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Retirement Planning

The Obama Impact on Your Money

5 Actions You Should Take to Secure Your Financial Future Are you concerned about the future of your money? Today, retiring people have a growing worry that they may “outlive their money” thanks to the new Government policies bringing massive change so quickly. Most people agree such high levels of spending, borrowing and new taxes will [...]

The Worst of all Possible Worlds

The literati out there will likely remember the famous refrain, “The best of all possible worlds,” from Voltaire’s master work, Candide. In the novel, Voltaire set out to expose what he considered a fallacious line of thinking proffered by the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. According to Leibniz, because God is both good and [...]

Don’t Let Your Retirement Be Funded by a Ponzi Scheme

The just-released 2009 Social Security Trustees Report shows that the recent economic woes have had a big negative impact on the Social Security budget. The report projects that by 2016 Social Security spending will exceed the revenue it receives each year from all of us. But just how bad is the situation? Social Security is a [...]

Beware of Deflation

Many of my Fabian Wealth Strategies clients have expressed a big fear about the threat posed to their financial well-being from inflation. This justifiable fear has been engendered by the huge expansion of the federal budget, and the huge increase in government spending. This governmental intervention in the economy was ostensibly done to [...]

Pay Up, Sucker!

Today is tax day, a dreary day for most Americans—especially if you have the skills, ability and fortitude to earn a substantial amount of money each year. Yes, this is the day the government says, in essence, pay up, sucker! Now you’ve probably heard about the many tax “tea parties” being held today throughout our [...]

A Simple Solution for Today’s Volatile Markets

Today’s stock market beast is not the same animal it was a decade ago. In fact, the pace of change has been relentless in recent years, and even the most conscientious individual investor has had a tough time keeping up with the all of the financial market upheaval. If you’re managing your own money, are you [...]

Perseverance, Toughness and Smart Fiscal Decision Making

Just because we don’t know what the market’s future will bring doesn’t mean we can’t make a few proclamations about the nature of markets, and the operation of market psychology. First, whenever you get big sell offs like we’ve seen so far in 2009, and for that matter since Nov. 2008, a buying opportunity—even if only [...]

Mutual funds are hazardous to your wealth

Mutual funds control the majority of Americans’ retirement assets through 401(k)s, IRAs and annuities. Sadly, a gullible public has bought into the idea that steady investments in mutual funds, regardless of market conditions, is the way to make their financial dreams come true. This is one of the biggest fallacies of investing, and why mutual funds [...]

20 Questions to Ask Your Advisor

According to the SEC’s Office of Investor Education published statistics, over 50% of investors seek the advice of some type of advisor when making financial decisions. If you have an advisor managing your money after a volatile year of losses in 2008… how do you know you have the right advisor? It may never be more [...]

Investment Themes for 2009

It’s time to start looking at the roadmap. The roadmap I am speaking of here is the financial roadmap for 2009. Unlike planning a road trip, knowing where you are going to turn before you start doesn’t apply to investing. Nobody can predict all of the twists, turns, and forks in the [...]

Embrace the Forgotten Asset Class

Now that the election is in the books, Wall Street can refocus on corporate America’s books. Unfortunately, those books aren’t going to be an uplifting read. All of the major economic metrics will likely be much lower in the fourth quarter, and that’s following an already dismal third quarter. The unemployment rate will likely [...]

When Life Insurance Becomes Wealth Insurance

How you can use your policy to help generate cash in a tough market. By Kevin Yurkus, President, Fairway Capital It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world on Wall Street these days, and unless you’ve been buried under a veritable avalanche of rock for the last several months, you’re undoubtedly painfully aware of just how much damage [...]

Listen To My Latest Seminar

You already know we’re in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. We’re living through a financial hurricane. I know many of you are feeling extremely anxious about your investments, your income streams and your financial future. That’s why I have posted my latest free seminar to download entitled: The Election, [...]

A Gun To The Head

As much as I hate to tell you this, I think at this point Congress is going to have to approve this $700 billion dollar bailout proposal lest we face a virtual crash in our financial markets. All of this talk about the next “Great Depression,” if we don’t act right now, likely will have a [...]

The Seven Mistakes of Estate Planning

In this election year we are going to hear a lot about tax cuts and tax hikes, but I believe there is a much bigger story being missed by the financial media. This bigger story is the likelihood that estate taxes are going to go up no matter who wins the White House. Sen. Obama [...]

Five Common Estate Planning Mistakes

by Kevin Yurkus, President, Fairway Capital You may not consider yourself to be rich, but if you have an estate in excess of $2 million, you certainly need an estate plan. Here are five common mistakes that are made in relation to estate plans, along with simple solutions to avoid them. Mistake #1: Not [...]

Principles for Financial Success in Uncertain Times

One of my favorite things to do is speak at corporate events. I love interacting with the crowd, answering questions and meeting new people. The subject of my next corporate speaking event is how to “get real” with your finances now, before you find yourself in dire straits. The title of my talk is, [...]

A Case of Contrasting Ideas

If you’re like me, you love reading all kinds of opinions about where things are headed. I recently read two articles that I thought really showed just how diverse the range of opinion is amongst the experts. In the bullish camp was famed Wall Street giant, former Morgan Stanley global chief investment strategist and now hedge [...]

‘Paid-Up’ Life Insurance — Is It Really A Good Deal?

By Kevin Yurkus — President, Fairway Capital You think you have a great deal with your “paid-up” life insurance? Well, guess again. What you don’t realize is that you’ve created a “dead asset” (no pun intended) that will not likely grow to keep pace with inflation or your changing estate planning needs. What [...]

Personal Finance Advice for Uncertain Times

Some pundits are saying that we are in a recession; others call it a mere economic slowdown. The answer in my opinion is what difference does this technical distinction make to you? The one thing everyone agrees on, bull or bear, is that we’re living in uncertain times. As a result, it is of utmost importance [...]

Short Term Desires Can Hinder Long Term Financial Goals

I came across an interesting story on one of my favorite websites, Minyanville, about how the debt crisis in this country has manifested itself in our culture.  I live in Newport Beach and continually see people spending money they don’t have to be someone who they are not.  In other words, they are sacrificing their [...]

Are you Getting the Love from your Financial Institution?

Michael Fabian, Director of Client Services at Fabian Wealth Strategies, recently spotted an article on Yahoo Finance! about the explosion of wealth in the U.S. and how households with a net worth of between $1 - $25 million are becoming increasingly common. The real story here is that these wealthy individuals are not getting the [...]

This Is Not Your Father’s Bear Market

“How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service!” —Charles Darwin One of the greatest scientists of all time, Charles Darwin, was a stickler for cataloging observation. But more than that, he put that observation into the service [...]

Hope For The Best, Prepare For The Worst

I know this won’t come as much of a surprise to some readers, but the media has once again missed the boat. This past Sunday the Los Angeles Times ran a cover story in the business section about buying a used car. What? Nowhere in the entire business section was there any article on the troubles in [...]

Risk Management Mode

You’ve probably heard a lot about “risk management” lately in the financial media. Many pundits are saying that the Federal Reserve is in risk management mode, meaning that they think the central bank is very concerned that we could see a system shock that disrupts consumer confidence and throws the economy into recession. Traditionally, the Fed [...]

Managing Your Financial Assets in 2008

Doug Fabian recently presented his views on the financial markets for 2008 in Southern California. How to navigate an uncertain economic environment in the face of a real estate bear market, a slowing economy, a falling U.S. dollar and global competition. The audio recordings and Powerpoint presentations are now available!

Prolonging the Agony

It’s now official. The Federal Reserve just slashed interest rates again — this time by 50 basis points. Combine today’s rate cut with last week’s surprise, 75-basis-point cut and you have the fastest decline in interest rates in years. The federal funds rate, an overnight bank lending rate that affects how much interest consumers pay on [...]

5 Mistakes High Net Worth Investors Make

Do You Know The 5 Common Estate Planning Mistakes that Rich People Make? Although you may not consider yourself to be rich, if you have an estate in excess of $2 million, you certainly need an estate plan. Here are five common mistakes many investors make with their estate plans: Mistake #1: Not having an estate [...]