Author Archives: David John Marotta

French labor laws have made doing business in France with French employees very unattractive.

To meet your goals you don’t need to beat the investment returns of everyone else. Instead, you want a decent return in order to retire comfortably and to ensure a cash flow which will support your standard of living.

Although the French gave us the word ‘entrepreneur,’ it’s a wonder the term isn’t obsolete in French.

Between 40 and 60 you should increase your net worth by half your annual take home pay every year.

2005 was a year which showed the weakness of limiting your asset allocation to US stocks and US bonds.

Do whatever it takes. Ask your mother-in-law to hold your credit cards while you are getting out of debt.

Like the iron rods in sailing ships, bonds keep your portfolio upright in stormy weather.

Credit bureaus charge to see your credit score. Save your money.

Beware of bogus credit companies claiming to offer free credit reports in order to gather your personal information.

Every six years you delay saving and investing you cut in half the lifestyle you will have in retirement.

Market timing is the attempt to switch a significant portion of your assets between different types of investments in an effort to maximize profits. If this is your investment strategy, good luck, because you’ll need it.

At first glance, this story fills us with pity for the Cratchit family, always struggling to make ends meet. But is that the true story?

While it’s hard to muster pity for diminished drug company profits, negligible earnings jeopardized production and supply.

Poor families with children will subsidize millionaire seniors.

Even if you don’t need coverage you can avoid future penalties for as little as $1.87 per month.

Don’t borrow or withdraw money from your IRA.

Prepaid programs are not safe. They just assume a different type of risk.

If you are one of the 92% with children under the age of 18 who haven’t started a 529 plan, we encourage you to meet with a fee-only financial advisor soon. You can never start too early, and it’s never too late to do something.

In the past three years Joshua’s account has grown a whopping 76.6% averaging 22.5% per year.

If you are not saving for college you are falling behind.

Education matters. He who doesn’t teach his son a trade teaches him to steal.

Probably the most important question you can ask of anyone offering you financial advice is, “Do you have a legal obligation to act in my best interests?”

There are many things riskier than volatility.

Reunification of the country has put a drag on economic growth.

The value of salt in ancient time was enormous.

Hayek wrote, “More harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil.”

Italy reminds us that governmental solutions can be worse than private sector problems.

Hard work can’t always overcome Italian bureaucracy.

During 2002-2004, iShares of the ten economically freest countries outperformed the index by 5.43% each year.

You can smooth your returns without any of hedge fund’s drawbacks.

Wanting to avoid regulations, Hedge funds appeal to investor’s snobbery to make it seem like a privilege.

You take all the risk, but the manager gets twenty percent of any winnings. This is not a good compensation scheme.

Hedge claims are equivalent to “All of the coins I want to tell you about came up heads.”

As Hedge funds grow in popularity, beware of following the lemmings.

Good portfolios have low expense ratios and minimal trading costs.

Currently, stockbrokers can offer the same services as Fee-Only financial planners without being accountable to the same fiduciary standards. This exemption to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 has been called the “Merrill Lynch rule.”

We are gradually becoming our grandparents.

Marketing promises and good friends often cloud the facts.

Many people are afraid of having their retirement progress assessed.

Decreasing your standard of living is the quickest path toward retirement.

“You’re fired!” can be an opportunity to work for yourself. But the best two words you might hear are yourself saying, “I quit.” Working for yourself is risky and frightening, but the financial freedom and opportunities you gain are significant.

“April is the month,” one wit noted, “when the green returns to the lawn, the trees and the Internal Revenue Service.”

Two hours and twenty minutes of every eight hour day go to pay taxes. Three minutes go toward personal savings.

On your way to becoming a billionaire, the million markers become commonplace.

Spending less money isn’t an end it itself. Directing your spending to what you truly value is what is important.

Keeping control of your finances means that you can have more fun with your money.

“Do I really want to spend my money in this way?”

Baring a real people’s revolution, it will take until 2050 for China to complete their slow march to free markets.

It is a tragic irony that the goals of collectivism are best achieved by respecting individual liberties.

The incentives that produce wealth also produce inequity. Valuing equality above all else destroys the real wealth they are trying to redistribute.