Frequently Asked Questions
April 23rd, 2006 by 
independence
- Your Model Portfolios is not classified by return and risk - aggressive growth, moderate risk income. How do I manage my money with the portfolio information you provide?You don’t. I take a high level of risk because I tend to swing for the fence. But I’m not taking risks I can’t afford. The classifications like “aggressive growth” refer to conventional mutual funds, which compare their performance to an index or “benchmark”, such as the S&P 500. They then feel that they are successful if they match or beat the return of that benchmark, regardless of whether it meets your goals, or is even positive. Also, they do not help with asset allocation - how much of my money should I have in which type of asset.
We are not satisfied with this “relative” return philospophy. Our goal is absolute return - making money for our retirement. This means we have to deal with both asset allocation and the issues of both up and down markets. This is more like a hedge fund.
- I’m a very conservative person and I don’t want a second job managing my money. I’d like to put my money someplace safe, like bonds and just leave it there. Is there any problem with that?Yes, there is a problem with hoping money will grow on trees. Where ever your money is now, it is likely earning more money for someone else than it is for you! To make your money work for you, you need to take an active role in managing your retirement investments. We provide the information and analysis for you to make informed decisions about portfolio activity. We even tell you what we are doing with our own money as a real life example of how to apply the information.
- I don’t know much about money management, but I don’t want to pay someone else to manage it for me. What is a low cost, easy to manage strategy for me to manage about $800,000?The amount of time that you put into managing your retirement investments does not have to be the equivalent of a full time job, but it should be regular. Think of it as paying yourself. How else can you earn money in the comfort of your own home? If you track the hours you spend and compare the returns from actively managing your retirement investments against some fixed standard that represents your current “buy and hold” strategy, you can calcualte your “pay” for this work.
- There are a lot of financial terms and concepts that I don’t understand. Do I have to learn all that before I get started?Fortunately, there are lots of great tutorials and reference sites on the web. We have selected some that complement the discussions throughout the web site. We advocate “just-in-time” learning. As a new subject comes up, spend some time reviewing the supporting information provided in the Learn more… section. You can also find information on the web using the topic as keywords for Google or Yahoo! searchs.
We suggest that you read the information and follow along for a while. Make notes. Practice keeping records of portfolio changes and how you would use the information for your own retirement investments. When you are familiar with the process and the terminology, you can decide when and how to utilize the information.
- Any suggestions for getting started?We like the idea of “core and explore” - commit a small percentage of your total investments (2-10% of your resources) to exploration. This will allow you to determine how a new stategy, asset class or investment will fit into your portfolio with your needs and risk tolerance.
- Do you make any money from this ?Not at this point. We initially thought that this would be a subscription service, but on mature consideration decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble in that it would be a whole higher level of commitment in terms of resources. We are describing our own retirement investment management - what we do and why we do it. We are not money managers or financial planners. We do not get paid for financial services or offer products for sale. We don’t accept any advertising. We don’t even get associate payments for books we recommend. It won’t make us rich but that’s ok. We are adequately compensated by our own retirement investment management.
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