Fun With Your Finances

It’s starting to get redundant on the ‘ol Tim Moore blog, but it seems that just about all conversation these days leads to the ECONOMY, the RECESSION, the JOB MARKET and other fun topics.

My wife and I went to see our Financial Advisor this morning. He’s a pretty smart fellow and was able to give us a lot of insight on the progression of BAD STUFF that led to the “Perfect Storm” were are facing right now.

The stock market is down. The bond market is down. So, with our meager “portfolio” getting more meager by the minute, the $64 dollar question (it USED to be a $64,000 question, but it resided in my 401K) is: “OK, what do we do now?”

I think we got some good advice..and a whole lot of reassurance that things will pick up. If you have a financial advisor you trust, it’s a good idea to at least get a reality check. That person may just be your accountant or tax guy/gal, but whoever you trust to navigate you through these troubled waters should be consulted-if for nothing else-to keep you from making a boneheaded move purely out of emotion.

Today, I learned about Stock Market certificates. Basically, it’s an index fund where the principal is protected (unlike stocks)—if the market goes up, you receive interest that is a fraction of that growth (they average about 7-8% historically-not bad!), but if the market goes down, you simply earn 0% interest. With CD’s paying about 3% and Money Markets not much better, a zero or up to 8% upside (with no downside) looks pretty good right now.

Your situation may be a lot different, but it might be a good idea to ask your financial guru about this instrument. Let me know how it works out!