a slightly positive bias for the market. This is a nice change given the beating stocks have taken this year.
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? -
Defying predictions of a bubble, home sales reached a record 7.1 million on an annualized basis. The National Association of Realtors reported the biggest increase in prices since 1980 with April 2004 - April 2005 prices rising 21% in the west, 13% in the midwest, 16% in the northeast and 8% in the south. Also, 23% of residential purchases are as an investment rather than to live in while 31% of all new mortgages are interest only.
The catalyst seems to be low 30-year fixed mortgages which average 5.71%, down from 6.30% a year ago. This is due to the tendency of these loan rates to follow long-term treasury rates which have remained low due to the foreign appetite for these securities. Should this scenario change, the "froth" (air) in the real estate market described by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan may start to deflate.
In the meantime, home builders seemed to have learned the lesson of their 1980's overbuilding binge with a near record low 4-month inventory of new homes on the market. I guess it's different this time - or is it?
| Selecting an Advisor |
|
 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 Mutual Fund Investing |
|
 An alternative to trading or investing in individual stocks and bonds is mutual funds. The advantages are broad diversification, professional management, liquidity and New York Attorney Elliott Spitzer keeping the industry honest. More importantly, whether your goals are for growth or income, long or short-term or conservative or aggressive, there is a fund that meets those objectives. If only it were that easy ...
Full Story »
|
| Long-Term Trusts: Disinheriting Uncle Sam |
|
 We recently discussed living trusts as a way plan your estate to reduce taxes. Another kind of trust, the "long- term" trust offers other advantages worth reviewing.
Learn More »
|
| Looking for a Speaker for Your Event? |
|
 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 |
 |
| 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.... |
|
|
email: cbloom@cfiemail.com
voice: 805.886.3624
web: http://www.swimllc.com/
|
|
| |
Shoreline Wealth & Investment Management · 3905 State Street Suite 7173 · Santa Barbara · CA · 93105
|
|
