Connor Wealth Management

10/18/2011

Occupy Now is the type of broad social action that you and your financial planner should be discussing as it relates to your investment and income plans. The movement may amount to nothing --- or it could be the tip of an iceberg that significantly impacts your own economic future. You and your advisor should be talking both about social change and the classic economic changes.

The NY Times this Sunday ran an article related to the Occupy Walls Street, (or Occupy Now) protestors, a social movement that has gained en

10/06/2011

We are awfully close to another bear market. The biggest financial news in this Sunday's NY Times, in my opinion, was the fact that we were less than a percentage point away from a loss this year of more than 20% in stock market value -- the classic definition of a bear market. A twenty percent drop in value is so hard to bear, in part, because it takes a 25% increase in value to get back to even. For example: You start with $1,000,000. It drops 20% to $800,000. However, it requires a 25% increase in your $800,000 to get back to one million dollars. No wonder a bear market hurts so much.

What if the stock market dropped 19% in one day ?! Think that there would be headlines around the world? Think that this news would domi

10/05/2011

You should never underestimate the ability of smart people to do stupid things. A trader at UBS, it was revealed last week, managed to lose $2.3 Billion through a complex trading strategy. He kept hoping that his strategy would, in the long run, recoup his losses and then some. But times have changed. A long run strategy that relies on past trends would not necessarily have bailed out this trader, nor will it necessarily bail out individual investors who keep hoping that the market will return to it’s historical long run performance of year after year of solid annual gains.

UBS Losses Prove a Point You should never underestimate the ability of smart people to do stupid things. This is the point made again b

09/14/2011

One obstacle to an intelligent discussion on what to do about our economic woes is that the numbers thrown around –a billion dollars here and a trillion dollars there –make no sense to most of us. Today, I’m starting a series of what-does-this-number-mean blogs. This first blog is about the President’s Jobs Bills. How many jobs would $447 Billion provide? The answer is: about 5 1/2 million jobs. To put this in context, there are about 14 million people who actively looked for a job last month.

As a former U.S. Senator once remarked, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money !” Well, for most of

09/07/2011

Finding the next hot stock, John Keynes argued in the 20th century, is like picking the likely winner of a beauty contest. The winning strategy is to pick the beauty not that you necessarily prefer, but the one that others think will win.

This Sunday’s New York Times reproduced John Meynard Keynes beauty pageant analogy as applied to picking stocks. Picking good stocks, h

08/30/2011

Warren Buffett made news again last week by investing $5 billion in Bank of America stock. The press suggested that he received a very good deal in return. He did. But you might easily obtain a similar good deal – without investing $5 billion – through your financial advisor’s special deferred or immediate annuities. Read what Tim has to say about it!

Last week, Warren Buffett apparently called Bank of America and struck an attractive investment deal. Warren invested $5 billion in special

08/17/2011

Would you like to find a government guaranteed rate of return for some of your retirement money in excess of 8% ? It’s readily available. Simply postpone collecting your first Social Security check. When you do take Social Security, the larger check you receive will reflect, depending on circumstances, a rate of return on that postponed check of 6%,7%, 8% or higher.

The wild swings in the market the past few weeks have caused many to seek a safe place for their retirement funds. Yet the Fed also said o

07/12/2011

The “invisible” unemployed in the country tell us something about social security in the future. What they tell us is that so long as Social Security recipients continue to stay highly visible, it seems likely that we can count on receiving Social Security payments in our own retirement.
http://connorwealthmanagement.net/595/retirement-planning-social-security-lessons-from-the-unemployed/

An insightful journalist this past week asked in the NY Times how the unemployed became so invisible. Her answers are interesting. First,

06/29/2011

Morgan Keegan brokerage is the latest in a series of seeming frauds perpetuated by the brokerage community upon the public, (Morgan Keegan settled, neither denying nor accepting the charge of fraud). Dr. Timothy Connor talks about what happened.

Morgan Keegan brokerage is the latest in a series of seeming frauds perpetuated by the brokerage community upon the public, (Morgan Keegan s

06/23/2011

Dr. Timothy Connor talks about real estate investments. He likes single family homes that can be rented and then eventually sold to a wide market.

A famous country singer wrote that “I’ve been down so long, it looks like up to me “. Poor fellow.

06/23/2011

Dr. Timothy Connor talks about real estate investments. He likes single family homes that can be rented and then eventually sold to a wide market.

06/09/2011

Retirement Planning using a new pension guaranteed-for-life. Guaranteed products ideal when planning for retirement. Pension would guarantee to never outlive money

Reflection on New York Times Business Section … The New York Times is famous for their crossword puzzles. But they presented