Author Archives: David John Marotta

This 2015 article has five rules for safely handling your digital security which you can’t afford not to implement.

Some performance is cause for concern. Other times, you need not worry. Here are 5 times you should not worry and 4 cases when you should.

The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement is a suggestion that you should have the goal of achieving financial independence and retiring while you are young.

In 2003, David stopped to rescue a snapping turtle from 250 West. Now, in 2019, the financial planning lessons from that turtle are still sage advice.

It is hard to prioritize saving, but it pays off. Here is how.

Cross-Selling is when a financial institution incentivizes their employees to sell or recommend financial products and services that increase the financial institution’s profits. The practice is as commonplace as it is fraught with conflicts of interest.

“Has the focus on expense ratios caused the public to lose focus of more critical financial measures, such as performance?” Actually, expense ratios and 12b-1 fees should get even more attention than they are getting. Here’s why.

This 2006 article teaches you how to use a net worth statement is to measure your progress toward retirement and, as David Marotta writes, “What gets measured is more likely to be accomplished.”

It is common for investors to be surprised by movements in their portfolios, but it is harder to determine if these movements mean that anything should be done.

Evaluate the source. Question the melodrama. Examine the tone. Consider the motive. Check the facts.

On Tuesday, April 9, 2018, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show to discuss how to achieve success and significance in retirement by both adequately savings for retirement and finding fulfillment during that period of your life.

Without taxes, you could leave work at 2:41pm every day.

SEC announced that 79 investment adviser firms will return more than $125 million to clients after self-reporting violations of the Advisers Act.

The expense ratio charged by your funds matters more than you may realize.

Disclosures are always necessary but rarely sufficient to fulfill fiduciary obligations.

If your employer offers a 457 plan, consider taking advantage of the ability to shelter more money each year from taxes in a Roth account.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show to discuss how to do your own tax review.

The real return of the stock market going forward is often debated.

The Marotta Investment Committee typically builds portfolios with average expense ratios of about 0.24%.

If you own these fund families with your Ameriprise Advisor, perhaps you should consider switching to a fee-only financial advisor.

These market returns panicked some investors. However, those emotions are unhelpful. Long term investing erases all this short term volatility. It is always a good time to have a balanced portfolio.

There is always an excuse to delay doing something that involves risk. They close the show reminding you not to wait. Invest now.

This whimsical 2004 post uses the hypothetical family business of Belle and the Beast to teach a valuable lesson about passing on the family business to the next generation.

Neither the dire pessimism at the start of the Bull Market of the 1990s nor the blind optimism at the end were warranted.

The average worker will have a dozen employers and work at each job for less than four years. Your career is now your responsibility, and so is your retirement plan. Allow this 2010 article to be your lifetime Human Resources Department guide to being financially prepared.

Portfolio construction is extremely important to achieving your long-term goals. Don’t risk those goals by assuming that individual stock-picking is a superior strategy.

Even though is often the worst choice, most people take Social Security as early as possible, at age 62. This decision reduces lifetime benefits by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Knowing that rebalancing boosts returns is useless unless you have the time, discipline, and nerve to follow through and actually execute the trades.

Maybe if we say it enough, it will actually get done. “The correct rate for the capital gains tax is zero, zip, nada. Perhaps it is even negative!”

This 2004 article contains the five steps you should take to navigate how to make your business venture more than just a dream.

“Buy on the dips” is a good strategy only because of the first word.

We recommend that you fund your Health Savings Account (HSA) to the maximum limit each year and that you keep funding it to the maximum as long as you can no matter how much money you have in the account.

This 2008 article reminds us that anyone who spends more than 4% of their rebate will actually lose ground saving toward their retirement.

A gone fishing portfolio is a portfolio of just a few stocks which should weather the ups and downs of the market fairly well while only rebalancing twice a year.

This gone fishing portfolio is our default portfolio which can be used at any custodian.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at Vanguard.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at Charles Schwab.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at Fidelity.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at eTrade.

We recommend this gone fishing portfolio for accounts hosted at TD Ameritrade.

Gil Weinriech, Senior Editor for Seeking Alpha, wrote recently about investors whose personalities tempt them to stay on the sidelines of investing at times.

Although the NPR commentators suggest that the corporate heart is growing fonder of government, feeling wistful, and longing for government bureaucracy, nothing could be further from the truth.

Market corrections are so common as to be largely ignored by long term investors.

Schwab’s presentation is designed to show a real time accounting of your portfolio’s value. It is not designed to report on your portfolio’s performance.

On Tuesday, January 8, 2019, David John Marotta appeared on Radio 1070 WINA’s Schilling Show to discuss financial resolutions for the 2019 new year.

Regardless of your assumptions about future market returns, the impoverishment to families with credit card debt is massive.

“We have simply not been able to serve those who really need us the most.”

To make the strategy of jumping in and out of the markets successful would require a precision only achieved by luck.

For all of these reasons, our recommended investment strategy does not focus on dividend-paying stocks.

Brokers tell investors they’re trusted advisors, and then tell the courts they’re just sales people.