Mullooly Asset Management

Roth Conversion Questions: Strategies, Rules, and Planning Insights

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0400

Ready to demystify Roth conversions? Join us as we untangle the intricate webs of Roth and traditional IRAs, their tax implications, and the key reasons behind the strategic switch. We promise to offer you a clear understanding of the potential benefits and drawbacks, and help you navigate your individual financial situation. It's a journey of discovery that will empower you to make informed decisions about your retirement planning.

Strap in as we dive into the nitty-gritty of Roth IRA withdrawal rules, the infamous five-year rule, special purposes, and the tax implications. The trickier the terrain, the more you'll appreciate why financial advisors are essential in these scenarios. From simulating different scenarios to discussing staged conversions, this episode is packed with practical insights and strategies. Listen in, learn, and get ready to elevate your financial planning game.

Navigating Retirement: From Saving to Spending with Confidence

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 13:00:00 -0400

Does the thought of switching from being a diligent saver to a spender during retirement unsettle you? We understand this and are here to help you navigate this shift with ease and confidence. In our engaging conversation with Tom, we delve into the psychological aspect of retirement spending and the fear that comes with the possibility of outliving your savings. We analyze how the financial tide turns for retirees, making them withdraw from their investments instead of adding to them. We also explore annuities, their benefits, and drawbacks, and whether they can act as a safety net against running out of money in your twilight years.

Ever heard of the 4% rule for retirement spending? It's a popular guideline, but we're going to dissect it for you. We discuss the realities of changing spending patterns as we age and the unexpected tax implications of short-term investments. Drawing upon a comprehensive Fidelity study and a gripping Washington Post article, we aim to paint a realistic picture of retirement spending. Our goal is to equip you with practical advice to help you transition smoothly from saving to spending during your golden years. Don't miss this insightful episode!

Annuities Unwrapped: The Pros and Cons of Investing

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:00:00 -0400

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the world of investments, specifically annuities? You're about to witness a clear, concise breakdown of the complex web of annuities and gain an understanding that could be transformative for your financial future. This episode is packed with insights into the four primary types of annuities - immediate, deferred, fixed deferred, and variable deferred, carefully exploring their role as alternatives to mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. We delve into the significance of proper communication in the annuity industry, and we'll investigate the implications of deferring earnings in a deferred annuity and how it could potentially bite back when withdrawn.

You can't afford to miss this episode, especially when we embark on the crucial aspect of investing - understanding the pros and cons. Drawing from my 16 years of experience as a broker, I recount tales of investors who've faced unpleasant surprises due to a lack of knowledge about their investments - things like surrender charges, limited investment options, and large tax bills. We're here to equip you with the information you need to make the best decisions for your financial future. We also scrutinize the 60-40 portfolios and the 4% rule, in the light of a recent industry article that seems to challenge these traditional investment strategies. Whether you're a seasoned investor or a novice, this episode promises a wealth of knowledge. Grab a pen and paper, you'll want to take notes.

Impact of the TD Ameritrade-Schwab Merger: Compliance and Custody

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 11:00:00 -0400

The first thing that's often declared when a merger occurs is "Nothing will change!" In our experience, nearly everything will (eventually) change!

Ever wonder how big mergers in the financial world can affect you? Buckle up, because we're about to explore the recent TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab merger, and how it impacts compliance and custody. We shed light on the transition process, the correspondence Schwab sent to its clients, and the enhanced experience the new platform promises to deliver.

Plus, we're not just stopping at Schwab; we also introduce you to other giants of the investment advisor space like Fidelity, Pershing, Bank of New York Mellon, and LPL Financial. The introduction of "I-Rebal" trading capabilities is set to streamline operations, but what does that mean for you?

This isn't just about mergers, we're also going to take you behind the scenes of how we select a custodian for our clients. We'll unpack our rigorous due diligence process, where factors like reputation, financial strength, service quality, and the range of investment products are assessed. Furthermore, we'll give you an insight into our transparent compensation structure, where our only form of payment comes from client fees. Not a penny more. So, join us as we decode the impact of the TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab merger on compliance and custody, while offering a glimpse into our world of investment custodians. Trust us, you don't want to miss this!

Rise in SEC Fines & the Importance of Archiving Communications

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 11 Aug 2023 13:00:00 -0400

How safe are your communications in the financial services industry? Hold your breath as we take you through the labyrinth of communication within financial firms, spotlighting the indispensable need for documenting and archiving every single exchange. We don't stop there, we delve into the significance of disclaimers and disclosures, and discuss how the digital revolution has amplified the need for an easily searchable electronic trail and stringent compliance teams.

Get ready to be intrigued as we unravel the astounding rise in SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) fines for slip-ups in messaging practices. We dissect real-life cases of financial firms that suffered penalties for non-compliance, and we shed light on how aged regulations have been contemporized to mirror today's industry landscape. We wrap up the episode with an insightful discourse on how the SEC ensures adherence to standards and the various penalties it imposes for improper messaging practices. Whether you're a novice or a seasoned pro in the financial services industry, this episode serves up a wealth of knowledge on compliance and safe communication practices.

Behind the Battle: Leukemia Fighter to CFP®

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 12:00:00 -0400

Strap in for a riveting tale of resilience and triumph as my son, Casey, defies the odds. Not only has Casey been battling leukemia with an unshakeable fortitude, but he's also been laser-focused on his studies to become a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). The cherry on top? His leukemia is now undetectable, and we couldn't be happier to share this wonderful news. But our conversation doesn't stop there. We also navigate through the labyrinth that is the CFP exam, dissecting the relevance of its six key areas. We shine a spotlight on the practical application of tax planning and underscore why working with a CFP is beneficial.

In the second half of our conversation, we unpack the essence of trust in the advisor-client relationship. Why should you trust a CFP? How does that certification build credibility?

As we delve into these questions, we emphasize that out of approximately 1 million people in the industry, only 91,000 hold the coveted CFP designation in the US.

Tom and Casey share insights into why this certification is a beacon of trust for clients and how it forms the bedrock for a plan that clients can stick to.

So come, join us as we traverse this journey of victory, education, and trust.

Should We Fear Volatility and the Power of Patience, #447

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 13:00:00 -0400

Ever felt your heart flutter at the mere mention of market volatility? We're here to change that! We'll debunk the common myths surrounding volatility, and reveal why it isn't the beast it's often made out to be.

We will take you on a thrilling ride through the peaks and valleys of the stock market, centering on the often misunderstood VIX index. We'll show you how it's not just a "fear gauge" but a weather vane signaling when the storm might be about to pass.

Switching lanes, we'll explore the varying return rates of cash, bonds, and stocks, demonstrating why a long-range perspective is vital when playing the investment game. We'll spotlight the Fed's endeavor to whittle inflation down to 2%, and the potential hiccups that might come along.

More importantly, we'll emphasize why patience is key in the market, and how it can turn into your greatest asset. Whether you're an investment veteran or a rookie, this episode promises a wealth of insights to shape your investment strategy. So, strap in, and let's take this ride together!

40 Years later...

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 30 Jun 2023 11:00:00 -0400

Ever wondered how the intricate world of financial planning truly operates?

Tom shares some insight into this world, as a financial planner who's been in the trenches for four decades.

In this episode, we journey through my 40-year career in financial planning. From my beginnings as a young college graduate (age 20!) through my start with EF Hutton, where I gained in-depth knowledge in investments, taxes, insurance, pensions, and more.

The art of financial planning is delicate and often misunderstood. That's why Tom sheds light on the importance of tailoring a financial plan to each client's specific needs instead of opting for a one-size-fits-all approach.

Tom shares why your financial plan can become fragile -- as we move further into the future. And how making projections beyond three to seven years can be counterproductive.

Tom reveals how keeping expenses low and remaining focused on the big picture can yield more significant financial success. Along the way, Tom also recommends a captivating podcast, The Founders, which provides fascinating insights into the lives of business owners and entrepreneurs.

Tom also shares a personal story about a Navy buddy, demonstrating the impact of disciplined saving and making small deposits over time. Tom discusses the importance of staying invested in the stock market, despite its volatile nature. And how this has paid off - for so many - over the past 40 years.

An advisor's role in helping clients avoid major mistakes and stay focused on their financial goals is also emphasized. This episode is packed with financial wisdom derived from decades in the industry. We hope it can help you on your financial journey.

Consumer Discretionary is Not What You Think!

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0400

When most folks think of "consumer discretionary" companies, the names they might think of are names you "could live without." And if we entered into an economic slowdown, you might "pass" on shopping with some of these companies.

But when look under the hood, what the market considers to be consumer discretionary stocks might surprise you!

As we begin the podcast episode, we start with a question. Could 6-7% mortgage rates become the new normal? And what kind of impact could higher mortgage costs have on how consumers choose to spend their money, and the impact on consumer discretionary areas of the economy.

Join Tim and Tom as we explore this intriguing possibility in our discussion on the current state of mortgage rates, based on an insightful article by Bill McBride. We examine how Bill has become the yardstick for what's going on in the real estate industry and how his headlines have evolved over the years.

Additionally, we compare the current situation to what happened in 1994 and the idea that history often rhymes, sharing our thoughts on the potential for refinancing mortgages in the future and how it depends on the economy.

In the second half of our episode, we dive into the world of stock forecasting and market sectors, taking a close look at consumer discretionary stocks and how they are affected by changes in mortgage rates. Using examples of consumer discretionary companies like Tiffany's and American Express, we discuss how people might make cutbacks in their spending if their mortgage payments increased. We also explore the top 10 positions in the Vanguard, iShares, and SPDR Consumer Discretionary ETFs, to help you better understand what Mr. Market considers discretionary. Don't miss this informative and engaging episode!

Late Boomers: Least Prepared for Retirement

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 14:00:00 -0400

Late Boomers (1956-1964) appear to be the LEAST prepared for retirement.
Why is that?

In podcast episode #445, Tim and Tom break down SOME of the reasons why late boomers might be poorly-prepared for retirement, compared to other generations.

The guys however (first) discuss down-and-sideways markets, like we have seen over the past eighteen months (January 2022-May 2023). They reference an article written by (friend of the podcast) Nick Maggiulli of Ritholtz Wealth and go on to discuss why sideways markets are often great opportunities, in disguise.

Tim and Tom move onto an article found in Markewtwatch discussing why "Late Boomers" may be ill-prepared for retirement.

Not mentioned in the episode is how this generation is facing two explosions: the exponentially rising costs of caring for their parents and the ever-escalating cost of college for their own children.

Correction: Tom also mentioned the tax act in 1986 as "TEFRA" when it was the Tax Reform Act (TRA).

Time Stamps:
01:08 - What happened over the past 18 months
02:00 - Down, then sideways markets = bullish?
04:15 - Digestion periods
05:30 - "Your patience will be rewarded"
08:25 - Do you "change the channel?"
11:05 - "Late Boomers"
14:07 - Defined benefit plans vs. defined contribution plans
15:15 - First generation with a 401k through their entire working career
17:00 - "Retirement" often comes before "I'll get to save for retirement someday"
18:45 - Tax Reform Act (TRA) of 1986 (note: NOT TEFRA!)
21:40 - One impact of the "great" recession

Financial Planning Software Tools

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 25 May 2023 11:00:00 -0400

Financial Planning Software Tools Used by Our Advisors

What are the financial planning tools used by the advisors at Mullooly Asset Management? As we discuss in episode #444 of the podcast, there are several widely-used financial planning software tools used by the largest firms in the industry.
So you may be surprised - we swipe a little from ALL of them!

Over time, we have found that there is no one perfect software tool. So we have constructed our own, and kept it flexible. This way, we can tweak it as needed, to customize a solution for your situation.

We have also learned that relying heavily on one software almost keeps us married to their modeling. And when their models change - your plan can break! Or things simply will not work. We would prefer not to be beholden to one (or even two) hard-wired financial planning software tools.

Listen in for 28 minutes about the financial planning tools used by us!

Time Stamps for "Financial Planning Tools Used by Our Advisors"

1:10 - Wide proliferation / wide adoption of similar financial planning software tools
2:55 - Gauging compounded inflation rates
4:29 - A relevant question from the CFP exam!
7:12 - Pro's / Con's of wide adoption of financial planning software tools
12:11 - How we treat projections, and "plan" (the noun) vs "planning" (the verb)
14:45 - Recent financial planning software developments, and some industry backlash
16:50 - Planning software can often be internally hard-wired & more "one size fits all"
17:45 - Sometimes advisors need to "trick the software" to get the desired options.
20:30 - How "data accuracy" is crucial to developing plans
23:29 - Gaining "awareness" through the plan process, better planning for "the gaps"

Focus on 10 Things You Can Control

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 16 May 2023 14:00:00 -0400

Focus on these 10 things you can control about Investing

In this podcast (episode #443), Tim and Tom run through an excellent list compiled by a fellow planner, Max Pashman, CFP® which separates things you can't control versus ten things you can control. It's one thing to think you have all the answers when it comes to financial planning and investing. It can be very frustrating at times - it seems like nothing seems in your power to control with investing. And, are you happy - and at peace with how you go about investing?

Where is your focus?

Even WE get hung up from time to time stressing over topics clearly out of our control. And we're in the business! It is not worth your time or worry to focus on things you have absolutely no way of changing! We field LOTS of calls from folks who get hung up worrying about topics like the debt ceiling, tax law changes, which political party is in control, how to stop rising prices. These things are out of our hands. Let's focus our energy on things we can control.

Again, many thanks to our friend Max Pashman, CFP of Los Angeles, CA for the great inspiration. You can follow Max on Twitter: https://twitter.com/maxpashman

Timestamps for "Focus on 10 Things Can Control" Episode #443

1:18 - Rates of return
3:53 - Tax Laws
6:00 - Interest rates
9:49 - Asset Risk
12:28 - Emergencies
13:39 - College Prices
17:27 - Social Security
20:39 - Inflation
23:59 - Death

Thanks for listening to this episode! You can catch all of the Mullooly Asset podcast episodes here.

"My Home Was The Best Investment I Ever Made"

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 11 May 2023 16:00:00 -0400

"My Home Was The Best Investment I Ever Made"

Episode 442 of the Mullooly Asset podcast starts with: We've lost count of the times we have heard "my home was the best investment I ever made."
But is it really?

It might be because your home may be the ONLY investment you have held for thirty years. When you go through the math, as Tim and Tom do in episode 342, you learn that people often overlook the cost of affording the home (mortgage costs - especially compound interest!), property taxes, the maintenance, any improvements. You get the idea.

And while you cannot "sleep in your S&P 500 index fund," you also have very little in terms of additional costs in investments like exchange-traded funds once the initial investment is made.

In episode 442, Tom and Tim also talk about the projected 2024 increase in the cost-of-living adjustment for social security recipients.
Here's a hint: it's *projected* to be way less than 2023!

13 Questions About Social Security

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 04 May 2023 17:00:00 -0400

We cover 13 Questions about Social Security

And we have learned you may not know the answers! On a survey shared with 55 to 65 year old folks, 69% of respondents either failed the test - or barely passed!

Since Social Security often becomes a sizable chunk of income in retirement, it's somewhat astonishing that folks in this age group - approaching retirement -- are not up-to-speed on these 13 questions about social security.

Get with your financial planner if you struggled with these topics or questions!
Listen in for 25 minutes of putting your questions about social security to bed!

Time Stamps for "13 Questions About Social Security"

5:37 - Question 1 - taking social security early
6:45 - Question 2 - are my benefits reduced if I continue working?
9:16 - Question 3 - what about my spouse?
11:45 - Question 4 - same-sex marriage benefits?
12:15 - Question 5 - spousal death benefits?
13:38 - Question 6 - my specific social security account?
14:45 - Question 7 - what if I have young children?
15:58 - Question 8- what if I am divorced?
16:48 - Question 9 - Reduce social security by 20%?
19:06 - Question 10 - full retirement age is?
19:37 - Question 11 - what if I delay past age 70?
20:22 - Question 12 - taxes on Social Security?
22:16 - Question 13 - Citizenship and social security?

Links for "13 Questions About Social Security"
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/02/69percent-of-people-either-failed-or-barely-passed-this-social-security-quiz.html

You are the Economy (well, 71%)

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 12:27:30 -0400

You Are The Economy 71% of the US Economy is you – the consumer. Did you know that? And the US consumer has provided a backbone to this economy stronger than anyone has ever predicted. We sure DO know how to spend money! Never forget, you ARE the economy! In Episode #440 of the Mullooly […]

Is a 60 40 portfolio still good?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 11:13:51 -0400

Is a 60 40 portfolio still good? This question has been coming up frequently. All throughout 2022, people were told by the financial media that the old 60/40 approach to investing was dead. Is it dead – or did it simply have a a bad year? After all, this is historically how many large pension […]

Must-Knows About Retirement Spending

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 13:32:36 -0400

Must-knows About Retirement Spending Here’s something different – what are the must-knows about retirement spending? Spending? Don’t we mean saving? While our industry in general spends an enormous amount of time preaching about saving for retirement, little ink gets spilled discussing the must-knows of retirement spending. Why is that? Part of the answer stems […]

Where Are You Going On A Trip This Year?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:05:02 -0400

Where Are You Going On A Trip This Year? When we are mentally pulling together a budget in our heads, it is easy to add up mortgage, insurance, groceries, gas money, etc. But when you are trying to gauge your cash flow, do you think about where you are going on a trip this year? […]

Stop Making Sense of Markets!

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 16:13:59 -0400

Trying to make sense from markets, and the news, will make you crazy. In Podcast Episode 436, “Stop Making Sense of Markets,” Casey and Tom refer to the old stock market adage, “buy the rumor, sell the news;” and what to do when the news doesn’t add up to what the market is doing. We […]

FDIC Coverage Limits, Episode 435

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 13:20:42 -0400

FDIC Coverage Limits are a significant part of the discussion Casey & Tom have in Episode 435 of the Podcast. We also discuss what happens if you have more than $250,000 in the bank? While the wreckage from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is still being parsed out, more questions are beginning to bubble […]

What are the worst investments during inflation?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 14:09:32 -0400

What are the "worst" investments during periods of inflation? There has been a rush to create many inflation-related products on Wall Street.

What Lessons Can Investors Learn From the FTX Saga?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 14:17:55 -0500

In this week’s podcast, the guys talk about what investors can learn from following along with the latest cryptocurrency headlines. These types of stories happen every cycle but some investors never seem to learn that taking massive amounts of risk and leveraging their investments rarely leads to positive outcomes. Keeping things simple and understanding your […]

Is Getting a Late Start on Retirement Savings Okay?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 16:09:28 -0500

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Tim, Brendan and Casey discuss starting to save for retirement later in life. The guys cover what you should prioritize, how to set realistic goals and ultimately how you can squeeze a lifetime of savings into a smaller amount of time. If you find yourself getting ready to retire without […]

The Truth About Alternative Investments

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:50:49 -0400

In this week’s podcast, the guys cover alternative investments and peel back the curtain on these difficult to understand investment products. When the market is volatile, like it has been in 2022, these product sales always skyrocket. And the promise of safety allures investors into not fully understanding what it is they are putting their […]

The Stock Market Looks Forward

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 28 Oct 2022 16:23:22 -0400

In this week’s podcast, the guys discuss the most recent examples of the stock market looking ahead of the economy. Tim, Tom, Brendan and Casey discuss how the stock market performs relative to GDP, the unemployment rate and earnings. They also debate whether or not the market is “valued” appropriately in comparison to past drawdowns. […]

How Are Millionaires Feeling About Retirement?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:02:37 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Tim and Casey discuss the eye-popping results of a survey that asked millionaires how they are feeling about retirement. This leads the guys into a broader conversation about changing market dynamics, like fixed income products offering better rates, and what they are seeing underneath the hood of the stock market. […]

What to Make of the Latest Inflation Reading

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 13:55:40 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Tim, Brendan and Casey discuss the latest inflation reading and what impact it is having on the stock market. The cost of living adjustment for Social Security was also announced yesterday. The guys break down why this year’s adjustment might feel better than last year’s. The market has been watching […]

Making Sense of the Latest Move in Interest Rates

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 07 Oct 2022 13:20:37 -0400

Interest rates have an impact on just about every part of our financial lives. And when they move up as quickly as they have in 2022, it causes some major changes. In this week’s podcast, Tom, Tim, Brendan and Casey discuss the impact interest rates have on bond prices. They share some numbers to show […]

Don't Expect Investment Returns to Make up for Underfunded Goals

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 12:23:00 -0400

Whether it is pension funds, or individuals saving for retirement, the message remains the same, investment returns cannot make up for a savings shortfall. In this week’s podcast, Tom, Tim, Brendan and Casey discuss the near forced liquidation of some pension funds in the United Kingdom. They breakdown the volatile U.K. bond market and highlight […]

The Latest on the Economy, Interest Rates and the Stock Market

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 12:57:28 -0400

The state of the economy continues to make headlines here in 2022. So in this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan and Casey discuss what is actually happening in the economy. They share their thoughts on the latest moves by the Federal Reserve and breakdown what they are seeing with interest rates, stock market earnings, housing and […]

The Role of Bonds in Your Portfolio

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 13:42:22 -0400

Bonds have been having an outlier year due to rising interest rates so far here in 2022. But has it changed the overall dynamic of stocks and bonds in a portfolio? Brendan, Tim and Casey discuss why bond investors are bailing out, where bond returns come from and whether or not bonds are serving their […]

Is it Better to Invest Through Recessions or to Avoid Them?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 13:32:56 -0400

A common misconception amongst investors is that investment returns would be better if they could somehow avoid recessions. But is that actually true? In this week’s podcast, Brendan and Casey settle this debate once and for all. They share historical statistics about investing through past recessions and get in to what these numbers mean for […]

Watch What Investors Do, Not What They Say

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 11:31:53 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tim and Brendan begin by discussing how investors reacted to the Fed’s comments last week. The conversation turns into a discussion about who is actually making changes to their retirement investments this year. The guys wind up shining a light on the world of alternative investments and how they aren’t always […]

What Can I Expect My Investments to Earn?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 09:15:58 -0400

We are often asked “what can I expect my investments to earn if I work with you?”. While it is an important question, there is no easy answer. In this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan, Tim AND Casey weigh in on the best way to set investment performance expectations, the difference between average returns, and returns […]

Which is Better in Retirement: Higher $ Total or Lower Monthly Expenses?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 15:29:19 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Brendan, Tim and Casey debate whether it is better to have more money saved in your retirement accounts or lower monthly expenses. They discuss the pros/cons of each and how these factor into making big decisions in retirement like paying off a mortgage. The guys also turn the conversation towards the […]

Investing is All About Managing Your Expectations

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 16:10:42 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Brendan, Tim and Casey discuss the most recent economic headlines including this week’s inflation reading, last week’s jobs report and Q2 earnings. The guys highlight a theme that’s been apparent over the last couple of weeks… the market’s reactions are more based on expectations rather than what’s actually going on right […]

Required Minimum Distributions Will NOT Drain Your Retirement Account

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:58:58 -0400

“If my required minimum distributions are 5% of my account, does that mean my account will be empty in 20 years?” In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey debunk this common misconception by explaining the math behind required minimum distributions. While you are required to take the money out of tax deferred accounts, like a […]

Teachers Beware of High Fees in Your Retirement Account

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 12:13:58 -0400

A recent horror story came out about how over 1 million teachers have been misled about the amount of fees they’ve been paying in their retirement accounts. In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey discuss what other options teachers have and what steps they should take to ensure they are doing what’s best for their […]

The Dangers of Margin Investing

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 10:00:00 -0400

Margin investing, or taking on debt to invest, is very risky. It always seems to gain popularity during market peaks. And make matters worse on the way back down. In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey discuss some recent events in the cryptocurrency space. We saw some really speculative investing trends, like margin investing, occur […]

Does the Stock Market Move Ahead of the Economy?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 09:42:56 -0400

It’s often said that the stock market looks forward, while economic data looks in the rearview mirror. The stock market reacts to what it thinks is going to happen. While the economic data represents what has already happened. It is not uncommon to see the stock market bottom while the economic news worsens. Tom and […]

Communicating With Your Investment Advisor

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 15:08:56 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey discuss how crucial communication is for the investment advisor-client relationship. We take a different investment approach when money is needed in the short-term vs. growing it over the long-term. Things will change over the course of your life, that’s why we believe in ongoing investment management and financial […]

What if There is No Recession?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 12:53:14 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey discuss how the market has priced in a severe recession, and what that means moving forward. The guys review the latest charts and data points they’ve been paying attention to. With many of them pointing to improvements in inflation. As always, we’re here this week to keep things […]

Interest Rates Are on the Rise Again… What Should We Expect?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 13:24:19 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Brendan, Tom and Casey discuss the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates and the effects it might cause in the stock market and economy at large. The guys break down all the latest including inflation, oil/gas prices, housing and more. If your bear market and recession fears are peaking, this week’s […]

What Should We Make of Conflicting Economic Data?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 10:41:05 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey discuss how the current economic data is telling two stories. We have historically low unemployment numbers but also historically high inflation, so what does that mean for everyday investors? The guys draw on historical examples to show how the economic levers the Fed is pulling take time to […]

What Does Quantitative Tightening Mean?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 15:32:49 -0400

There has been a lot of talk about the Fed’s plan for quantitative tightening lately. But what exactly does that mean? And what should everyday investors expect? The Fed has been under the microscope so far in 2022 due to raising interest rates. But there is another side to the story. On this week’s podcast, […]

An Update on Earnings and the Latest Economic Data

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 27 May 2022 13:03:49 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey summarize and provide context on the latest economic data. While also discussing several companies’ recent earnings reports. They cover the following: Does a good company make a good stock? How is the Fed reacting to the latest economic data? Why are housing and inflation so intertwined? Tune in […]

How Are Retirement Plans Affected by Down Markets?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 11 May 2022 11:24:14 -0400

In this weeks podcast, Brendan and Casey discuss how short term market losses impact retirement plans. They explain how to handle investment account distributions when markets are rocky and the importance of aligning your portfolio with your income needs. This is a question we’ve been getting a lot lately, so tune in if it’s on […]

What's Going to Bring the Stock Market Back?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 12:20:14 -0400

All the stock market headlines are doom and gloom right now. In this week’s podcast Casey doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but he aims to balance out that negativity by providing some facts and figures that have caught our eye here recently. He covers what tends to happen when sentiment gets this bearish […]

2022 Capital Gains Tax Rates

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 12:35:24 -0400

Tom talks all things capital gains tax rates in this week’s podcast. Now that 2021’s tax deadline has passed, it’s time to start looking for changes to make as we head further into 2022. He covers common misconceptions regarding capital gains taxes. As well as diving into whether it is better for married couples to […]

Is 2022's Economy the 1970's All Over Again?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 10:07:13 -0400

There are a lot of comparisons being made between the current economy and the economy of the late 70’s and early 80’s. The guys discuss the similarities AND differences, while highlighting whether or not bonds still act as a diversifier and how to think about future bond returns. We’ve been getting a lot of questions […]

Should We Be Worried About the Yield Curve?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:57:10 -0400

If you’ve been seeing headlines about the yield curve lately and don’t know what that is or what it means, look no further than this week’s podcast. The guys discuss rising interest rates, what’s been going on in the bond market, and why everyone in the financial media is using the yield curve to try […]

Should You Use Retirement Assets to Pay Off Your Mortgage?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 15:24:58 -0500

Being able to pay off your mortgage is the dream for every homeowner. But is it a good idea for retirees to use their retirement assets to get rid of mortgage debt? In this week’s podcast, Brendan and Casey breakdown the different aspects of this decision. They weigh the options and highlight how it impacts […]

Financial Planning Tips for 2022 (Part One)

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 10:12:34 -0500

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan and Casey discuss financial planning tips and best practices to start your year off on the right foot. They talk about how to review your financials from 2021, tax planning, cash flow management strategies and much more! We’re already a couple weeks into 2022 so tune on in and […]

Is the Stock Market Being Held Up By 5 Stocks?

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 12:07:44 -0500

Recent headlines have claimed that the stock market is being “propped up” by just a handful of the largest companies. In this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan and Casey discuss what this type of market means for investors. While driving home the point that it is normal to see different areas of the market, like large […]

The Latest on Interest Rates and the Federal Reserve

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 12:26:33 -0500

There have been a lot of economic questions lately, specifically whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. We got some clarity this week on their plan of action. With so much emphasis on this meeting and the economy as a whole, Tom, Brendan and Casey share their thoughts on it all in […]

Is the 4% Rule Right for Your Retirement?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 14:16:31 -0500

In this week’s podcast, Casey and Brendan further their discussion on retirement withdrawal strategies. They discuss a recent piece of research that indicates the 4% rule for retirement might be out of date. Tune in to find out how stock market valuations affect retirement plans and what retirees can do if they have to withdraw […]

Withdrawing Money For Retirement

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 12:32:38 -0500

In this week’s podcast, Brendan and Casey discuss retirement withdrawal strategies. They highlight the different levers that can be pulled. And how making adjustments to spending can have a larger impact on “success rates” than portfolio changes. This podcast drives home our point that financial planning is a process and not a one time event. […]

Should You Move in Retirement?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 10:43:44 -0500

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan and Casey discuss why a move in retirement is not a silver bullet that fixes high cost of living. What lifestyle your investments have to support is THE BIGGEST factor in the retirement equation. Moving in retirement is about more than just avoiding income taxes. It requires consideration of […]

What Should We Do About Inflation?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 10:13:40 -0500

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan and Casey discuss the highest inflation reading in over 30 years. The guys share their thoughts on how to best handle inflation from an investing and financial planning standpoint. Nobody likes to pay more for everyday items. Tune in for some practical things you can do (or not do) […]

3 Misconceptions About Inflation and Your Investments

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:04:17 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Casey breakdowns three of the most popular misconceptions we hear about what inflation means for your investments. He highlights how stocks are the best inflation hedge we have. As well as touching on two common alternatives we often hear about, investing in gold, and fixed products, like annuities. If you’re concerned […]

Social Security: 5.9% Cost of Living Adjustment

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 09:14:42 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Brendan and Casey discuss the 5.9% cost of living adjustment (COLA) to Social Security checks starting in 2022. They breakdown how the COLA is calculated, how these adjustment are built into financial plans and so much more. Social Security is something that affects everyone. Whether you are a taxpayer or someone […]

Are Target Date Funds Right For You? Part 2

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 09:59:10 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom, Brendan and Casey wrap up their discussion on whether or not target date funds are “good” investments for 401(k) investors. A recent Wall Street Journal article recommended recreating target date funds on your own. The guys breakdown why that completely negates the benefits and unnecessarily exposes investors to market timing […]

Are Target Date Funds Right for You? Part 1

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 10:32:46 -0400

In this week’s podcast the guys weigh in on whether or not target date funds are “good” investments for 401(k) investors. They get into what target date funds get right, what they get wrong and why understanding a 401(k) plan’s default options are so important. Is more education for investors really the answer? Tune in […]

Investing History: Top 10 Companies in the S&P 500 1980-Today

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 11:09:09 -0400

In this week’s podcast, Tom and Casey talk investing history and take a look back through the last four decades at the largest companies in the S&P 500. From the oil dominated Top 10 of the 1980’s to the Tech heavy Top 10 of today. If there is one constant in investing it’s change. The […]

Tax Planning: Lifetime Tax vs. Yearly Tax

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 12:57:50 -0400

In this week’s podcast episode, the guys discuss why tax planning should be thought about in terms of lifetime tax, instead of year to year tax. Tax planning is so much more than focusing on reducing your tax bill as much as possible on a yearly basis. They get into specifics about the differences between […]

Investing Decisions: Should You Follow the Trend?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 11:28:09 -0400

In this week’s podcast episode, the guys discuss making investing decisions and why following the latest and greatest trends might not be the best strategy. They cover everything from historical market context over the last twenty years, to how to construct a portfolio with a client’s best interest in mind. Be sure to tune into […]

Why Do Investors Underperform the Funds They Own?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 10:12:56 -0400

Investors underperform the funds they own by an average of 1.7%, according to a recent Morningstar study. In this week’s podcast episode, Brendan, Tom, and Casey breakdown how/why this happens. They get into the perils of market timing, trying to override human behavior, and what investors can do to help close this gap. Show Notes […]

Can Expense Ratios Go Any Lower?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 14:38:34 -0400

Expense ratios for mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been cut in half over the last twenty years. In this week’s podcast episode, the guys explain what expense ratios are and why it’s so important for investors to pay attention to them. Their discussion is driven by a recent study done by Morningstar […]

8 Months, 8 Stock Market Highs

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 13:24:00 -0400

The stock market (as measured by the S&P 500) has hit a new high in every month so far this year. But when you look under the hood, the average stock isn’t doing as well. In this week’s podcast, the guys dive into how an index like the S&P 500 can be pulled forward by […]

Pension Funds are Lowering Expectations

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:18:22 -0400

S&P 500 company pension funds have lowered their expected returns 10 years in a row. In this week’s podcast episode, we breakdown what’s contributing to the lowering of expected returns. And we explain why lower expected returns aren’t necessarily a bad thing for pensioners. If you receive a pension, or are set to receive one […]

Is the Stock Market Overvalued?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 12:31:48 -0400

In this week’s episode, the guys discuss a popular stock market valuation metric, the forward price to earnings ratio. We first explain what the ratio is, what it measures, and how it’s used. On a high level, it tells us how a company, or in this case the S&P 500 index, is valued. Interestingly enough, […]

Money in the Right Places: Retiring Before Your 60's

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 10:48:55 -0400

In this week’s episode, the guys discuss why having all your assets tied up in retirement accounts can complicate retiring early. They breakdown why having both pre and post tax assets is so crucial for those in their late 50’s and early 60’s. They also dive into the likelihood of retiring on solely cash or […]

Beware of High Bond Yields

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 11:01:13 -0400

Do some bond yields seem too good to be true? Well, that’s probably because they are. In this week’s podcast, the guys discuss how “inflation protected” bonds are able to advertise yields that aren’t necessarily real. Which leads them to discuss other inflation hedges, and how most folks probably already own the best one of […]

Investing Best Practices: Robinhood Edition

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 13:44:37 -0400

Robinhood, the online investing and trading platform, had their IPO (initial public offering) yesterday. In this week’s podcast, the guys discuss the staggering numbers Robinhood had to disclose in order to file for the IPO. Some of these numbers are seriously out of control! And, of course, we tie in how folks should be investing […]

This Stock Market Index Has Doubled Off the Pandemic Lows

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 12:30:03 -0400

It’s official, the S&P 500, the most widely followed stock market index, has doubled off the March 2020 pandemic lows. In this week’s podcast, the guys discuss how the S&P got to this point. And the different trends we’ve seen underneath the surface which have made this happen. They also highlight how important it is […]

What to Do When Your Bank Cancels Your Line of Credit

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 12:08:50 -0400

It’s said that credit rules the world. A line of credit can be a useful piece of your financial plan. But, it can be taken away at any time for no reason at all. So don’t let credit rule your personal finances. In this week’s episode, the guys discuss Wells Fargo shutting down all personal […]

The Advantage We All Have But Throw Away

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:28:46 -0400

There’s an advantage that we all possess, but very few of us rarely use. In this week’s podcast, the guys discuss the power of compound interest and why hardly anybody gives it the full time it needs to be really effective. Whether it’s ripping up the script because of an impending Presidential election, or getting […]

Watch What They Do, Not What They Say

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 10:53:20 -0400

If you’re going to pay attention to pundits on TV, be sure to pay attention to what they’re actually DOING with their own money. In this week’s podcast, the guys talk about how professional investors are a large part of the group speculating on hot stocks like Zoom while also scolding individuals for doing the […]

Volatility is a Feature, Not a Bug

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 08 Oct 2020 15:31:34 -0400

In Ep. 327 of the podcast, Brendan, Tom, and Tim discuss market volatility. Whether it’s a pandemic, an election, the Fed, trade disputes, earnings reports, or anything else – volatility is a PERMANENT part of the market. It’s what you sign up for when you invest in stocks. Without risk there is no return. They […]

How are People Saving For Retirement?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:04:14 -0400

In Ep. 326 of the podcast, Tim walks listeners through some recent statistics about how people are preparing for retirement. He dives into when people start, what types of accounts they use, and much more! He also brings up another article about mortgages in forebearance. Show Notes ‘7 Stats on How People Really Save for […]

How Interest Rates Impact Investments

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:20:19 -0400

It’s no secret that interest rates are at a historically low rate. But does that mean you should abandon all fixed income and savings accounts with low yields? Absolutely not. In Ep. 325 of the podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss how low interest rates factor into your portfolio decisions. They also discuss auto-enrollment into 401(k) […]

Stocks Can Go Down, Too

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 15:06:09 -0400

In Ep. 324 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim remind listeners that every once in a while stocks CAN go down. It’s remarkable how quickly folks forget what happened in the first quarter of 2020, but the “market breather” over the last week or so has been a nice reminder that stocks can […]

Why Diversification Works

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 15:11:38 -0400

In Ep. 323 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Brendan discuss how the last few days are a great example of how diversification works for investors. With technology being hit hard recently, having exposure to other areas of the market has proved to be a smart idea. Loading up into just one area of […]

How Should You Diversify From Stocks?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 15:26:06 -0400

In Ep. 322 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, the guys discuss ways to diversify away from stocks and the costs involved. A recent article described diversifying with bonds as a lost cause, but we’re not so sure. They also discuss a recent announcement from the Fed and questions to ask yourself before retirement. Show Notes […]

How the Election Could Impact Taxes

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 13:57:35 -0400

There’s a lot of noise about how the election could impact your taxes. We hear a lot of “taxes are going to skyrocket” and “tax hikes are coming”, but for who? And by how much? In Ep. 321 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom take the emotions out of this political discussion and […]

Politics are Not in the Portfolio

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 13:45:59 -0400

In Ep. 320 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, the guys discuss politics and its place in investment portfolios. Here at Mullooly Asset, our portfolios are not constructed based off of who is in the White House (red or blue). They also discuss myths about diversification and the US Dollar. Show Notes ‘5 Myths About Stock […]

Debunking a Myth About Active Management

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 12:34:13 -0400

There’s a continuing myth surrounding active management. They justify higher fees with a promise of outperformance during bear markets. During this week’s podcast, Tom and Tim discuss the facts surrounding that myth, the unemployment numbers for July, and what electric utility companies need to improve on. Show Notes ‘The Performance of Active Management During the […]

Making Sense of the GDP Numbers

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 11:15:39 -0400

In Ep. 318 of the podcast, Tom and Tim discuss the 2nd quarter GDP numbers that came out this week. Despite it being widely anticipated, reaction to the number was less than stellar. What does this mean for the market? What does it mean for your investments? Find out in this week’s episode! Making Sense […]

Do We Need More Incentives to Save?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 11:20:50 -0400

In Ep. 317 of the podcast, the guys discuss incentives from the government to save money, and if we need MORE. They discuss funding emergency savings accounts, and how 401(k)s have changed over the years as well. Show Notes ‘People Don’t Save Enough for Emergencies, but There are Ways to Fix That’ – Shlomo Benartzi […]

The Big Social Security Decision

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 16:01:41 -0400

Deciding when to take Social Security is a big decision. Add a recession and a pandemic into the equation, and things can get messy. In Ep. 316 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss the different factors playing into your Social Security decision. They also discuss a new service coming to 401(k) accounts, […]

A Few Reminders About Unemployment

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 14:18:31 -0400

In Ep. 315 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, the guys discuss a few key points to remember about unemployment and taxes. It seems many people don’t realize that their benefits are counted as taxable income, and could surprise people next year around tax time. They also discuss what serves as a good diversifier for stocks […]

All Upside, No Downside

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 11:21:39 -0400

Want to find an investment that gives you all of the market upside with none of the market downside? Sorry, but in Ep. 314 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast the guys explain why that doesn’t exist. They discuss annuities, which type of annuity is appropriate, and they also discuss why private equity funds within a […]

Opening Pandora's Box

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 06:01:23 -0400

The last two economic downturns have been met with unprecedented response from both the Fed and the federal government. In this episode, the guys discuss the potential ramifications of these government actions, and how (or if) they can be scaled back/what does it mean for future recessions? Show Notes ‘Never the Same’ – Morgan Housel […]

Managing Risk in Retirement

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 13:38:33 -0400

In Ep. 312 of the Mullooly Asset Management, the guys talk about managing risk in retirement. They talk about finding the right allocation of stocks and bonds, the importance of rebalancing and what that can do for your portfolio, and more! Show Notes ‘Is it Time to Rebalance?’ – Christine Benz – Morningstar ‘5 Ways […]

"Living Off of the Interest"

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 07:02:46 -0400

In Ep. 311 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss the idea of “living off of the interest” and not touching your principal in retirement. In today’s environment, it might not be as feasible as many people think. They also discuss why there is always a reason to sell, or be bearish, […]

How to Lose Your Shirt in 10 Days With Leverage

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 14:32:28 -0400

In Ep. 310 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss the dangers of leverage once again with a great example in The Wall Street Journal. Leveraged investment products are a great way to go broke really quick. They also discuss massive market moves in the same year, and the importance of earnings […]

What is Your Money REALLY For?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 29 May 2020 14:11:14 -0400

In Ep. 309 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss a handful of articles that revert back to one main theme: what is your money actually for? Figuring out what your money is really for can make investing, saving, and so much more easier! Show Notes ‘Why College Savers Should Stay the […]

Making Sense of the Unemployment Numbers

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 21 May 2020 16:26:28 -0400

In Ep. 308, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss how the initial jobless claims number is calculated, why the number is “fluid”, and what – if anything – it means for investors moving forward. They also discuss the state of the mortgage market, and what low bond yields mean for investors. Show Notes ‘Behind Bond Market’s […]

What Will the Economic Recovery Look Like?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 14 May 2020 14:53:13 -0400

In Ep. 307 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss ridiculous question of “what letter will the economic recovery look like”, and explain why the letter shape matters way less than individual recoveries. They also discuss oil futures horror stories, piling into gold ETFs, and the thought of tapping retirement accounts or […]

Is Leverage a Good Investment Strategy?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 May 2020 14:08:28 -0400

In this week’s episode of the podcast, Tom and Tim discuss the dangers of using leverage in your investment strategy. While the upside of leverage may seem great, the downside risk is far too great for more individual investors to handle. They also discuss the unemployment numbers from April and the current state of the […]

Is Gold a Good Diversifier?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 01 May 2020 13:49:24 -0400

In Ep. 305 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom, Brendan and Tim discuss the merits of gold as a diversifier in your portfolio. Does it actually work? Is it good at keeping up with inflation compared to stocks and bonds? Is it worth the risk? They also discuss the situation many colleges and universities are […]

Do You Need More Exposure to Oil?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 16:18:39 -0400

In Ep. 304 of the podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss the oil markets, how people can get exposure to oil, if NOW is the time to be adding exposure, and the risks involved with trying to day trade commodities. They also discuss the dangers of credit cards in an economic crisis, and the importance of […]

What Would Warren Buffett Do?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 16:22:14 -0400

In Ep. 303 of the podcast, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss using actions of legendary investors like Warren Buffett as buy/sell indicators for your own portfolios. While there is a lot to learn from these investors, trying to compare the financial decisions they make to your own portfolio might not be the best thing to […]

Don't Check Your Account Daily

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 07:38:27 -0400

In Ep. 302 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan, Tom and Tim discuss a handful of topics. Brendan shares some statistics about how often to check your account. The less often you check, the better the chances are of seeing a higher number. They also discuss trying to avoid market panic and not compounding mistakes […]

Is Now the Time to Pick Stocks?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 14:43:50 -0400

In Ep. 301 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan, Tom and Tim discuss the common question floating around the office: is now the right time to pick certain stocks? There are so many unnecessary risks involved with choosing individual stocks and bonds, and the guys walk through them. They also discuss the hierarchy of taking […]

Stress-Adjusted Returns

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 15:50:38 -0400

In milestone Ep. 300 of the podcast, Brendan, Tom and Tim sit down to discuss “stress-adjusted” returns. Brendan lays out a hypothetical nightmare scenario of someone who retires right before the Lehman collapse and subsequent market sell-off in 2008, and how the returns after a handful of years are exceptional if you stayed on track. […]

The Game Plan From Here

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 14:27:41 -0400

In Ep. 299 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom, Brendan, and Tim discuss questions they’ve been fielding from clients about the game plan moving forward. They discuss what’s happened in the markets, the emotions seen and felt by everybody, and where we stand today. The Game Plan From Here – Transcript Tom Mullooly: Welcome to […]

What Do You Say to Worried Investors?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 13 Mar 2020 14:43:18 -0400

In Ep. 298 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom take a few minutes to talk to worried investors. We’ve been getting a lot of calls from people worried about the markets, and rightfully so. However, as they point out, now might not be the best time to do making changes to your investment […]

What to Do With Market Uncertainty

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 06 Mar 2020 11:09:54 -0500

In Ep. 297 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom talks about the uncertainty surrounding the markets over the last few weeks. He goes over a couple of sensational headlines from the news to demonstrate just what’s been going on lately. Show Notes ‘US Airlines Won’t Need Bailout Despite Coronavirus Woes’ – The New York Post […]

Managing Risk with the Coronavirus

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 15:29:38 -0500

In Ep. 296 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom takes a few minutes to address the coronavirus, the market sell-off from this week, and what it means for people’s risk tolerance. It’s one thing to want to be “aggressive” in an up market, but few people are really comfortable with what that means in a […]

Changes to the Kiddie Tax

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 12:30:26 -0500

In Ep. 295 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom talks about a handful of important topics. He discusses new change to the Kiddie Tax, how to think about and interpret market futures, and the implications of the Morgan Stanley/E-Trade acquisition. Show Notes ‘Morgan Stanley is Buying E*Trade, Betting on Smaller Customers’ – The Wall Street […]

What Happens to Old 401(k)'s?

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 06:17:37 -0500

In Ep. 294 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom talks about what happens to your old 401(k) account from your previous job(s). An article from Forbes highlights how people lose money, or don’t do the right thing, when they leave old 401(k)’s behind or cash them out after leaving a job. Show Notes ‘There is […]

How to Avoid Lifestyle Creep

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 31 Jan 2020 11:14:41 -0500

In Ep. 293 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss avoiding the effects of lifestyle creep when you get a raise, whether or not we are overdue for a recession, and more! Show Notes ‘Do Recessions Need to Happen?’ – Cullen Roche – Pragmatic Capitalism ‘Putting the Next Market Downturn Into Perspective’ – […]

Why Stocks Go Up & Down

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 16:00:02 -0500

In Ep. 292 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom identify the ONE definite reason that makes stocks go up and down before diving into a few great articles from this week. Be sure to check the show notes to find the charts they discuss later on in the episode! Show Notes ‘Asset Allocation […]

Have You Done Your 2019 Taxes?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 09:00:03 -0500

In Ep. 291 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom walks us through a letter he received from his accountant that outlines a handful of things to consider before getting your taxes done for 2019. When it comes to doing your taxes, you definitely DON’T want to rush it, and you definitely DO want to be […]

What’s the Most Reliable Indicator?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 16:51:57 -0500

In Ep. 290 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss price targets for 2020, what weight they actually hold, what exactly “reliable” indicators are, and how long you should plan on working. Show Notes ‘How Jeffrey Gundlach’s Predictions for 2019 Turned Out’ – Bloomberg ‘Investors, Revel in Your Ignorance’ – Wall Street Journal […]

What Should We Expect in 2020?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 10:41:36 -0500

In Ep. 289 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom addresses what happened in the market in 2019, and what we should realistically expect in 2020. He talks about what past markets have looked like after big up years, and why it’s not a great idea to change your investment allocation solely based on what happened […]

The Building Blocks of Investing

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 24 Dec 2019 11:20:38 -0500

In Ep. 288 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss the building blocks of investing. There is a hierarchy of questions and topics that need to be answered before you pick the investments that go into your account, and we outline them here for you! Show Notes ‘How Do Your Financial Priorities Stack […]

‘Tis the Season for 2020 Market Forecasts

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 10:42:01 -0500

In Ep. 287 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss 2020 market forecasts, why they aren’t helpful, and why it’s important not to hang your hat on other people’s predictions. Nobody can predict the future, but for some reason people expect “market experts” to try. Show Notes ‘The Ultimate Market 2020 Playbook’ – […]

What to Know About Your Retirement

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 11:21:16 -0500

In Ep. 286 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, the team discusses a handful of important topics surrounding retirement. From planning for retirement, knowing how much risk you need to take with your portfolio, what to do if a bear market hits right before you retire, and more! Show Notes ‘How Much Risk is TOO Much […]

How Long Can Bull Markets Last?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 12:16:29 -0500

In Ep. 285 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss just how long bull markets can go for. It’s usually a lot longer than most people expect. They also talk about a new proposed way to pay off student loan debt. Show Notes ‘Rand Paul’s New Bill Would Let Americans Pay Off Student […]

Cash on the Sidelines

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 13:35:37 -0500

In Ep. 284, Brendan and Tom discuss the often-used phrase “cash on the sidelines” and how market pundits like to use it as a signal for the market. They also discuss home prices and the slow generational transfer of property. Show Notes ‘Investment Signals Would Be Great, If They Worked’ – John Rekenthaler – Morningstar […]

The Problem with Car Loans Today

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 10:56:29 -0500

In Ep. 283 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss their biggest issue with car loans today. The length of the loans make monthly payments seem affordable, but really keep the individuals in a never-ending payment schedule costing more than they thought. Show Notes ‘A $45,000 Loan for a $27,000 Ride: More Borrowers […]

Investing Armageddon

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 09:49:45 -0500

In Ep. 282 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom look at claims made by famous market callers who claimed “armageddon” was coming for the market. What would have happened to your investments if you had listened to them at the time? Show Notes The Consequences of Listening to the Armageddonists, 2010-2019 Investing Armageddon […]

Should You Trade Because of Elections?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 11:54:24 -0500

In Ep. 281 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss the upcoming Presidential election in 2020 and what it should mean for your portfolio. Should you make changes based on who wins or loses? They also discuss estate planning for college students, and a hierarchy of stock market losses. Show Notes ‘Morgan Stanley […]

Decision Making 101: Student Loan Edition

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 15:17:58 -0400

In Ep. 280 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, we answer a handful of questions surrounding student loans. There has been A LOT of news surrounding the amount of debt people have, whether or not to go to college, how to take out/pay off loans, so we recap everything for you in this episode. Show Notes […]

Is the 60/40 Portfolio Dead?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 09:59:31 -0400

In Ep. 279 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss whether or not the traditional 60/40 portfolio is still a viable option for investors. They outline what the portfolio is, why “defaults” for investor portfolios aren’t ideal, and more! Show Notes ‘Bank of America Declares ‘The End of the 60-40′ Standard Portfolio’ – […]

Let’s Talk About 403(b) Plans

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 11:16:32 -0400

In Ep. 278 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Tim discuss 403(b) plans and some of the unappealing sales practices that get tied along with them. It’s important for teachers and other 403(b) participants to know the truth. They also discuss rules of thumb when it comes to saving for retirement. Show Notes Tony […]

Pros and Cons of Commission-Free Trading

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 11 Oct 2019 11:09:25 -0400

In Ep. 277 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Brendan discuss the recent changes from many brokerage firms to offer commission-free trading. There are definitely many pros to this development, but there are certainly some cons too. They also discuss an issue surrounding Social Security benefits as well. Show Notes ‘The Upside of Commission […]

Informational Edges are Extinct

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 26 Sep 2019 15:40:21 -0400

In Ep. 276 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Brendan discuss why informational edges in the market are extinct, and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves. They also discuss why tethering your ability to retire, or happiness in retirement, to a specific portfolio balance number is a recipe towards being unsatisfied. Show Notes […]

Our Thoughts on Gold

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 20 Sep 2019 14:47:29 -0400

Every so often we hear about gold spiking up in the markets. We eventually get a few phone calls from folks interested in exploring gold in their portfolios. We always have the same response. After seeing an article in Forbes about gold, Brendan and Tom decided it was a good time to broadcast our feelings […]

Do You Have a Good 401(k) Plan?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 12:20:27 -0400

In Ep. 274 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss what constitutes a “good” 401(k) plan. It’s not necessarily having funds that have performed the best over the last few years, but there are other factors that play into the quality of a plan. Show Notes ‘401(k) Investors: Avoid These 20 Mistakes’ – […]

How Hurricanes and Markets are Similar

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 14:58:50 -0400

In Ep. 273 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss how hurricanes and markets are alike. With Hurricane Dorian making its way around the east coast, many folks are making projections and predictions on where, when and how hard it will hit. Sound familiar? They also discuss what a P/E ratio means, the […]

Navigating a Down Market Before Retirement

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 30 Aug 2019 11:48:59 -0400

In Ep. 272 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Tom discuss a handful of different topics like market “bubbles”, Andrew Luck’s retirement, investing scams on dating apps, navigating through a down market as you’re closing in on retirement, and much more! Show Notes ‘Andrew Luck’s Retirement Shows What Happens When You Don’t Fix an […]

Markets Don’t Repeat Themselves, But They Often Rhyme

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 15:31:39 -0400

In Ep. 271 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss a couple of interesting articles. They first discuss what Jim Cramer had to say about trying to time the market based off the yield curve inversions, and then go into a discussion about taking on more debt just because interest rates are low. […]

Is Now the Time to Refinance?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 12:43:40 -0400

In Ep. 270 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Tom discuss a handful of topics. The first two have to do with the lower interest rates, and mortgage debt in the US. With lower rates, it could be a good time to refinance, BUT there are still a handful of variables to consider. Show… [Read More] Is Now the Time to Refinance?

You’re Allowed to Buy Lattes

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 15:04:34 -0400

In Ep. 269 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss a handful of topics. They talk about financial worries that many people have that they really shouldn’t worry about, myths surrounding the FIRE movement, why buying lattes won’t kill your personal finances if other things are in order, and more! Show Notes ‘4… [Read More] You’re Allowed to Buy Lattes

Gaming the Financial Aid System

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 13:28:11 -0400

In Ep. 268 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss a handful of articles covering topics like how some wealthy parents are trying to game the financial aid system, the IRS tracking down cryptocurrency owners, and more! Show Notes ‘Top 100 Financial Advisors of 2019’ – Investopedia ‘College Financial Aid Loophole: Wealthy Parents… [Read More] Gaming the Financial Aid System

Retirement Can Be Longer Than You Think

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 26 Jul 2019 11:10:11 -0400

In Ep. 267 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss a couple important articles. First, they discuss a piece from Ben Carlson outlining just how long retirement can be for some folks, and why outliving your money is a real possibility if you don’t invest accordingly. Second, they talk about the disappointing story… [Read More] Retirement Can Be Longer Than You Think

Capital Gains are GOOD

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 11:09:55 -0400

In Ep. 266 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Tom talk about two interesting articles. The first talks about why capital gains are a good thing, even though most investors loathe paying tax on them. The second talks about the SECURE Act. Tim and Tom discuss what changes are coming, and why they might… [Read More] Capital Gains are GOOD

Does Your Checking Account Pay For Your Hulu?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 12:08:59 -0400

In Ep. 265 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss a few very interesting articles. They start off with an article outlining how some banks are offering to pay for your subscriptions like Hulu, Spotify, and Costco to win your checking account business. They also touch on why it’s still acceptable to buy… [Read More] Does Your Checking Account Pay For Your Hulu?

Don’t Go Chasing Interest Rates

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 03 Jul 2019 11:41:57 -0400

In Ep. 264 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss the futility of chasing interest rates at banks. Chasing a rate change of .1% isn’t worth your time, but when is it okay to look to make a switch? They also discuss certain ripple effects that could happen if certain legislation is enacted… [Read More] Don’t Go Chasing Interest Rates

What is Regulation Best Interest?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 14:24:54 -0400

In Ep. 263 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Tim discuss all of the ins and outs of the new Regulation Best Interest coming out of Washington for the financial services industry. What does it mean for advisors/brokers?

Lessons From Market Crashes

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 11:46:25 -0400

In Ep. 262 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Tim discuss an article from author Jonathan Clements about his experience and takeaways from the last five market crashes. Tom adds his own perspective on those times in the market,

The Benefits of Health Savings Accounts

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 14:07:31 -0400

In Ep. 261 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Tim discuss three important articles. The first discusses the responsibilities of executors and tax implications in the estate planning process. The second talks about mutual fund and ETF fees and the...

IPO’s Don’t Fit in Your Financial Plan

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 10:17:20 -0400

In Ep. 260 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss IPO’s like Blue Apron, Lyft, Uber and more and if they have a legitimate place in your serious financial plan. They also discuss the amount of advice brokers are allowed to give clients...

Potential Changes to Your 401(k)

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 31 May 2019 14:33:26 -0400

In Ep. 259 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about some proposed changes to retirement plans making their way through Washington at the moment. There would be changes to products offered within 401(k) accounts, distribution ages,

Social Security is Not a Bond

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 22 May 2019 11:06:58 -0400

In Ep. 258 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim talk about a few interesting articles from the last few days. They discuss why Social Security should not be considered the bond portion of your portfolio, a “hidden” cost of 401(k)s,

Sunk Costs, Todd Frazier, and Moving On

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 15 May 2019 11:00:59 -0400

In Ep. 257 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom broach the subject of sunk costs. They start out by discussing the sunk costs of some Mets contracts, like Todd Frazier, and compare it to certain investments/products in a portfolio that need ...

Un-spinning a Confusing Annuity Pitch

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 08 May 2019 11:47:14 -0400

In Ep. 256 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about a not-so-great pitch for an equity indexed annuity that Tom saw in his LinkedIn feed. They break down what’s right and what’s wrong in the video,

Why You Don’t Have an Informational Edge Investing Today

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 01 May 2019 11:10:46 -0400

In Ep. 255 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss a few great articles from this week. They talk about why informational edges rarely exist anymore when it comes to investing, and what James Harden has to do with it.

Why IPO’s are Just Another Form of Gambling

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 11:49:18 -0400

In Ep. 254 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about the blunders made surrounding the Zoom IPO, and why buying shares of an IPO is really just a different form of gambling your money. They also discuss a PR nightmare for the robo-advi...

A 401(k) Loan is Not an Investment

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 11:28:09 -0400

In Ep. 253 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tim discuss a few important topics. They talk about why a 401(k) loan, though not ALWAYS a bad idea, is not an investment. They also talk about why finance is so taboo for most people,

How Much Risk is TOO Much Risk For Retirees?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 14:35:34 -0400

In Ep. 252 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom tackle two very important topics. They discuss an article written for retirees and pre-retirees about having potentially too much risk in their portfolios.

A Different Kind of Student Debt

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 14:15:17 -0400

In Ep. 251 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom touch on a number of different topics. They discuss ‘generational buying opportunities’, saving on housing costs, a different kind of student debt,

Ep. 250: The Best of the Best!

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 12:14:07 -0400

In Ep. 250 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, we take a look back at some of the best topics from the last 50 episodes. We hear from Tom, Brendan, and Tim about topics like minimizing student loans, why market timing is futile,

Important Tips for Filling Out the FAFSA

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 10:59:25 -0400

In Ep. 249 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about a couple of important different topics. They begin by giving some important notes about filling out the FAFSA, talk about a key flaw they found in an experience with a tax preparer,

Ep. 248: Key Information for All Retirees

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 15:42:30 -0400

In Ep. 248 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about a great post from our friend Ashby Daniels. Ashby collected a handful of really useful, telling charts about retirees and people nearing retirement.

What is a Safe Withdrawal Rate in Retirement?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Mar 2019 11:54:49 -0500

In Ep. 247 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about a few articles that touch on the topic of withdrawal rates from retirement accounts. There are a lot of answers to the question “what is the best withdrawal rate?

Ep. 246: Is Going to College Really Worth It?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 13:35:05 -0500

In Ep. 246 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about a handful of topics. They talk about a recent study that shows the earnings of people who don’t have a college education versus those that do,

Ep. 245: Does Trend Following Work?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 12:02:22 -0500

In 2009 there were probably a lot of headlines that read something like “Why Buy and Hold Doesn’t Work”. Turns out, 10 years later, that would’ve been the exact worst time to ditch your buy and hold strategy. The previous ten years though?

Ep. 244: JPM Coin, Repaying Student Loans, Retirement Savings Help

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 11:39:45 -0500

In Ep. 244 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Tom talk about a handful of current financial news. They discuss the new “crypto” coin from JP Morgan, why 7 out of 10 people feel they will be financially better off next year,

Ep. 242: Buying Company Stock & Accelerated Mortgages

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 11:36:52 -0500

In Ep. 242 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about buying too much company stock and the concept of “accelerating” your mortgage. Having too much company stock in your portfolio could be a potentially dangerous thing.

Ep. 241: Retirement and the Sequence of Returns

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 10:09:52 -0500

In Ep. 241 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about the sequence of returns in the market and how they can positively, or negatively, affect your retirement. They tie in some baseball history and talk MLB free agency as well! Enjoy!

Ep. 240: Pay Attention to Cash Flows in 2019!

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 16:32:46 -0500

In Ep. 240 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Brendan talk about a few articles that circle around probably the most important topic in personal finance: cash flows! With the government shutdown affecting hundreds of thousands of people,

Ep. 239: Tax Withholding, Budgeting, & Tips for 2019

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 11:11:49 -0500

In Ep. 239 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about important topics for the start of 2019. They discuss the importance of checking your tax withholding each year, the importance of paying yourself first,

Ep. 238: Understanding Gold, No Bond Apocalypse, Credit Card Points

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 04 Jan 2019 12:22:07 -0500

In Ep. 238 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Brendan break down a couple key topics to start the new year. First off, they discuss the importance of understanding what gold does in relation to the stock and bond markets. Second,

Ep. 237: Putting 2018 in Perspective

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 27 Dec 2018 11:28:30 -0500

In Ep. 237 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom put the year of 2018 into perspective. Using a couple of great articles from Charlie Bilello and Ben Carlson, they take what happened in the market this year and place it alongside a handful of...

Ep. 236: The Fed Impact

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 11:29:24 -0500

In Ep. 236 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about the Fed. With the Fed being in the news a lot lately, they break down what the real purpose of the Fed is, what it has done over history,

Ep. 235: 2018 Market Volatility, Credit Card Debt, Bernie Madoff

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 16:16:34 -0500

In Ep. 235 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom break down the volatility in the market in 2018. Historically, this year has been more in line with “normal” volatility than last year. They also discuss paying off credit card debt,

Ep. 234: Outperforming Cash, 2018 Gains/Losses, Tax GAIN Harvesting

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 14:28:35 -0500

In Ep. 234 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom and Brendan discuss a number of important topics. They talk about tax gain harvesting, what to do when cash outperforms everything else, and how mutual funds are doing coming into the end of 2018.

Ep. 233: Amazon, Bitcoin, & the Holiday Season

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 13:32:39 -0500

In Ep. 233 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Tom break down a few articles that are very timely for the holiday season. They talk about Amazon and retailers during the holidays, Bitcoin conversations,

Ep. 232: Active Share, 2019 Contribution Limits, 401(k) Millionaires

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 12:19:17 -0500

In Ep. 232 of the podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about a few interesting articles they read recently. They also talk about the article that featured Brendan in The New York Times last week discussing 401(k) contribution limits for 2019. Enjoy!

Ep. 231: Back Into the Market, Tax Loss Selling, & What is Smart Beta?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 14:34:43 -0500

In Ep. 231 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Brendan break down a few interesting articles from the past week. They talk about the psychology of getting back into the market after moving to cash, why tax-loss selling always seems to take place in...

Ep. 230: Working Longer, Retirement Plans, & Market Downturns

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 16:14:45 -0400

In Ep. 230, Brendan and Tom talk about a couple of important topics. They discuss how simply planning to “work longer” isn’t always a sure-fire way to plan for retirement savings. Being able to work longer is sometimes out of the individual’s control...

Ep. 229: The ‘Good Old Days’ that Never Existed: Revamping 401(k)s

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 04 Oct 2018 10:05:04 -0400

In Ep. 229 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom reminisce about the ‘good old days’ when everybody had pensions and 401(k)’s and everybody was happy! And then they burst everyone’s bubble reminding people that didn’t happen! They talk about these workplace retirement plans, the incentives they offer, and how it might be time to revamp the system to get more people to save for retirement. Show Notes ‘The Case for Revamping 401(k)s’ – Benjamin Harris – The Wall Street Journal ‘So Much for the Bond Bubble’ – John Rekenthaler – Morningstar ‘Some Bonds are Better Diversifiers Than Others’ – Ben Johnson – Morningstar The ‘Good Old Days’ that Never Existed: Revamping 401(k)s – Transcript Tom Mullooly: Welcome to the Mullooly Asset Management podcast. This is episode number 229. I’m Tom Mullooly, and I’m here with my cohost Brendan Mullooly. And Brendan, you’ve got some information you want to share about 401(k)s you’ve been reading about. Brendan Mullooly: Yeah. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal about a week or two ago. It was talking about, well, the title was The Case for Revamping 401(k)s, and discussed in the article was just the way that we incentivize people to use these accounts for retirement savings. The primary benefit that is pitched to people for making contributions to these accounts is that you can exclude your contributions from taxable income. Tom Mullooly: I think a lot of people just miss that basic point. Like, hey, you know, if you max out your contributions, you’re dropping your income, your taxable income by 18 grand if you’re under 50. 24,500 if you’re a 50 or over person maxing out your contributions. It’s pretty good. Brendan Mullooly: It’s good, and that’s what the article said. It’s worked. It’s worked okay. I mean, you could see, obviously, average and median balances in retirement accounts don’t tell the whole story, but they’re not great, you know? You see some people who manage to save a pretty good amount of money in these accounts. Other people, it doesn’t really seem to be helping at all. Tom Mullooly: Why is that? Brendan Mullooly: I’m not sure. It’s really just about savings habits. But, the idea this article is getting at was just talking about the exclusion of income as an incentive, and how it sounded good on paper, but it hasn’t totally done it. It hasn’t done enough to get people to do anything, obviously. So, just thinking about incentives, and how they may or may not always work. They sound good in theory. They don’t really get people to do what you intend to do sometimes, or they have a completely different effect than what was intended. Tom Mullooly: I think the bigger issue may be, and tell me if I’m wrong, but the bigger issue may be that people can’t see that far into the future. So, there is no reward for them to have money taken out of their paycheck every pay period for a part of their life that’s not going to happen for 15, or 20, or 30 years from now. And so, it’s like, “Why should I do that when I have other things I want to do with the money? I want to pay down debt, or I want to go on vacation, or I have to pay my student loans.” So,

Ep. 228: Fund Managers, Active Mutual Funds, & Capital Gains

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:21:04 -0400

In Ep. 228, Brendan and Tom talk about a few articles and podcasts that caught their eye this week. They talk about the ever-changing roles and incentives for active mutual fund managers, the way capital gains distributions in mutual funds can cause h...

Ep. 227: Millennials, Minimizing Student Loans, Warren Buffett

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 14:28:06 -0400

In Ep. 227 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tim and Tom break down some headlines from this week. They discuss why Millennials are afraid to invest their money and prefer cash, how to potentially talk to your children about ways to reduce student loans,...

Ep. 226: “Reasons to Sell” Since 2009

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 11:51:30 -0400

In Ep. 226, Brendan and Tom talk about a chart posted last year by our friend Michael Batnick of Ritholtz Wealth Management. The chart shows “reasons to sell” over the last decade, and looking back on them they feel somewhat foolish. However,

Ep. 225: Tesla, Crypto Scams, & Monthly Bills

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 12:14:28 -0400

In Ep. 225 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom breakdown some headlines from this week. They talk about Elon Musk considering taking Tesla private, Facebook trying to team up with banks, cryptocurrency “pump and dump” schemes,

Ep. 224: Is it Time to Revamp the 401(k)?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 16 Aug 2018 12:49:11 -0400

In Ep. 224 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom break down a recent article from the Wall Street Journal that talks about auto-enrollment rates for 401(k) plans. This leads to a bigger discussion about the 401(k) plan as a whole,

Ep. 223: Financial Questions, U.S. Pension Trouble, Saving Too Little

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 14:13:19 -0400

Show Notes ‘The Most Googled Financial Questions By State’ – Think Advisor ‘The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States is the Size of Japan’s Economy’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘What Should You Do With Your Home Equity in Retirement?

Ep. 222: Facebook, Market Anomalies, Wells Fargo & more

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 15:13:11 -0400

Show Notes ‘Facebook Stock Drops Roughly 20%’ – MarketWatch ‘The Fate of the Stock Market for 2018 Could Rest on the Next Couple Days’ – MarketWatch ‘How to Predict the Next Market Downturn’ – MarketWatch ‘They All Fall Down’ – Michael Batnick – The Ir...

Ep. 221: Fixed Annuities, Wealth Transfers, & the Gig Economy

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 14:05:50 -0400

In Episode 221 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom talk about fixed annuities, the ever-present transfer of wealth between generations, how to manage cash flows when working in the “gig economy” and much more!

Ep. 220: Down Payments, Passive Funds, Earnings Buzz

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 16:19:16 -0400

Show Notes ‘Renters, This Is How Many Years It takes to Save Up for a Down Payment on a Home‘ – MarketWatch ‘The Investor Fever for Passive Funds is Cooling in 2018‘ – The Wall Street Journal ‘Earnings Surprises: The Stock Market’s Worst-Kept Secret‘ –...

Ep. 219: Retirement Planning, Casual 401(k) Advice, Trade Jitters & more

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 09:00:55 -0400

Show Notes ‘The Single Most Important Retirement Strategy’ – MarketWatch ’15 Way to Make More Money in Your 401(k)’ – MarketWatch ‘Trade Jitters Knock Nearly 500 Points Out of Dow, Putting Benchmark on Track for Worst Day Since April’ – MarketWatch ‘NF...

Ep. 218: Junk Bonds, Probabilities, Netflix Dominance and more

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 13:27:29 -0400

Show Notes ‘Junk Debt is Outdoing its Peers’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘U.S. Recession Chances are Creeping Higher’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘Germany Will Win the World Cup, UBS Says After 10,000 Simulations’ – Bloomberg ‘Why Size Alone Won’t Help Old...

Ep. 217: Changes in the Dow, Rolling Recessions, Internet Sales Tax & more

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 12:05:01 -0400

Show Notes ‘GE Booted From the Dow, Replaced by Walgreens’ – CNBC ‘Masters in Business: Dr. Ed Yardeni’ – Ritholtz ‘Supreme Court Widens Reach of Sales Tax for Online Retailers’ – The New York Times ‘How to Play Rising Interest Rates Based on Your Age’...

Ep. 216: Social Security, Finance Professionals, Replacing Debt with More Debt

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 10:44:23 -0400

Ep. 216: Social Security, Finance Professionals, Replacing Debt with More Debt – Transcript Tom Mullooly: Welcome to the Mullooly Asset Management podcast. This is episode number Cleveland, area code for 216,

Ep. 215: Bryan Colangelo, Quarterly Earnings, Mobile Payments & more!

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 15:55:19 -0400

Show Notes ‘Bryan Colangelo Resigns From 76ers After Twitter Scandal’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘Amazon Scores Rights Deal for English Premier Soccer League’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘Buffett, Dimon Team Up to Curb ‘Unhealthy Focus’ on Quarterly Earni...

Ep. 214: Buying vs. Renting, Kevin Durant, Annualizing Returns

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 15:04:46 -0400

Show Notes ‘Italy Sparks Global Fear of Fresh Euro Crisis’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘For Oil Prices, Political Risk Dwarfs the Dollar’ – The Wall Street Journal ‘As Global Growth Loses Steam, U.S. Investors Find There’s No Place Like Home’ – The Wall ...

Ep. 213: Emerging Markets, Trade Wars, Small Caps & more

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 25 May 2018 15:46:55 -0400

In Ep. 213 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Brendan and Tom break down this week’s headlines. They talk about the rising dollar, and what affect it MIGHT have on Emerging Markets. They also talk about the myth of small cap performance spilling over int...

Ep. 212 – Broker Profits, Elder Fraud, Pensions & more!

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 16 May 2018 07:00:24 -0400

In Ep. 212 of the Mullooly Asset Management Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss some headlines that caught their eye in the last few weeks. They talk about how investors will be able to see a broker’s profits made from bond sales.

Ep. 211 – Forecasting, the US Dollar, Bond Funds, & more!

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 10 May 2018 12:47:36 -0400

In Ep. 211 of the Mullooly Asset Management Podcast, Brendan and Tom discuss this week’s headlines. They talk about CEO’s salaries, specifically the CEO from Under Armour. They discuss how the oil rally “took forecasters by surprise”,

Ep. 210: What You Need To Know About Estates

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 11:10:28 -0400

In Ep. 210, Tom talks about estates. Dividing up an estate can be a sometimes messy topic, especially among family members. Tom outlines what happens if you are named as an executor to the estate, what a normal and customary executor’s fee could be,

Ep. 209: Fiduciary Rule Nearing the End?

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 06 Apr 2018 11:15:27 -0400

In Ep. 209 of the Mullooly Asset Podcast, Tom talks about the Department of Labor Fiduciary Rule, and if it is going to actually be implemented or not. He also talks about the importance of understanding the fiduciary responsibility your investment ad...

Introducing ‘Living with Money’, SEP IRA’s, 401(k)’s, & more

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 11:23:54 -0500

Time Stamps: 3:47 – “What’s the best thing to do with excess wealth at age 30?” 7:15 – “Can I still open a 401k if I’m already retired?” 9:43 – “What are the benefits of rolling over a 401k into an IRA if I’m not working?

Simple IRA’s, Retirement Allocations, & Tim’s Cliche New Year’s Joke

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 15:33:33 -0500

Time Stamps: 2:00 – “What allocation strategy do you recommend for those approaching retirement?” 7:45 – “I inherited an IRA that was passed down two different times. Do I qualify for a five year disbursement?

Why the New York Mets Need a Financial Planner

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 15:28:41 -0500

Show Notes ‘Mets Analysis: Wilpons Need to Be More Transparent About Payroll, Offseason Moves’ – Marc Carig – Newsday Why the New York Mets Need a Financial Planner – Transcript Tim Mullooly: Welcome back to the podcast.

Bitcoin: What Investors Need to Know

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 15:56:45 -0500

Show Notes: ‘Be Wary of this Skyrocketing Bitcoin Fund’ – Sumit Roy – ETF.com ‘The Bitcoin Whales: 1,000 People Who Own 40% of the Market’ – Olga Kharif – Bloomberg ‘Bitcoin Mania: Even Grandma Wants In On the Action’ – The Wall Street Journal (Paywall...

Our Thoughts on Bitcoin, Emergency Funds, & More

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 15:19:27 -0500

Time Stamps: 1:52 – ‘How should I invest my emergency funds so that I keep earning interest on it?’ 5:49 – ‘If I have a 401K through my company, can I also invest in an exchange traded fund, or ETF through a broker?

Market Crashes, Student Debt, & Old 401(k) Plans

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 15:27:42 -0500

Time Stamps: 1:04 – “Where should I move my 401(k) gains before the bull stock market ends in preparation for a market crash?” 6:07 – “How should I approach paying off my student debt?” 8:43 – “What is the best way to pay off graduate school debt using...

Bull Markets, Asset Allocations, Cash Cushions, & More!

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:58:46 -0500

Time Stamps: 2:46 – “Should I continue to contribute towards my retirement or pay off my debt in a bull market?” 8:58 – “When should I switch my very aggressive asset allocation to a moderate one?” 13:34 – “Should I invest or pay off my debt?

Retirement Age, Paying Tuition, Savings Accounts, & More!

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 14:31:41 -0500

Time Stamps 2:00 – “Can you receive a tax benefit for contributing towards your child’s school tuition?” 5:42 – “Should I wait until I am 70 years old to retire?” 9:05 – “Should I sell my stock to pay off my mortgage?

Mullooly Asset Podcast #200! – Tom’s “Black Monday” Story

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 12:49:23 -0400

In this milestone episode for the podcast, Tim talks with Tom about October 19, 1987. Tom was just a “baby-broker”, as he puts it, and we get a hands-on point of view of what that dreadful day was like. Tom talks about the year leading up to the cras...

Credit Card Applications, 529 Plans, Penny Stocks, & More!

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 26 Oct 2017 14:28:11 -0400

Time Stamps: 1:57 – “How do I get a credit card with no current payment history?” 4:53 – “Which portfolio should I choose for my daughter’s 529 plan?” 6:23 – “Is it worth investing in penny stocks?” 9:50 – “Is an irrevocable trust right for my relative...

Saving For a Home, Nearing Retirement, & Index Funds

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 20 Oct 2017 11:56:55 -0400

Time Stamps: 2:57 – “Should I lower my contributions to my 401(k) as I near retirement?” 8:25 – “How do I choose a good index fund to invest in and where should I buy one?” 11:57 – “Should I start investing in a Roth IRA at 70 years old?

Paying Off Debt, Investing Strategies, & the Power of the Internet

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 12:36:08 -0400

Time Stamps: 2:15 – “How should I invest and save right out of college?” 7:16 – “Why is paying off debt always the biggest priority to advisors?” 11:15 – “Which investment strategy should I follow through on?

Required Minimum Distributions, Selling Bonds, & Old 401(k)’s

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 12:05:11 -0400

Time Stamps: 1:08 – “Can I defer a required minimum distribution to next year?” 3:28 – “When should you sell a bond?” 8:13 – “What is the impact of the tax deductible nature of a home equity line of credit?

The Millennial Episode

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 15:31:30 -0400

Mullooly Asset Podcast #195 Time Stamps: 2:27 – “What are some general tips for stocks and investing?” 5:53 – “Is it a bad time to invest in equities?” 12:02 – “How do I invest with minimal net worth?” 17:46 – “Should I rollover my 401K from my previo...

Co-Signing Loans, Moving to Cash, Municipal Bonds & More!

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 12:12:45 -0400

Mullooly Asset Podcast #194 Time Stamps: 2:33 – “what does it mean when you move your investments to cash?” 4:34 – “why do municipal bond funds all seem to lose money for their customers?” 11:28 – “how much do I have to pay in taxes when transferring t...

Retirement Accounts, Credit Scores, & Home Equity Loans – MAM Podcast 193

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 11:22:29 -0400

Time Stamps: 1:42 – “Should I withdraw from my retirement accounts?” 6:25 – “How will buying or leasing a car affect my ability to get a mortgage?” 11:40 – “Should we use our 401K funds to pay off a home equity loan?

MAM 192: Tim & Tom Answer Your Questions

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 05 Sep 2017 14:09:19 -0400

Time Stamps: 1:21 – “What’s a reasonable suggestion for a company 401K match amount?” 2:58 – “How can I receive distributions from a mutual fund loss?” 10:21 – “Where can I put excess cash so that it can grow and remain accessible?

MAM 191: Tim & Tom Take Your Questions

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 11:34:42 -0400

Time Stamps: 1:25 – “Will I have to pay back a 401(k) loan with post-tax dollars?” 5:00 – “How cautious should I be of retiring when I still have substantial debt on my plate?” 8:45 – “Is it better to hold a REIT in a taxable account or a Roth IRA?

MAM 190: Financial Questions with Tim & Tom

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 15:41:54 -0400

Time stamps: 1:10 – “How wary should I be of 401(k) fees through my company’s plan?” 4:50 – “How should I invest a large sum of my savings towards my kids future expenses?” 7:28 – “Is now a good time to put money into a Roth IRA?

MAM 189: Tim & Tom Answer Your Questions

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:33:28 -0400

Time stamps: 2:00 – “Which bond ETF should I invest in?” 6:00 – “How can I recover from losses in my IRA?” 9:25 – “Where should we invest a profit sharing distribution to minimize the taxes?” 11:50 – “Should I start managing my own retirement account?...

MAM 188: Tim & Tom’s Mailbag Questions

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 04 Aug 2017 09:50:54 -0400

Mullooly Asset Podcast #188 – Tim & Tom’s Mailbag Questions – Transcript Tom Mullooly: Welcome back to the podcast. This is episode number 188. 188 podcasts. That’s pretty good. Tim Mullooly: That’s a lot. Tom Mullooly: Yeah. I’m Tom Mullooly.

MAM 187: Tim & Tom Answer Investopedia Questions

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 10:47:16 -0400

Mullooly Asset Podcast #187: Tim & Tom Answer Investopedia Questions – Transcript Tim: Welcome back to the podcast. This is episode number 187. Today we’re going to do something a little different. This is Tim. I’m here with Tom. Tom Mullooly: Hello, everyone. Tim: That’s the same, but today we’re going to do something a little different. We have some questions that come in on usually a weekly basis from Investopedia looking for advisors to answer them. We decided to pick out some of the good questions that we got over the last week and answer them for you. Tom Mullooly: Right. What we’re doing now is we’re really just kicking around the answers. These are not the formal answers that we would post online, but this is just two people talking. If you were here in our office instead of listening on a podcast, this is the immediate response that you would get, not something that’s been picked over and polished up for a letter or a blog post, but really, it’s just two advisors sitting around talking to someone who’s got some basic investing questions. Tim: Right. Just answering them off the top of our head. Not getting too bogged down in researching the answer and making sure they’re perfect. Tom Mullooly: Right, right. We’ve got a handful of questions. I think we’ve got five or six, so let’s … Tim: We’ll dive right in. Tom Mullooly: … see how far we can get. Tim: Sure. First question. “Where can I check the most active stocks during pre-market?” It goes on to say, “I recently learned about pre-market trading. Is there a commonly used resource for how to check trading volume during pre-market, and how can this be interpreted as a potential tool for investment strategy?” Tom Mullooly: Okay. The first thing I would tell you is if you’re going to be really serious about doing a lot of trading, like the person who wrote this question might be, is invest the money. Spend $2,700 a month and get a Bloomberg terminal. Tim: Right. Tom Mullooly: You’re going to get all the information you need. Other than that, there are some … You can go to a lot of these free financial websites or you can get a subscription to the Wall Street Journal or MarketWatch, some of these other sites that you’re going to find online. But just be aware that the volume that is posted is usually stale. It’s not always reported. We find the same thing with exchange traded funds, in that the volume that’s reported may not be the actual traded volume that particular day. Some of the stuff gets posted late. Some of the stuff doesn’t get posted at all. You have to be a little skeptical of these numbers that you see, especially in pre-market trades. One of the things that I used to caution to clients when they would … When the internet and CNBC really started taking off in the late ’90s, they would talk about how xyz.com, whatever the company was, reported earnings after the market closed, and it’s trading up 15%. I actually had clients that would call me and they’re like, “Can we buy shares of that in the after market?” At the time … I’m not talking about presently, but at the time, a lot of trades that took place in the after market or pre-market were considered matched sales. Think about that. Matched sales. So you want to sell 1,000 shares of XYZ at $71.25. No such thing as a market order. You want to sell your shares at $71.25. There has to be a buyer at that price, and if it doesn’t happen, no match. No sale. I’m not sure if that’s the way things are posted now, but that’s how the Wild West began. Think about if you had someone on the other end who you knew who was interested in buying what you were selling.

MAM 186: Tim & Tom Talk Everything ETF's

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 07 Jul 2017 06:38:30 -0400

MAM 186: Tim & Tom Talk Everything ETF’s – Transcript Tom Mullooly : Welcome to episode 186. That’s episode 1 8 6 of the Mullooly Asset Management podcast. This is Tom Mullooly. I’m here with Tim. Tim: Hey, everybody. Tom Mullooly : We want to talk about a topic that’s near and dear to our business, exchange traded funds. Before we walked in here to record this, I looked up and went as far back as I could on the mullolly.net website and I saw that I actually wrote about exchange traded funds in January of 2007. Tim: Wow. Tom Mullooly : We’ve owned them longer than that. Tim: Right. Tom Mullooly : In fact, when I was a broker, I owned shares of S-P-Y, SPY, the very first exchange traded fund for some family members, and I had to constantly explain to them for the first three or four years what this actually was. I don’t consider myself a pioneer, but an early adapter. Tim: Good way to put it. Tom Mullooly : Yeah. They have a lot of benefits, and that’s what we really want to talk about in episode 186. Tim and I have prepared a couple of questions. We haven’t gone over all of them, so we’re going to have a free wheeling discussion about exchange traded funds. Tim, I’m just going to throw this one out. We can answer each other’s questions or pitch on things that we may want to add for reinforcement, but why do you think advisors, and especially Mullooly Asset, are using exchange traded funds instead of buying individual stocks or mutual funds? Tim: Well, to start off, addressing why we would buy that instead of stocks, first thing that comes to my mind would be the risk that comes with owning individual stocks. We’ve seen it all happen before. Names like Enron come to mind where stock out of nowhere just crumbles to the ground. An exchange traded fund being a basket of stocks, you can still give your clients exposure to certain stocks that they might want in their account, but having it all wrapped under one ETF, one ticker symbol, is a good way to dissipate the risk that one single company could potentially blow up someone’s portfolio. Tom Mullooly : That’s a good way of putting it. I’ll also add to that that sometimes we’re going to see sectors move, and sectors are a lot like schools of fish. Tim: Right. Tom Mullooly : It used to be, when I was a broker in the ’80s, if oil looked good, we would buy Exxon. If technology looked good, we would buy IBM. If a sub-sector like semiconductors looked good, we would buy Intel. In our work with Dorsey Wright, we have been able to build these matricis that show the top performer from top to bottom. If we do it the old way and say, “Well, semiconductors are doing well, so let’s buy Intel,” and Intel’s at the bottom of the matrix, meaning it’s the worst performer or near one of the bottom performers in the group, you’re just not going to get that move. We can capture the entire sector now. Instead of going in and trying to cherry pick which stocks are going to do the best, we can buy the whole sector when a sector’s going to outperform. One of the things that Tim brings to the meeting every week is this report on technical attributes and score direction. You want to talk a little bit about that? Tim: Sure. Tom Mullooly : Not really what we thought we’d talk about when it comes to ETFs, but it does help to paint the picture. Tim: It kind of ties in. Right. Every week I run this report on Dorsey Wright, and they have their different rankings of scores that they give to each sector. One thing that you would like to see is a score direction being positive, meaning that it’s trending upwards or that sector has been performing better than other sectors in the past. I bring it every week.

MAM 185: Angelo Fiouris of Altice Media

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 14:03:15 -0400

Our guest for this episode of the podcast was Angelo Fiouris. Angelo works for Altice Media, but people in the New Jersey area probably know the company better as Cablevision. Angelo talks with Tom about the ever-changing industry of advertising on cable television, and sheds some light on some common misconceptions surrounding the business. It was truly a pleasure sitting down with Angelo, and we hope you enjoy the conversation! MAM 185: Angelo Fiouris of Altice Media Transcript Tom Mullooly: Welcome back to the Mullooly Asset Management podcast. This is episode number 185 and our guest today is Angelo Fiouris from Altice Media Sales. Angelo? Angelo Fiouris: Thanks for having me. Tom Mullooly: Glad you could join us today. Angelo Fiouris: I’m excited to be here. Tom Mullooly: Who in the world is Altice Media? You want to talk a little bit about that? Angelo Fiouris: Sure. Tom Mullooly: I don’t think that’s a name, a household name, yet. Angelo Fiouris: It’s not. It became one today, perhaps. Leading up to today, I don’t think there’s a great awareness of the Altice brand just yet. The reason for that is because they’re based in Europe. Altice is based in Europe. They’re a French company based in Amsterdam. Tom Mullooly: So what Angelo is referring to is we happen to be recording this on the day that Altice Media went public. Angelo Fiouris: That’s right. Altice USA went public today, the initial public offering. Pretty exciting day. We rang the bell at the stock market and everything today, so 200 employees were on scene and it was an exciting day for the company. Tom Mullooly: All right, so tell us what your role is with Altice. Angelo Fiouris: Sure. Basically I’m an account executive, right? What does that mean, I’m more of a consultant. I see myself as a guy that provides solutions to businesses that know they need help and to businesses that don’t yet know that they need help. Tom Mullooly: I think you could probably count Mullooly Asset Management in that second group. We didn’t know that we needed help. Angelo Fiouris: You might think that initially, but before you and I met, we had the appointment booked. I did a little research on you guys and I went to your website. I had looked at what you were already doing and I said, “Wow, these guys are ahead of the game. They have a podcast, they have a blog, they’re doing things that most small businesses don’t do.” Although you thought you didn’t have any help, you were actually helping yourselves. Now you’ve got the domination combination of TV with your digital efforts. You were farther ahead than you thought you were. Tom Mullooly: (laughter). Do you want to talk a little bit about how we actually began working with you? Angelo Fiouris: Sure. If I recall correctly, I got a call from your son, Tim, or an email from Tim on the Friday of Labor Day weekend. I won’t forget that because it was 2:00 in the afternoon and I said, “Wow, I’m not the only guy that works on a Friday afternoon before a holiday.” Tom Mullooly: He’s got a slave driver for a dad. Angelo Fiouris: There you go, right? I gave Tim a call that afternoon and we made the appointment. You guys were referred to me, if I’m not mistaken … I can’t remember where that was from. Oh, here’s what it was. Tim had filled out the online … that’s what it was. Yeah, that’s what it was. Online, we request some information regarding, so I had to think about that for a minute. There it is. Tom Mullooly: We met in early September and our ads were running at the end of October. Angelo Fiouris: I think the middle of October we were live, the third week or something like that. It didn’t take long.

MAM 184: Tim & Tom Talk DOL Fiduciary Rule

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 10:39:23 -0400

MAM 184: Tim & Tom Talk DOL Fiduciary Rule Transcript Tom: Welcome to the Mullooly Asset Management podcast. This is Tom Mullooly, and I’m joined by Tim Mullooly. Tim: Hey everybody. Tom: This is episode 184. Tim: 184. Tom: I almost said 185. Tim: Yeah. Tom: We’re going to talk about a topic that we covered a few episodes back in December, but apparently … Tim: It’s back. Tom: It’s back. We need to revisit the Department of Labor changes that are coming now on June 9th. Tim: That’s right. Yeah. Does everyone remember that DOL rule that people were talking about a lot last year? Well, like Tom said, it’s coming back, June 9th, so next week, it’ll go into partial effect, not full effect. It was scheduled originally to go into this partial effect back in March or April, I think, but it got delayed, but it’s finally going into somewhat of effect, so we figured we would give everybody a refresher as to what this rule is, who it affects, and the ins and outs. Tom: A couple of things that, I think, are important. Tim’s right in the sense that this was originally supposed to be in place April 10th and with the full effect of January 1st of next year, 2018, and that full implementation date … Tim: That’s still the case. That’s still set. Yup. Tom: Yeah. The major change … I sat on a panel at NASDAQ at the end of November discussing the Department of Labor changes. At that time, we didn’t know it was going to get pushed back like it has, but I remember speaking with a reporter afterwards and I said, “For one of the few times in my career, I can remember being the after picture, not the before picture,” because it sounds like, on the surface, that they would prefer to see advisors gravitate more towards the business model that we’ve got here at Mullooly Asset Management. Tim: Right. Yeah. For us here, as a firm, not going to have too many big changes to put into effect with this rule. It’s more going to affect people in the broker/dealer side of things, but it’s just going into partial effect on June 9th, so what exactly does that mean? Tom: June 9th happens to be a Friday, so I think everyone’s going to be good over the weekend. Tim: Right. Tom: They’re not going to really enforce any of the rules on the very first day that this is in place, and it’s kind of … What was the analogy that you saw in a magazine? Tim: I think one article in Forbes said there is a “no bite” during this partial effect period, meaning, the rules are there and they want you to abide by them, but there’s not going to be any real enforcement of them until the January 1st full effect. Tom: They’re kind of making a trial run. Tim: Right. Just a dry run to … You could call it a “soft open”, when you open a restaurant, I think, was the quote from the Forbes article. Even though you know you have to act in the best interest of your investors, there’s no one really enforcing it. Tom: It’s pretty amazing to think that between basically now and January 1st, we’re going to force people in the industry to act in the best interest of investors. Are you kidding me? Tim: Shouldn’t that have always been the case? Tom: Right. I just want to read some things that were in the Department of Labor frequently asked questions. If you want to read the entire rules that they put out, go right ahead, but they put out a couple of these frequently asked question guides and they’re excellent. Tim: They’re much easier to read for everyday people. Tom: What they talked about was during this transition period,

MAM 182 - Will There Be People Involved? - Our Interview with Drew Anlas

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 25 May 2017 05:00:31 -0400

Our guest on this podcast episode was Drew Anlas. Drew works for NJ Lenders, a mortgage banking company here in New Jersey. Drew has been a mortgage banker for 34 years now, and has a keen eye for the way things should be in the business. Drew is most definitely a people-person, and loves interacting with people. As you may have gathered from this episode’s title, if there are people involved, count Drew in. This was a truly fun interview, and we hope you enjoy it as well. To learn even more about Drew, follow this link here to his LinkedIn page! Tom: Welcome to the podcast. Today my guest is Drew Anlas. Drew is with NJ Lenders and this is episode number 182, 182. Drew, welcome to the podcast. Drew Anlas: Thank you Tom, and thank you for having me today. I appreciate it. Tom: Let’s start out and tell us what you do and then we’ll get into a little bit of history. Drew Anlas: Yes Tom I’ve been a mortgage banker for 34 years now. I started on Valentine’s Day in 1984 for a now defunct bank called Shadow Lawn Savings and Loan where I learned the trade and moved out onto my own in 1987, and I’ve been doing it ever since. Tom: Wow. So you started working in a bank and now you’re with NJ Lenders which is a mortgage broker. Drew Anlas: Mortgage banker. Tom: Okay. So explain so we can understand a little better, because you’ll find mortgage people that work in a bank and then you’ll find mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers. Can you shed a little light on the differences? Drew Anlas: Yeah, and that’s a very important question. I get asked that a lot, the difference especially between a mortgage broker and a mortgage banker. The difference between a banker and a broker is a broker cannot issue their own commitments, they do not lend their own funds, they’re brokering to a third party source to do basically all of the hard stuff. They do the processing, but then they rely on outside bank underwriters, other banks to supply funds, et cetera. As a full fledged mortgage banker you can originate, approve, close all of your own loans, which is what we do using bank warehousing lines. So when we close a loan and then we sell the loan we’ll replenish our warehousing lines so we can lend again, and again, and again. So a bank is just whoever they are, they’re a lending source for whatever loan products they have. As a banker we can sell to 45 to 50 different lending sources around the country, therefore giving the customer the ultimate opportunity for product rate, et cetera. Tom: So that also gives you a lot of flexibility if you’re trying to help someone get a mortgage and it doesn’t go through what you would think a traditional channel you can go elsewhere. Drew Anlas: Yes, and it’s important. Our underwriters and our loan officers have to know the guidelines and the rates every day of over 45 to 50 different lending sources. So it is challenging because you do not only have to know one product line, you have to know 45 or 50 product lines. But as I’m sure you in the financial world and insurance it’s similar to that where you have access to a lot of different avenues to go. So an advantage is being able to help a customer if they’re not fitting inside the box 100%. Tom: Right. Well that’s a lot of moving parts there. Drew Anlas: Yeah. I relate getting mortgage to putting a jigsaw puzzle, and the jigsaw puzzle you’re missing that one piece and you’re sitting there fighting trying to get a loan approved or closed and you got to find that missing piece. So when you go to a one dimensional source if you’re missing that one piece and you can’t find it you’re done where we can maneuver and try to figure out...

MAM 183 - Tim & Tom Talk IPO's

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 19 May 2017 09:44:12 -0400

There’s a lot of buzz flying around about hot IPO’s. On this episode of the podcast, Tim and Tom sit down to discuss all things IPO-related! If you have ever wondered “what exactly is an IPO?”, or “am I the type of investor suited for an IPO?”, give this episode a listen. You can find the transcript of the episode below, and we hope you enjoy! TRANSCRIPT: Tim: Welcome to the podcast this is Tim Mullooly. Today I’m here with Tom Mullooly and we’re going to be talking all about IPO’s or initial public offerings. There’s a lot to know about IPO’s. Some people don’t really know what to make of them or if they’re good or not to buy or what should we do with them. We’re going to kind of spell it out for you, get into the what to know about IPO’s. Tom: Tim, I think really before we get into anything further about initial public offerings or IPO’s, why don’t you just explain to our listeners what is an initial public offering. Tim: Right, probably a good place to start, an IPO, initial public offering is also, it’s the first time that a stock of a private company is offered to the public. The company has been private for a little while, they decide we want to go public and offer some shares of stock to the outside world so they have an initial public offering. Tom: When I’m buying shares of XYZ or ABC on the stock market and it’s been trading for years and years, how much money does XYZ or ABC actually get when I buy their stock? Tim: They don’t get any of that. Tom: Right, yeah so the only time that a company gets money from through a stock sale is the initial offering. The first time that they are, because they’re the sellers of the stock, anytime that you’re selling stock you get money in your account. When you’re buying stock, you’re taking money out of your account and you’re investing it into something. The initial public offering is the first time that you’re going to be permitted to buy the stock. It’s also the only time that the company actually gets the money from this sale. Now there are times where companies will do what’s called secondary offerings. They take some of their shelf stock and they say we’re going to issue five percent more shares as a way to raise money for the company. Really, the biggest way for people to get in on the ground floor unless you’re an insider is through that initial public offering. I think a lot of people, new investors may not understand when you’re buying shares of Microsoft, Microsoft doesn’t get that money. You’re actually just trading hands with someone else who’s looking to sell Microsoft and you’re buying their shares, that’s really how it works. Tim: Yeah and there’s a lot of different market adages that you’d hear about IPO’s. Sometimes if an IPO goes down people will say, well that’s just the insiders selling their shares, why would you want to buy the company if the insiders are selling. Tom: That’s a really good point and a lot of IPO’s or initial public offerings, if they don’t work out that seems to be the recurring theme that you hear, well the insiders are selling which technically is true. Tim: It’s true but it’s easy to say that in hindsight. Tom: There’s so many reasons why a stock can go down. Very few of them have anything specifically to do with that company, maybe their sector’s out of favor, maybe that the market went down, the market was pulling back when the company went public. That’s out of everybody’s control. Yeah, we hear that a lot when folks buy or there’s a popular initial public offering that a lot of people want and the stock goes down. Well the insiders are selling,

MAM 181: Never Quit, Even if Homeless - Our Interview with Jessica Baguchinsky

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 12 May 2017 12:36:07 -0400

We recently had the pleasure to catch up with Jessica Baguchinsky of Paychex. Jessica is a sales superstar, and if you are trying to grow your business, increase your sales or you’re looking to learn how to pull your business (or yourself) up, you ought to listen to this podcast. We titled Episode 181: “Never Quit, Even if Homeless” because for a period of time Jessica was homeless due to Superstorm Sandy. Yet Jess continued to plow ahead, setting and surpassing sales records throughout her homeless period. How this fits in with financial planning: some of the basic building blocks in financial planning involve knowing how (financially) to recover from a major event, like suddenly becoming homeless, or starting out from scratch with no experience, and starting without a safety net. Jessica Baguchinsky is a great example who through hard work, determination and perseverance has succeeded. A very inspiring story and well worth a listen! Transcript: Thomas Mullooly: Hello and welcome to the podcast. My guest today is Jessica Baguchinsky, better known by her friends as J. Bags. Say hello J. Bags. J. Baguchinsky: Hello Mr. Mullooly. Thomas Mullooly: I invited you onto the podcast as one of our pioneer guests, because I think you’ve got a pretty good story to tell. And hopefully, we can share it. The microphone is actually turned on this time. J. Baguchinsky: Helpful. Thomas Mullooly: For our listeners, this is actually our second time through this, because we went though the entire podcast the first time without even realizing that the microphone was turned off. That was my fault. So, let’s start. Fill us in on the J. Bags story. How did you get started, and just kind of take us from the beginning. J. Baguchinsky: Sure, well, I guess college. You know I grew up in New Jersey, went to the University of Delaware for college, and I graduated with a degree in education. Thomas Mullooly: Blue Hens. J. Baguchinsky: Fighting Blue Hens. Thomas Mullooly: There you go. J. Baguchinsky: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So it was a great four years, definitely, kind of, I would say paved the way for the next chapter in my world. When I started college, studying abroad wasn’t really something that interested me. While I loved traveling, and had done some amazing trips with my family. It was not so much of a burning desire let’s say. But throughout some great experiences in college, I think it’s really kind of shaped the path that my world has taken. Thomas Mullooly: One of the reasons why I invited Jess onto the podcast today is because, in my opinion, she is probably one of the best examples I’ve seen in the sales industry. She’s a superstar, rockstar. She does a lot of things right, and it’s interesting how … Do you think sales people are born or made? J. Baguchinsky: I think a little bit of both. I think it’s definitely, I think my approach is I was sort of born into this. I was raised by a family of entrepreneurs and sales people. And I lived that world. Work hard, play hard, and manage your own schedule. And if you manage it well, you get to where you want to be. Thomas Mullooly: But when you came out of school, you didn’t go right into sales. J. Baguchinsky: Not quote/unquote sales. I went into teaching, which is right up there. Thomas Mullooly: It’s sales, no matter what you call it. That’s great. How do you think that got you prepared for what you’re doing now? J. Baguchinsky: I graduated from the University of Delaware with a degree in education and a minor in English. Like I said, the travel bug bit me in college. So I actually, when I graduated, moved home, worked hard for that summer, and then was fortunate enough to be able to take a two-month road trip with two of my absolute best friends still to th...

MAM 180: Our Interview with Christopher Gannatti, WisdomTree

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 05 May 2017 15:23:10 -0400

We recently had the pleasure to catch up with Christopher Gannatti, Associate Director of Research with WisdomTree. Based in New York City, WisdomTree Asset Management is the seventh largest ETF provider based on AUM (Assets Under Management). Christopher was gracious to spend time answering our questions about the market, about the economy, BrExit and other topics of interest to investors. As a frequent writer, please be sure to check out Christopher’s work, which can be found at the WisdomTree blog: www.wisdomtree.com/blog. TRANSCRIPT: Tom: Okay, welcome back to the podcast. Our guest today is Christopher Gannatti. Christopher’s the associate director of research at Wisdom Tree Asset Management. Christopher began at Wisdom Tree as a research analyst in 2010, he worked directly with Jeremy Schwartz, the director of research. Christopher is out there communicating Wisdom Tree’s thoughts on the markets, and analyzing existing strategies and developing new approaches. Prior to Wisdom Tree, Christopher was at Lord Abbett, where he worked as a regional consultant. I’d also mention that he received his MBA in quantitative finance, accounting, and economics from the NYU’s Stern School of Business, and is a graduate of Colgate University as well. Christopher, welcome to the podcast. Christopher G.: Tom, thanks for having me today. It’s a real pleasure. Tom: Well we’re glad you could join us and Christopher you’re also a CFA, so I’ll kick off with this one. With all your experience now on Wall Street, have you ever seen a market that’s so baffling to so many? Christopher G.: Tom, I appreciate that because, you know, it’s that time of the year where those charter holders and not quite yet charter holders are getting those books out and studying. I certainly remember my own journey and process there. Looking at the markets, we’re in a strange reality where you can point to these distinct events where prior to the events happeningyou would say unequivocally if this happens the market absolutely will go down. We can go … Let’s talk about Brexit. Basically almost a year ago at this point, Brexit happened, within a couple weeks market goes up. We look back at the Donald Trump election. At the time it, even though the polls were close leading up to it, we look back in hindsight and view it as a shock what happened. Maybe the markets went down in the overnight, but then ultimately went up. The Italian referendum in December, markets went up. It seems each event that happens these days, the markets react to it and then proceed to go ever higher. A lot of people find that perplexing because it’s not as though it’s only been a year or so that the markets have been going up. The markets, especially the U.S. market, has been going up for the better part of a decade, and until more recently the U.S. market has, more or less, been outperforming most other markets out there, leading a lot of people to say, “Why would I own anything but the S&P 500 Index given ultimately what has transpired?” It created, what we feel, to be a lot of interesting opportunities, but you’re absolutely right. At times, getting some of that political commentary in there, it feels downright perplexing. Tom: Talking about perplexing and baffling, I forget if the old adage is, is it two steps and a stumble, or three steps and a stumble? The Federal Reserve’s been on the sidelines for such a long period of time and now they finally started raising rates. There are so many opinions out there about this is, you know, they’re moving too fast or they’re behind the curve. What, in your opinion, will Yellen and her team have on equity prices at the rate they’re moving now? Christopher G.: It’s a phenomenal question because we all can r...

MAM 179: DOL - Will the Department of Labor Proposed Regulations Go Through?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 11:20:14 -0500

The DOL Regulations — will they go through? Proposed Department of Labor (DOL) regulations are slated to go into effect in April 2017. Will this actually happen? The DOL began working on these regulations (“fiduciary regulations”) back in 2010. Six years later, the rule was set in motion with an enactment date of April 10, 2017 and full enactment by January 2018. But there now seems to be some question whether the new incoming Trump administration will allow the DOL regulations to see the light of day. The proposed regs are forcing many in the investment community to reexamine their current business practices. the biggest issue is firms cannot “roll the dice” and hope the Trump administration will terminate it, scale it back or delay it. That’s a risky bet. Here are some time spots in the podcast episode 179. Feel free to skip to different spots to pick up the conversation: 2:45 Thanks to @ritholtzwealth for their very pithy way of explaining the role of a fiduciary! 3:15 Explaining a difference between brokers and advisors 4:45 Potential challenges for 401k accounts and IRA accounts 5:40 Some proposed changes under DOL Thank you for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed episode 179 of our podcast, please share it using the social media buttons you see nearby. Also, please leave a review for the Mullooly Asset podcast over on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews help us and we appreciate it! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read every one of them. Now, if you have any questions, just get in touch with us! You can call us at 732-223-9000, or email us at support@mullooly.net. By the way, if you subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, you will get automatic updates, each time we add a new episode.

MAM 178: Floating Rate Bond Funds - Trading Rate Risk for Credit Risk

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 11:42:49 -0400

It’s important to remember that eliminating one type of risk almost always results in assuming another when it comes to investing. There are no returns without some degree of risk taking. Floating rate bond funds are a great example of risk elimination actually being a risk trade. Floating rate bond funds significantly reduce one of the biggest worries of fixed income investors, interest rate risk. It’s pretty commonly known that when interest rates go up, bond prices go down. Bond rates and prices are negatively correlated. Floating rate bond funds differ from traditional bond funds because their interest rates aren’t fixed. They’re periodically adjusted based on a floating reference point, such as LIBOR or the Fed funds rate plus a built in spread. It’s typical to see these rates adjust to reflect changes every 30-90 days. Since their rates adjust to current yield conditions, their prices are not affected in the same way most bond funds are when rates rise. A bond fund with little to no interest rate risk? Sounds too good to be true! Let’s return to the concept of there being no returns without some degree of risk taking. What’s the catch with floating rate bond funds? In return for muted interest rate risk, these funds assume far more credit risk. Credit risk refers to the possibility that the loans making up the bond fund will not be repaid in a timely fashion (or at all). Floating rate bond funds are notorious for serving as a source of financing for companies with poor credit. Think of smaller or midsize businesses whose credit is not good enough to issue their own bonds. This means that the loans held in floating rate funds are significantly more likely to default than those held in higher quality fixed income products. In fact, returns on floating rate funds are most highly correlated to high yield (junk) bonds. If you’re relying on a bond allocation to lower your portfolio’s overall volatility, you may want to think twice about investing in floating rate bond funds. When credit spreads widen, these funds are at a higher default risk. This is likely to be poor timing for your bond investments to become riskier. According to Morningstar, in 2008 the average bank-loan fund lost 30% while the average intermediate term bond fund lost 4.7%. This all occurred while the S&P 500 index dropped by over 40%. If your reason for owning bonds is to diversify and have a lower overall portfolio volatility, floating rate bond funds failed pretty miserably at providing that in the last real crisis we saw. Many investors have misused these funds in the last few years as a way to express their prediction on the direction of interest rates. Just look back to the 12 months preceding June 30, 2013 for an example: Assets in floating rate bond funds increased by more than 70% seeing inflows of $45 billion. Those numbers include the infamous taper tantrum. We’re still waiting on the great rising rate environment, and I’m not smart enough to predict when we’ll see it. If somebody knows exactly when and by how much rates will rise…by all means, take advantage and pile into floating rate bond funds for their decreased interest rate risk. Just make sure to know when rates will stop rising too so you can time you exit from them. Investors would do well to remember that they’re always trading one type of risk for another when it comes to investing. In the case of floating rate bond funds, the trade is accepting higher credit risk for lower interest rate risk. Sources: https://pressroom.vanguard.com/content/nonindexed/9.2013_Floating_rate_bond_funds.pdf http://www.wsj.

Why to Keep a Portfolio Journal

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:30:17 -0400

Individual investors and investment advisors alike can benefit from keeping a portfolio journal. Having a handwritten record of past thoughts can be invaluable to our decision-making process in the future. Making financial decisions isn’t easy, and neither is giving financial advice. That’s why we should all be keeping a portfolio journal no matter what our role is in the […]

Learning from the Playoff Atmosphere

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 16:51:26 -0400

This is my favorite time of the year to watch sports. The NFL is back in action, but more importantly, October brings us the MLB Playoffs. We’re huge baseball fans here at Mullooly Asset Management, and this year is particularly exciting for us because our New York Mets are back in the post season after […]

Lehman Brothers, Seven years later

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 10:04:08 -0400

This week, we mark the seven-year anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers back in 2008. In the podcast, we quickly review how Bear Stearns and Lehman both collapsed from 2007 to 2008. We also remarked how leaders at several banks, brokerage firms, and other financial companies noted their organizations had little-to-no exposure to sub-prime […]

Trusting a Rules Based Strategy Isn't Easy

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 11:17:33 -0400

The NFL season is about to get underway. I know I’m anxiously anticipating next Thursday’s showdown between the Patriots and Steelers. Can you imagine either of these teams not planning for this matchup? We all know Bill Belichick will have something up his sleeve, and Mike Tomlin isn’t one to be caught flat-footed. Like football, […]

A discussion on Stop orders, Limit orders and Market orders

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 26 Aug 2015 20:13:44 -0400

On the podcast (recorded Wednesday August 26, 2015), Tom, Tim and Casey had a discussion on basics: Stop orders, Limit orders and Market orders. That is because on Monday morning, August 24, 2015, we saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average trade down more than 1000 points. At that time we saw the S&P 500 also trade down a like amount on a percentage basis. We also saw many exchange-traded funds (ETF’s) trade down on Monday morning – some moved down thirty percent or more in very early trading. How could that happen? To help answer that, let’s walk through a few different types or orders which can be entered on stock exchanges: Market order: you will be buying or selling your shares at what the current price is right now. Market at Open: can be entered nearly right up until the market opens. You will get the open price. Limit order: Instead of buying or selling “at the market” you identify the price for the trade to happen. But please understand the order may not happen right away – or ever! Stop Orders: Two types of stop orders — Stop order: this becomes activated when the stock or ETF moves through that stop price. THEN it becomes a MARKET order. Stop Limit Order: also becomes activated when the stock or ETF moves through that stop price. THEN it becomes a LIMIT order. Like all limit orders, the order may not happen right away – or ever! It’s possible to have a stop price at one price, and a limit price at another (Sell stop at $30, limit $29) Was it stop orders that drove down the market on Monday? VERY possible, but not the entire reason. Some ETF’s traded immediately down huge amounts, down 30% or more. But how useful was that stop order? When you have “gap down” openings: a stock or ETF closed the day before at $50, you have a stop order at $40 and the stock or ETF opens at $30, your stop order was activated…and became a market order, and your shares were sold at $30. Now with the “ease” of trading – you can now buy and sell stocks and ETF’s on a smart phone. It has become so easy to place an order on your laptop, iPad, smart phone. It’s really easy to make trading mistakes, or simply miss HOW the order should be entered. Something additional to consider with ETF’s: The price of an ETF is based on the price of the underlying holdings in the basket. The price gets updated throughout the trading day every 15 seconds. Now some media folks urge listeners NOT to own ETF’s with little volume. But the volume of the holdings IN the basket are what matter most. We heard claims like “the ETF system is broken” when some of these ETF’s were down 25%, 30% or more on Monday morning. But the system worked. If a market order is placed, and all the components in the basket are not currently open for trading, you will get the value of the components which ARE open for trading. Additionally, if an investor places an order – especially a market order – to sell at or before the market opens, there is something working against them: all the underlying members of the ETF may not have begun trading!

Relative and Absolute Asset Class Trends Matter

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 18:25:10 -0400

We’ve gained an outstanding education on relative strength investing from our friends at Dorsey Wright and Associates. Between their Point and Figure Institutes and daily research, they’ve taught us an incredible amount about the markets. One of the biggest tools they provide us with is called DALI, or Dynamic Asset Level Investing. DALI evaluates the supply […]

P90x and Factor Diversification

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 14:57:05 -0400

There’s a stigma surrounding home exercise DVD programs, I get it. Maybe it’s driven by the infomercials or the way they seem to gather cult-like followings. Either way, I’m willing to admit that I’ve become a Tony Horton disciple over the last few years. Every morning I pop in a P90x DVD and get my […]

Slow and Steady Beats Not at All

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 05 Aug 2015 17:13:59 -0400

“I can only afford to save $50 a month, that won’t be enough to make a difference. Why bother?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this or a variation of it. It comes up when discussing things like creating an emergency fund, saving for a down payment, investing for a child’s college […]

Don't Let the Status Quo Bias Stop You From Saving More

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 12:33:36 -0400

We fear change. It’s a fact. Think about the last time Twitter or Facebook updated its app. How many people initially complained about it? I’m guilty of eating the same thing for breakfast every day, scrambled egg whites with assorted vegetables. Don’t even think about recommending cereal to me. We are creatures of habit, and […]

Fixing the Holes in Your Financial Ship

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 22 Jul 2015 18:10:03 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Imagine that you and your family are about to take a cruise to the Caribbean. You’ll be stopping in St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. You’re excited for what should be an excellent trip, but upon boarding you find out that the ship is taking on water. Are you still going to the […] The post Fixing the Holes in Your Financial Ship appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

The Naive Diversification Heuristic in 401k's

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 07:45:44 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ If you’ve ever eaten at a buffet, you probably know what the naive diversification heuristic is without even realizing it. Let me explain. When I visit a buffet, I end up taking a little bit of everything so I don’t miss out on the restaurant’s best dish. It always seems like a reasonable way to […] The post The Naive Diversification Heuristic in 401k’s appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Keeping You Wrong

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 16:08:32 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ “It’s okay to be wrong, it’s not okay to stay wrong”. Maybe you’ve heard some variation of this saying before? It’s one of my favorites, as it applies nicely to all facets of life, especially investing. A common reason many of us decide to “stay wrong”, rather than change, is the sunk cost fallacy. The […] The post The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Keeping You Wrong appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Fighting the Endowment Effect

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 16:41:21 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ As humans, we’re all affected by different behavioral biases. We often let emotions dictate our actions, which can lead to unfavorable outcomes. These inherent biases make rational investing a difficult task. The endowment effect is one such bias that works against us as investors. Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth […] The post Fighting the Endowment Effect appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Recency Bias is Everywhere

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:12:30 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Recency bias is one of many cognitive errors that plague investors. It refers to the human tendency to overemphasize more recent data. The recency bias is most likely to be discussed in the realm of behavioral finance, however this bias can be found in every day life too. I want to share a few examples […] The post Recency Bias is Everywhere appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Technical Analysis Helps Us Focus on What We Can Control

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 15:46:41 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ We all spend inordinate amounts of valuable time stressing over things we cannot control. This is especially true for investors. No matter how hard we try, we cannot control what the market does. The market will do what it wants to, when it wants to. Here at Mullooly Asset Management, we’ve found that technical analysis […] The post Technical Analysis Helps Us Focus on What We Can Control appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Is the S&P 500 a Good Portfolio Benchmark?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 16:18:02 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ This morning at our daily research meeting, we discussed something that several clients have brought up to us recently: it’s June and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are barely positive for the year. While it is important to monitor your portfolio’s progress over time, many investors make the mistake of comparing their […] The post Is the S&P 500 a Good Portfolio Benchmark? appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

F-Squared: Too Good to Be True

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 09:22:04 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You’ve likely heard or used this adage before. It applies to all areas of life, and investing is no exception. Too often, smart people are blinded by colorful presentations, outlandish guarantees, or slick sales pitches. Well go ahead and add falsified performance data to […] The post F-Squared: Too Good to Be True appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Dow Jones Industrial Average Celebrates 119th Birthday

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 27 May 2015 16:13:01 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Yesterday the Dow Jones Industrial Average celebrated its 119th birthday! Charles Dow and Edward Jones created the index, and it was first calculated on May 26, 1896. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average is certainly the most discussed US market index, you may be surprised to hear that it’s actually only the second oldest. Dow […] The post Dow Jones Industrial Average Celebrates 119th Birthday appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Relative Strength Buy Signals

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 20 May 2015 17:08:03 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ A topic we can’t seem to discuss enough here at Mullooly Asset Management is relative strength. Relative strength refers to the momentum factor. As John Lewis, CMT of Dorsey Wright Money Management described in a recent whitepaper: “Relative Strength (momentum) strategies focus on purchasing securities that have already demonstrated the ability to outperform a broad market […] The post Relative Strength Buy Signals appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Group Annuity Products: An Expensive Way to Invest

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 12 May 2015 17:23:39 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ At Mullooly Asset Management, we help a lot of individuals manage their retirement accounts at work. The type of retirement account doesn’t matter (401k, 403b, or 457), we advise individuals on how to allocate their retirement savings within these plans. Sometimes, we review a client’s employer sponsored plan and it seems to be lagging the other […] The post Group Annuity Products: An Expensive Way to Invest appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

ETFs Continue to Become More Specific

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 06 May 2015 17:44:06 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Exchange traded funds (or ETFs) have been around since January of 1993. SPY (the S&P 500 index ETF) was the first of its kind, and we’ve watched the industry evolve from there. After SPY, we saw the ETF universe expand to include sectors, international indexes and countries, bonds, and commodities. ETFs have continued to become […] The post ETFs Continue to Become More Specific appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Understanding Peer and Market Relative Strength

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 16:02:56 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Our portfolio management strategy at Mullooly Asset Management has two main parts: point and figure charting and relative strength. Relative strength is also referred to by academics as the momentum factor. To put it plainly, relative strength (or momentum) is the phenomenon that securities which have performed well relative to peers on average continue to outperform, […] The post Understanding Peer and Market Relative Strength appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Work for Longer or Save More Aggressively?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:34:00 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Time is said to be our most valuable asset, so if you’re behind on saving for retirement, just work longer! Sounds simple enough, right? While this theoretically seems like a great solution, it isn’t so easy in the real world. Nobody likes to hear this, but the best way to improve your chance of having […] The post Work for Longer or Save More Aggressively? appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Not Having a Plan Means Not Knowing Yourself

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 17:56:10 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ It’s been said that, “A goal without a plan is just a wish”. This applies to personal finance, as well as many other aspects of life. Most people wish that they could stop worrying about their finances so much, but they have no plan to achieve that goal. When it comes to finances, not having […] The post Not Having a Plan Means Not Knowing Yourself appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Roth IRA or Roth 401k?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:18:14 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Here at Mullooly Asset Management, we help a lot of individuals manage their retirement accounts at work. In doing so, we’ve taken a look at countless 401k’s, 457’s and 403b’s. Within many of these employer sponsored plans, a Roth option is offered. I’ve noticed some confusion between these Roth 401k’s (or Roth 403b’s…or Roth 457’s) […] The post Roth IRA or Roth 401k? appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Term Life Insurance vs. Whole Life Insurance

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 17:11:00 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ If you’ve looked into buying life insurance before, there’s a good chance you’ve heard the adage, “Buy term and invest the difference”. We do not sell insurance at Mullooly Asset Management or hold ourselves out to be insurance experts. However, we do help our clients out with basic financial planning, and in doing so insurance frequently […] The post Term Life Insurance vs. Whole Life Insurance appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

We Can't Predict Your Retirement Age

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 12:10:54 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ On this week’s podcast Tim and I discuss why we’re incapable of telling people what age they’ll be able to retire at. This might be disappointing to hear, but it’s the truth. We aren’t able to predict what age you’ll be able to retire at or how much money you’ll need to do so with […] The post We Can’t Predict Your Retirement Age appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Foundations of Our Strategy: Point and Figure Basics

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 17:18:41 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ At Mullooly Asset Management, one of the foundations of our strategy is point and figure charting. Point and figure charting is a type of technical anaylsis that tracks security prices through columns of X’s and O’s. People successfully use other types of technical analysis to manage money, but we prefer point and figure because we […] The post Foundations of Our Strategy: Point and Figure Basics appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Maybe You Shouldn't Be Maxing Out Your 401k (Yet)

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 12:13:05 -0400

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ It may not always be appropriate to max out your 401k contributions. That’s right, Tom and I make the case for not maxing out your 401k contributions on this week’s Mullooly Asset Management podcast. Probably not what you were expecting to hear, right? Let me preface this post by saying that most of the time, […] The post Maybe You Shouldn’t Be Maxing Out Your 401k (Yet) appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Why Increased Job Creation Hasn't Inspired More Spending

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 09:00:06 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ We’ve definitely seen an increase in job creation recently. This is generally a good economic sign: more jobs being created means consumers are more willing to spend money, thus stimulating the economy. We haven’t seen this lately though, leaving many to wonder what’s up? On this week’s Mullooly Asset Management podcast, Tom and Tim discuss why […] The post Why Increased Job Creation Hasn’t Inspired More Spending appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Are You Saving or Investing?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 25 Feb 2015 15:58:20 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ “I’m saving for a down payment on a home.” “I’m saving for my child’s college education.” “I’m saving for retirement.” These are three very different goals, yet all have been deemed “saving”. Not to get picky, but there’s a big difference between saving and investing. It’s important to clarify which one you’re doing. On this week’s […] The post Are You Saving or Investing? appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Being Realistic About Time Horizons

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 17:05:36 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ One of the most frequently quoted time periods in finance is the ambiguous “long term”. We’re all supposed to be long-term investors, and studies show that “over the long term” results will be desirable. This sounds nice, but what is this mythical “long term”? Is there a defined period of time that qualifies as “long […] The post Being Realistic About Time Horizons appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Fee-Based Advisors: Working for You or Their Firm?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 11 Feb 2015 16:50:17 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ “Fee-based…fee-only…same thing, right?”. We’ve heard this before, and if it sounds correct to you then the brokerage industry’s obfuscation has succeeded. Just last week, Tom and Brendan discussed why you need to ask how your advisor is compensated. With so many advisors taking the dually-registered route these days, it’s integral that you understand their business […] The post Fee-Based Advisors: Working for You or Their Firm? appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Why You Need to Ask How Your Advisor is Compensated

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 15:21:12 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Let’s lay out a hypothetical situation here: You haven’t been feeling well and decide that a trip to your doctor is in order. After describing your symptoms to the doctor, they decide to prescribe you Drug A for treatment. You thank the doctor, fill your prescription and move on. Two weeks later, you find out […] The post Why You Need to Ask How Your Advisor is Compensated appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs): Know What You Own

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 17:47:19 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) began trading in January of 1993. That was the first exchange traded fund, and we’ve seen quite the evolution since then. Flash forward 22 years and ETFs have become a market fixture. From ETFs we’ve seen another exchange traded product develop: exchange traded notes or ETNs. Exchange traded note…exchange traded […] The post Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs): Know What You Own appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Bad Things Happen in Negative Trends

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 15:20:51 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Here at Mullooly Asset Management we use a form of technical analysis called point and figure charting to manage investments. In point and figure, one of the main purposes the chart has it to help us identify trends. Whether we’re looking at a stock, index, mutual fund, ETF or commodity, the chart will show us […] The post Bad Things Happen in Negative Trends appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Even in Good Years the Market Pulls Back

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 16:15:42 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ Keeping things in perspective is important. Investors fall victim to cognitive biases sometimes, but we can do our best to avoid that type of behavior. With the strong markets seen in 2012, 2013, and 2014, investors are primed for recency bias to cloud their judgement. It’s imperative to remember that even in good years, the […] The post Even in Good Years the Market Pulls Back appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Even the S&P 500 Changes Holdings

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 09:30:52 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ According to many market experts, investors should buy and hold always and forever, right? If you’ve been told that before you might be surprised to learn that even the S&P 500 changes its holdings every so often. In fact, according to a recent Business Insider article: “Since 1980, over 320 companies were deleted from the […] The post Even the S&P 500 Changes Holdings appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

Avoiding Cognitive Biases: The Disposition Effect

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:15:56 -0500

Mullooly Asset Management - Fee-Only Investment Advisor Manasquan, NJ On this week’s Mullooly Asset Management podcast, Tom and Brendan discuss a cognitive bias known as the disposition effect. Cognitive biases such as the disposition effect, loss aversion, confirmation bias, and others can negatively affect investment performance. Tom and Brendan specifically address the disposition effect and how our rules based approach at Mullooly Asset Management […] The post Avoiding Cognitive Biases: The Disposition Effect appeared first on Mullooly Asset Management.

529 Plans: Know the Pros and Cons Involved

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:12:52 -0500

This week on the Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan talk about saving money for college. When it comes to saving money for college, we tend to get A LOT of questions about 529 plans here at Mullooly Asset Management. There is a lot of information that you should know about 529 plans before deciding it is the best choice for you. Tom and Brendan cover the pros and cons involved with these plans this week.

529 plans were one of the best inventions of Congress. They do just what they were supposed to which is offset the cost sending your child to college. We all know that the cost of attending college is not coming down anytime soon, so saving with that in mind is vital. This is what makes these plans a pretty important part of financial planning.

There are some definite pros to 529 plans that you should know. One benefit of these plans is that it allows for one consolidated account as opposed to multiple accounts. All the money can be gathered and invested together, which is beneficial. The 529 account can be owned by the student, parents, or even grandparents. Although grandparents should be weary of having their name on the account! Learn the reason why in the podcast. There are also tax benefits (in some states) that come from saving for college through these plans. Also, you do not need to worry if the child you were saving for does not end up going to college because the account can be transferred to another family member.

Some of the cons to 529 plans include the fact that the investments offered inside the plan are often loaded with fees. You need to be aware of these fees that come included with the plan before choosing to invest in one. There are also limited investment options in these plans. We sometimes joke that the options remind us of Neapolitan ice cream because of the lack of choices available. You can also only make changes once or twice a year in these plans, which can be potentially troubling at times.

There is a lot to learn about 529 plans, and we think that you should be aware of the pros and cons that are involved when investing in one! Tune into this week’s podcast and learn more.

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Financial Planning: Pay Down Debt Without Taking a Loan From Your 401K

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:50:20 -0500

Last week on the Mullooly Asset Management podcast, Tom and Brendan discussed the foundation of financial planning. This is a continuation of that discussion on saving money and your retirement plan. Tom and Brendan talked about taking loans from your 401k account at work in the last podcast. This week they talk about an alternative way that could be used to pay down debt.

In a scenario where a person has a debt to pay, but is also contributing to their 401k account at work; they are likely finding it difficult to make ends meet each month. Potentially a person could pay off their debt by NOT CONTRIBUTING to their retirement plan for a year or two. This would leave the extra money that would have been contributed to their 401k to quickly pay down the debt they owe. So instead of taking a loan from their retirement account and creating a five year re-payment plan, the debt is paid off in a year or two. Keep in mind that this is RISKY, and most people in the financial planning industry would not recommend this.

The risk that is involved with not contributing to your retirement account to pay off debt is that you never start contributing again. Many people do not have the kind of discipline it takes to pay off the debt and begin stocking away money again. You have to know yourself, and feel confident that you are capable of contributing again.

Tom and Brendan also talk about another frequently asked question they receive about financial planning. Should I save for my retirement or my kid’s college education? Tom answers this question simply by explaining that you can ALWAYS borrow money for college, but you can NOT borrow money for retirement. Tom also explains why he is not a fan of prepaid college tuition, and makes note that there will be a future podcast that discusses saving for college. Topics covered on the college saving podcast will include Custodial accounts and 529 plans.

Mullooly Asset Management strongly urges our listeners and readers talk with their personal investment adviser before making any choice to buy or sell any investments. None of the securities mentioned in this podcast or blog post are considered investment advice. If you do not have an investment adviser please do not hesitate to contact Mullooly Asset Management through phone call or email.

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Fundamentals of Financial Planning: Saving and Your Retirement Plan

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:50:34 -0500

In this week’s Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan continue talking about the foundation of financial planning. This week the topic they discuss saving money and your retirement plan. Saving money is a lost habit. In a recent Washington Post article (included in this post) it says that one in four people today take loans from their 401k plan. Personally we think that percentage is a little bit higher (around 40%). This tells us that people are consistently living beyond their means. People should reconsider where their money is going each month. This is an issue of financial planning, and professional help might be the best way to face the issue. Taking a loan from your 401k plan is really not a good solution. You are hurting yourself.

There are two types of loans that can be taken from a retirement plan. As far as financial planning is concerned, the first one might not be that bad. This loan allows you to take a loan out if you are buying your first home. It also gives you the span of 15 years to pay the loan back. This is reasonable and buying a home is a good thing! However, the other loan is the one you should be looking to stay away from. This is a personal loan and you are allowed to take either $50,000 or 50% of your account’s balance. The catch is that you have to pay this type of loan back in five years. This means you are setting yourself up for a fixed-rate, five year loan. The loan becomes taxable income and there is a 10% penalty if you cannot make your payments too.

Tom and Brendan also discuss how 401k plans have become the primary means of funding retirement. Another statistic from the same Washington Post article says that in 1980 four in five workers had a pension. Today that number has dropped to one in five. We all know that social security isn’t going to fund your retirement. If you take big loans from your 401k plan to cover expenses now, there is a good chance that you might outlive your money in the future. It is a scary prospect to consider, and Tom goes through an example of how this could potentially happen.

There is so much to learn about financial planning and this week’s lesson on retirement plans and saving money is a great example of that.

401(k) Breaches Undermining Retirement Security for Millions – The Washington Post
Fundamentals of Financial Planning – Saving and Your Retirement Plan transcription

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Compound Interest: A Main Component of Financial Planning

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:09:24 -0500

On this week’s Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan continue talking about some of the fundamental building blocks of financial planning. Last week they discussed how financial planning really starts with paying yourself first. Having money saved can help your decision making process become a lot better. In that sense, what you do with your savings is important as well. Compound interest is a topic you will encounter whether you are investing money or spending it. When you are investing or saving money compound interest can be your best friend, but when you are spending money compound interest can really hurt you.

Tom and Brendan give examples of how compound interest can hurt you financially. Tom talks about bigger purchases like financing a family vacation and leasing a car. Both of these are costly and both of them involve compound interest. If you use a typical credit card to finance a $5,000 trip, you will likely end up paying about $7100 for it over six years. The cost of compound interest can really add up and mess with any financial planning you have done. It is difficult to save when compound interest is eating away all of your money.

As bad as compound interest can be when you are spending, it can be awesome when you are investing or saving money. If you invest your money and earn 5% on it each year, you will quickly accrue a nice return if the interest is compound. Compound interest includes all of the earnings from each year, on top of the base investment. Compound interest is preferable over simple interest for this reason.

Knowing what compound interest is capable of doing depending on the situation is critical to financial planning. There are many things to consider when saving, spending, and investing. You can hear some examples in this week’s podcast!

Mullooly Asset Management strongly urges our listeners and readers talk with their personal investment adviser before making any choice to buy or sell any investments. None of the securities mentioned in this podcast or blog post are considered investment advice. If you do not have an investment adviser please do not hesitate to contact Mullooly Asset Management through phone call or email.

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Building Blocks of Financial Planning: Saving and Budgets

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:40:31 -0500

This week’s Mullooly Asset Management Podcast focuses on some of the building blocks of financial planning. Two very important factors in financial planning are saving and budgets. Tom’s favorite quote about financial planning is pretty simple, in fact it’s only three words. You need to SAVE MORE MONEY! This is the number one thing that people need to do a better job of. Saving more than you spend is financially wise.

Although saving and budgets are fundamental pillars of financial planning, many people don’t like to save money and dislike the idea of budgets. Saving money isn’t popular and is somewhat counter-intuitive. We live in a culture where people are always looking for a bigger house or a nicer car, but never thinking about saving more money. In 2007, people in the United States actually spent more than they earned. That means that people were spending more than their gross incom e!

Financial planning starts with saving. There is certainly a stigma attached to saving money, and it isn’t a good one. Saving needs to be looked at differently because for most people it comes with a negative connotation, like the word diet. Instead of saving you could think of it as, “paying yourself first”. By changing your attitude towards saving it might seem easier to accomplish each month. Set a goal to save each month, not just whatever is left over after paying the bills. This is the first step in having a finan cial plan.

Spending and saving are both habits, so don’t allow yourself to become a slave to debt. When you have money saved, it allows you to make smarter and better decisions.

If you feel lost and think you need to do some serious financial planning, you should start by paying yourself first. Listen to this week’s Mullooly Asset Management Podcast and learn how you can start saving today.

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Short Term Indicators in Point and Figure Charting

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:08:23 -0500

In this week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan wrap up their talk about indicators. In previous weeks they have discussed long and intermediate term indicators. Long term indicators are a confirming indicator of where the market will be

Intermediate Term Indicators Used in Point and Figure Charting

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:19:47 -0500

Tom and Brendan continue their series this week by moving on from last week's topic of long term indicators. This week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast focuses on intermediate term indicators. Chances are if you have a 401k account at work or a persona

Three Long Term Indicators Used in Point and Figure Charting

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:32:07 -0500

In this week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan discuss long term indicators. We use point and figure charting here at Mullooly Asset Management, which gives us a great look at things like mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. We can see posit

My Retirement Withdrawals: Will I Outlive My Money

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:04:12 -0500

In this week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan discuss retirement withdrawals. When retirement withdrawals come up in conversation the number one question clients want to know is, "Will I outlive my money?". It makes sense that people wo

The Power of the Support Line in Point and Figure Charting

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:55:31 -0500

As you probably know, Mullooly Asset Management uses point and figure charting as a guide to make wise investments. In this week's podcast Tom and Brendan will discuss the powerÂ of the support line. A support line is an important tool in managing money a

Bell Curves and Point and Figure Charting

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 11:12:26 -0500

In this week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast Tom and Brendan discuss bell curves. Bell curves are something that most of you probably remember learning way back in high school, but this concept can be applied to point & figure charts. Bell curves can

Bullish Percent Explained: Part of the â€œDimmer Switchâ€ Approach

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 17:09:18 -0500

In this week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast Brendan and Tom discuss bullish percent. Bullish percent is part of the "dimmer switch" approach we use at Mullooly Asset Management to define risk and manage money. Tom gets into the history of bullish per

Financial Advisers: What Do They Do?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:49:22 -0400

What do financial advisers do? This is a question that a lot of people probably wonder on a daily basis. In this week's podcast Tom and Brendan discuss just what a financial adviser does. They will also talk about why most households in the US, with betwe

New York State Deferred Compensation Plan: Taking a Loan

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:57:24 -0400

This week's Mullooly Asset Management podcast focuses on the New York State Deferred Compensation plan. Tom Mullooly manages investments for over 300 different individuals who are participants in the New York State Deferred Compensation program, and he kn

Exchange Traded Funds: More to Know

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:08:06 -0400

In this week's podcast Tom and Brendan continue their conversation about Exchange Traded Funds. They discuss the ability to get specific with Exchange Traded Funds as far as what you own and how you invest your money. Knowing which sector to invest in is

What Can Exchange Traded Funds (ETFâ€™s) Do For You? â€“ Podcast

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:41:52 -0400

Exchange Traded Funds, or ETF's, are a basket of investments, typically stocks, that are traded on a stock exchange. Not all investments are traded on an exchange though, and that is what sets Exchange Traded Funds apart from other funds like mutual funds

The Two Different S&P 500 Indices Podcast

Mullooly Asset Management — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:32:03 -0400

Standard & Poor's S&P 500 Index is one of the traditional yardsticks used to measure performance in the stock market. But yet today, there are two very different S&P 500 Indices. The traditional S&P 500 Index is a "cap-weighted" index: the 50 largest com

Quantitative Easing (QE3) Announced: Now What?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:05:07 -0400

This is the Podcast from September 19, 2012. In this podcast, Brendan questions Tom Mullooly about Quantitative Easing, QE3 and the role of the Federal Reserve in today's marketplace. The Federal Reserve announced massive action (a "game-changer" as T

Hereâ€™s Why Financial Companies Might Be Rising From The Dead

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:31:54 -0400

For a financial advisor in Monmouth County, the possible rise of financial companies is extremely significant. In this podcast, we take a look at how (and why) financial companies may be rising from the dead. To a financial consultant, this is shocking be

Investment Advisors and Brokers . Differences . Part II

Mullooly Asset Management — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:50:48 -0500

There are so many differences between investment advisors and brokers that we made a SECOND podcast! For 401(k) or 403b annuity advice, a fee only investment advisor, such as myself, could be very helpful. Some of the topics we discuss in this second po

Investment Advisors and Brokers â€“ Differences â€“ Part I

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:50:46 -0500

There are big differences between investment advisors and brokers in New Jersey (or stockbrokers, financial consultants, financial advisors, etc) and all around the United States. One group (stockbrokers and financial consultants) work for (are employed b

Facebook IPO: Will This Be a Great Deal or a Bust?

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:59:31 -0500

Facebook IPO News February 2012 Last week, in February 2012, Facebook filed for their initial public offering of stock. In this podcast, we discuss some of the basics of all IPO’s (Initial Public Offerings), along with other stock market comments,

Volatility in the Marketplace Podcast

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:30:23 -0500

Podcast January 9, 2012 Even though, from a financial advisor's point of view, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index was essentially flat (up less than one percent) in 2011, we witnessed the most volatility in recent memory. However, the volatility might NOT be

Insider Buying Podcast: One of the Best Indicators?

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:31:12 -0400

We encourage our readers and listeners to our podcast to consult with their investment adviser before making a decision to buy or sell any investment. And if you are relying on a podcast for specific investment advice, you are making a huge mistake. Plea

Market Analysis: Why Dorfmanâ€™s 30-30 Club Isnâ€™t That Special

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:13:28 -0400

Investment Adviser: Looking For Stocks With A Positive Trend

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:20:50 -0400

Market Drop: Could We Have Seen This Coming?

Mullooly Asset Management — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:12:25 -0400

Point and Figure Charts: Japanâ€™s Economic Recovery

Mullooly Asset Management — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:03:26 -0400

Volatility In the Market: Know What to Expect

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:31:50 -0400

"Never make predictions, especially about the future." -- Casey Stengel We encourage our readers and listeners to our podcast to consult with their investment adviser before making a decision to buy or sell any investment. And if you are relying on a po

Current Market Conditions: The Market Is Volatile

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 10:49:27 -0500

We encourage our readers and listeners to our podcast to consult with their investment adviser before making a decision to buy or sell any investment. If you do not have an investment adviser in the New York or New Jersey area, we encourage you to contact

Point and Figure Charts Podcast: Current Market Conditions

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:34:26 -0500

We encourage our readers and listeners to our podcast to consult with their investment adviser before making a decision to buy or sell any investment. If you do not have an investment adviser in the New Jersey or New York area, we encourage you to contact

Relative Strength Podcast: One Of Our Strongest Indicators

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:09:02 -0500

We encourage our readers and listeners to our podcast to consult with their investment adviser before making a decision to buy or sell any investment. If you do not have an investment adviser, we encourage you to contact Mullooly Asset Management at 73

Point and Figure Charts: A Podcast Discussion of Stocks You May Own

Mullooly Asset Management — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 09:12:02 -0500

Below is the Mullooly Asset Management podcast originally recorded February 17, 2011. This is the format for these podcasts: Mullooly Asset Management is *NOT* recommending purchase or sale of any of the names mentioned in this (or any) podcast. You nee

Point and Figure Charts Podcast: Stocks That May Interest You

Mullooly Asset Management — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:02:36 -0500

Below is our podcast originally recorded February 8, 2011. This is the format for these podcasts: Mullooly Asset Management is *NOT* recommending purchase or sale of any of the names mentioned in this (or any) podcast. You need to make these kinds of i