Timeshares - 50% off or forget it

Summer is vacation time!  Maybe that's why I've been called twice with Timeshare offers.  Buy now and get a free vacation every year (except for the upfront $20,000-$50,000 cost that is no longer earning you interest) and the annual maintenance AND switching fees to go to new locations (IF they are available).  Couldn't you just use all this money to pay to go anywhere you want any week?  And here's another big problem:  If you want to sell, you may be lucky to get 20% of the original value since there's very little market for these.  So I ask you, if you really want a timeshare, why pay full price from the company that offers to wine and dine you when you can buy one from someone looking to dump theirs for likely 50-60% below the cost from the company.  You'll still take a loss if you decide to sell later as the broker takes a big cut but I'd rather save $25,000 upfront on a timeshare "the company" is selling for $50,000
- Larry Pike, CFA, Client Priority Financial Advisors LLC
- www.clientpriority.com

Being smart with $$ - Trump or Clinton for your portfolio - and - Why diversify?

July 25Why diversify our stock holdings when we should just buy the winners? Not long ago it seemed you could never go wrong owning Goldman Sachs and Apple. As heard on CNBC today, owning these two stocks means worse than 20% losses in the last year compared to the nicely diversified large cap stock index that is up 4% in the same time. Why not just buy the winners? Because we never know who they will be until after the fact.
- Larry Pike, CFA, Client Priority Financial Advisors LLC
- www.clientpriority.com

July 22Trump or Clinton? What changes to my investments should I make if it becomes clear one of them is winning? None. The talking heads tell us to make changes but standing pat is usually the best approach. Money Magazine (July 2016) says stocks go up most of the time no matter who is in office and point to several cases where experts advised on dramatic changes to your portfolio based on a new President and such changes would have cost you a fortune. Many pointed to individual stocks they said would be affected. One example Money Mag uses is gunmaker Smith and Wesson that experts said would be pummeled under an Obama presidency but it actually beat the market by a huge amount. Buy-and-hold usually beats market timing. Stick to your plan.
- Larry Pike, CFA, Client Priority Financial Advisors LLC
- www.clientpriority.com

Being Smart with $$ -- Mega Lottery! The Path to a Backyard Vacation

BLOCKBUSTER MEGA-MILLIONS LOTTERY! What's the harm in playing $1? If I keep playing, maybe I'll eventually win.  It's $1 twice a week and then $2 twice a week for PowerBall.  It seems harmless, but a 40-year old could instead invest those small amounts and by retirement at age 67 they would have enough money to take an $1800 vacation every year for the rest of their life.  But cocktails in the backyard can be nice too.
- Larry Pike, CFA, Client Priority Financial Advisors LLC
- www.clientpriority.com

Being smart with $$ - How did you do?

The year is half over.  How did your portfolio do? Are you down or flat after a very volatile 6 months?  You shouldn't be.  A diversified portfolio should have returned around 4% so far this year.  If you did much worse than this, ask your advisor why and ask them how much THEY made off your portfolio this year.  If they made more than you did, there's a problem.  Ask me about a smarter way that puts the client first.
- Larry Pike, CFA, Client Priority Financial Advisors LLC
- www.clientpriority.com