FundAdvice.com Articles

FundAdvice Articles are also available at Merriman.com

Click here to see our blog!



How to invest so your money lasts in retirement
User Rating: / 9
Written by Larry Katz, CFA, Director of Research   
November 16, 2011

A major concern of many people is whether their savings will last for their entire retirement. If the savings do last, it’s a success, but if the savings don’t last it could be considered a failure.

Key factors which influence whether savings will last for your entire retirement include the size of your portfolio at retirement (bigger is better), the amount of periodic withdrawals (the lower the withdrawals the greater the chance of not running out of money) and longevity (the longer you live, the more you need at the start of retirement).

Click here to read the article at Merriman.com

Evaluating new investment products
User Rating: / 3
Written by Dennis Tilley   
April 27, 2011

We are always looking for ways to better design client investment portfolios. Every year, we are bombarded with new investment approaches, new products and new trading strategies to beat the market. Most new products can be tossed aside immediately, but a few require more detailed investigation.

Click here to read the article at Merriman.com

Are dividend-paying stocks good bond substitutes?
User Rating: / 33
Written by Larry Katz, CFA   
January 11, 2011

Also available at Merriman.com

“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

With bond yields so low, is it a good idea to substitute dividend-paying stocks for bonds? Some would say yes, since dividend-paying stocks yield more than some bonds, and have more upside potential.

Is it time to buy commodities?
User Rating: / 14
Written by Dennis Tilley   
December 22, 2010

Commodity prices are rising again, led by sugar, copper, corn, wheat, and silver. Demand from emerging countries is the typically-stated reason, with an assist given to the Federal Reserve recently announcing a second round of quantitative easing (a euphemism for printing money).

Knight Kiplinger on inflation, interest rates and more
User Rating: / 10
Written by Paul Merriman   
August 18, 2010

EDITOR’S NOTE: Early this summer, Paul Merriman interviewed Knight Kiplinger, a highly respected financial journalist, for a Sound Investing podcast. This article contains excerpts from their discussion of the economy, inflation, interest rates, target-date retirement funds, investor psychology and prospects for dealing with government debt.

Why 401(k) investors need to be watchful
User Rating: / 16
Written by Lowell Lombardini-Parker   
July 07, 2010

In an ideal world, employees could set up their retirement fund allocations and then forget them for years. But when plan options change as they recently did for workers at Boeing, new choices are necessary.

Inflation and our Merriman Bond Portfolio
User Rating: / 36
Written by Larry Katz, CFA   
June 16, 2010

Here’s an article we recently mailed to our Merriman clients, addressing some inflation questions that we felt our FundAdvice readers may also be interested in:

Some investors are concerned about the prospect of future inflation, based on fiscal and monetary measures the U.S. government has taken to respond to the recent market crisis. However, other metrics suggest that moderate inflation will continue. These include current inflation, bond market indicators and worldwide excess capacity.

What we're telling our clients these days
User Rating: / 36
Written by FundAdvice.com Editors   
June 03, 2010

Here’s an article we recently mailed to our clients, addressing some of the topics that might also be on your mind:

Roth IRAs: To convert or not to convert
User Rating: / 92
Written by Phuc Dang, CFP®, CPA   
January 04, 2010
As a financial advisor and CPA, I often receive tax questions from my clients.  One that has been coming up a lot in the past year is: “Should I convert my non-Roth retirement plan (401(k), traditional IRA, 403(b) or 457(b)) to a Roth IRA?”  The question isn’t surprising, given the new rules that took effect January 1 for Roth IRA conversions.

The short answer, which should not surprise you, is: “It depends.” 

The bumpy road to recovery
User Rating: / 41
Written by Paul Merriman   
December 08, 2009
Investors are always very interested in the returns they get on their portfolios. But as Will Rogers famously remarked, the return OF his money was more important to him than the return ON his money.

Millions of investors may be feeling the same way these days, waiting for their portfolios to return in value to their high point, which for most people occurred in the fall of 2007. How fast a portfolio bounces back from adversity is an important measure of the risk of that portfolio.

<< Start < Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>