I Hate Mondays and I Hate It When My Financial Advisor Tells Me To...

You fill in the blank. I'm sure you've experienced it.

Maybe it was an advisor. Maybe it was your parents. Maybe it was a Billboard (I guess I do still look at those when I'm stuck in traffic). Maybe it was a TV talking head or maybe it was that once a year financial article that they slip into the fitness magazine while they are telling you not to eat onion rings.

Financial advice is everywhere and in today's world of unending lists of ways to improve ourselves, inevitably you've been told that some aspect of the way you are living your life needs to be adjusted for the sake of your financial situation!

There's the advice that says you have to give up Starbucks every day because it's the little things that matter and add up over time. Then there's the advice that says it's not the little things that matter, it's the big things that matter – like the big house and the new car and lavish vacations.

I once told my advisor I was on the way to the craft beer store to pick up a mixed six pack and he said "no, too expensive".

OK, fine, I'll fill a growler at the local brewery. "Way to buy local" he said, "but still too expensive on a per beer basis". Damn math people.

OK. I'll go to Costco and get a case of Sam Adams. "Close" he says, "get the 48 pack of Kirkland Light instead and you're good to go".

Hmmmm?! So I probably do save a bit of money on the 48 pack and I drink a whole lot less of it since I really don't care for light beer, but I'm totally miserable and my loathe for my advisor increases, and I'm my own financial advisor?!?!?

I stress two points when dealing with clients on budgeting.

1.   You need balance in your life and you should be the one to figure out those least painful places to find money in the budget. I'm not saying it's easy, but most us of can find the extra money if we make the effort.

2.   One of the biggest ways I can help you is to bring discipline to financial decisions that may be emotional. Whether they be budgeting decisions or investment decisions - many bad financial decisions get made when emotion creeps in.

Most advisors and advice columns are well-intentioned and trying to help, but it's HOW we communicate and motivate that matters a lot. And that's where many advisors fail. It's too preachy, unrealistic and not customized for your situation.

Our approach at J. Bradford Investment Management is very open and collaborative and I usually do more listening than communicating. I will try to help you make informed and disciplined financial decisions and give you my opinion as such, but if you happen to swing by the craft beer store on the way home, I just may join you.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

What do Prince and 64% of Americans Have in Common?

            While Prince is one of the most famous performers of our time and was loved and adored by millions of fans, it appears that he made one mistake that, for his family, is going to last well beyond his musical legacy … he failed to prepare a will. Despite having hundreds of millions of dollars and some of the best attorneys and advisors at his disposal, he didn’t take even the most basic of steps to prepare for his death. As a result, instead of mourning Prince’s loss, his brothers and sisters are spending their days arguing and fighting in court at probate hearings about what will happen to Prince’s estate.  

            Although Prince’s musical talent was one-of-a-kind, his failure to adequately prepare for his passing is unfortunately all too common. According to a recent Harris Poll, 64% of Americans don’t have a will. While none of us want to think about our own mortality, the people who truly suffer if we don’t take any steps to prepare for our ultimate passing are those that were most important to us during our lives. A person who dies without a will is said to have died “intestate”. If a person dies intestate, the determination of who will inherit his or her assets and make decisions with these assets after he or she dies is based on the laws of the particular state where that person lived at the time of his or her death.   

            By taking even the simplest measures, we can all ensure that the people we care about the most during our lives are given clear guidance and direction upon our death about what to do with what we owned and cherished the most. In addition to making sure that the physical assets we own at our death are given to the people we choose, preparing a will is another gift we can give to our loved ones so they don’t have to wonder about our true wishes and wait for a court to tell them what happens with our assets. This goes for something as small as who we might want to receive our baseball card collection to something as large the value of our home or the money in our savings account. Also, most importantly for all of us with young children, preparing a will allows us to direct who we want to be guardians of our children if something happens to us. Without this formal appointment, the state laws and the court will be deciding who will take care of our children.

            While we can’t all be world famous performers and we don’t all have a net worth around $300 million, we all have families, friends and loved ones who we care for and who care about us. While carefully considering and preparing a detailed estate plan that takes into account tax savings structures and directions for managing and distributing a person’s assets is crucial for anyone with significant assets, as described above, preparing a will isn’t reserved for the wealthy and is extremely important for all of us to consider.  Instead of letting the state decide who will inherit our assets and who will be guardians of our children, we all owe it to the important people in our lives to make those decisions in advance.

            Even though we all like to live “in the moment” and not think about what might happen in the future, Prince’s death has taught has that, while we can try to act like it’s always 1999, we need to first make sure we’ve put in writing what happens with our little red corvette.

            Ken Kams is a general corporate and estate planning attorney based in Dedham, Massachusetts. He can be reached at ken@kamslawgroup.com.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Answer me this Batman - Am I on track for Retirement?

It's National Superhero Day! So which of our heroic friends could best help us answer the question: Am I on track for Retirement? I'm going with Batman. He almost always has the answer.

Determining if you are on track for retirement and then determining if you can actually retire perplexes many Americans. UFC star Conor McGregor had a very rocky retirement, retiring last week at age 27 and then two days later, UN-retiring.

It's also true that some people want a really short answer just to check in and some people want a really in-depth answer for hard core planning.

Realistically, you do in fact need to do some in-depth planning -- particularly around future income needs and your ability and willingness to take risk -- to really understand your situation.

However, that’s not to say that quicker and more “rule of thumb” approaches can’t provide you some insight. Simple can be elegant, as we've seen in prior posts -- "UFC Star Conor McGregor retires at 27. Can you?" and "Why her co-workers couldn't stop staring at her 401(k) statement!"

But let’s say you’re super impatient and you want me to answer, “Am I on track for retirement?”

If can only ask you one question, what would it be?

I would ask you:

1.  “What does your gut tell you?”

Beyond the science around our ability to generally sense and estimate complicated matters, you’ve probably thought about retirement more than you think and who knows your holistic financial situation better than you? If you sense that you could be doing better or feel like there are other steps you should be taking, both are likely the case.

OK. Fine. That was clever. So let’s say that you’re only mildly impatient and you want me to answer: “Am I on track for retirement” and I can only ask you two questions, what would they be?

If I could only ask you two questions, I would ask you:

1. How old are you?
2. How much have you saved so far?

Then I'd suggest you to compare where you stand to this chart:

This approach is a little crude and doesn’t take some variables into account, but it does rather simply encompass many important aspects of retirement planning including the fact that it’s going to be crazy difficult to retire if you don’t start early.

Not bad. Please tell me that the next level of insight isn't 326 questions. Because the last time I went into an on-line retirement planning tool, it was a diabolical black hole. Good news! No, no diabolical black hole here.

So let’s say you’re willing to answer five questions to get an answer to:  “Am I on track for retirement?” What would they be?

1. How old are you?
2. How much have you saved?
3. How much do you save for retirement every month?
4. Are you a net saver (two questions technically - your annual income and your annual expenses)

And voilà, no Batman tool belt needed here – and guess what? We've already built the tool! You can answer those 5 questions in this quick wizard and see where you stand.

TELL ME HOW I'M DOING IN 5 QUESTIONS

Feel free to reach out with any questions or if you’d like help interpreting the results.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Investment Inspiration from 7 sage Emoji

Investing and finances can be complicated. So here’s a little reprieve.

Everything you need to know about investing summed up by seven sage Emoji!!

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

UFC Star Conor McGregor retires at 27. Can you?

Today, UFC star Conor McGregor announced he was retiring from the sport. I wonder what it feels like to retire at age 27?

Maybe a new career? Maybe the life of luxury? Maybe charitable endeavors? Whatever it is, I wish Conor the best.

But I also wonder if he’s financially secure and if he’s about to throw caution to the wind like may other athletes or if he’s got a plan? I help clients of all ages plan for retirement and other goals and the process is complicated because everyone has different spending expectations and unique circumstances.

But whether you’re a UFC fighter, a tech start-up success story or a long tenured business executive you’ve probably wondered if you can retire “early”. Many advisors will tell you, and quite frankly I will tell you as well, that to answer that question properly we need to do some fairly sophisticated planning.

But this is a 500-word blog post not a deep dive financial planning session and simple can be elegant. So for educational and illustrative purposes, here is a quick chart. When do you want to retire? What kind of lifestyle do you want? Then you can see a very general and approximate nest egg you’ll need.

If the numbers seem big, don’t freak out. Well, maybe freak out a little…

The chart makes some rather basic assumptions about real rates of return (4%) and life expectancy (age 90) and takes some rounding shortcuts, but you get the general idea. And the chart communicates a really basic and important point, the earlier you retire, the more you’ll need. Simple as that.

The good news is that if you’re 27 and you can’t retire just yet, that’s OK. You can do the next most important thing, which is to start investing early so that you’re not trying to play catch-up as you close in on retirement.

We saw the power of starting early with Michelle in a prior post: Why Her Co-workers Couldn’t Stop Staring at her 401(k) statement.

There are many strategies available to help people of all ages plan and make progress towards their retirement goals. If you’d like to explore retirement savings strategies, your 401(k), 403(b), IRA or any other financial matter with a consultant, please use the button below to book time now.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Environmentally Friendly Investing: Hype or Opportunity?

This Friday is Earth Day and I'm looking forward to accompanying my daughter and her 3rd grade class on a field trip to the EcoTarium in Worcester.

April 22nd is the 46th anniversary of Earth Day and over the last five decades there has been a tremendous amount of communication, awareness, community action and conservation associated with Earth Day.

New companies have been formed, many new economy jobs have been created and new approaches on everything from transportation to energy to agriculture are being researched and incorporated into consumer products. All of these trends are accelerating and impacting companies in unique ways. The speed and level of integration across companies also varies wildly.

We must also acknowledge the political undercurrents and public debate that while generally healthy, complicate the task of building investment perspectives and performing investment analysis.

So is it hype or time to act?

The concept of environmentally friendly investing has been around for a while and has recently taken on the moniker “ESG” for Environmentally Friendly, Socially Responsible and Strong Corporate Governance. As more of these environmentally friendly and socially responsible trends emerge, it makes practical sense that we monitor and measure those trends and their impact on companies. Morningstar has even recently included this information in their ETF and Mutual Fund analysis.

The good news for investors is that there is now greater transparency into the ESG activities of many companies and individuals can make their own determinations on the desirability and prudence of those actions. Furthermore there are now many investment options that allow investors to gain exposure across that entire ESG spectrum -- from very tactical exchange traded funds (ETFs) to broadly diversified mutual funds. So there are many ways to add ESG positions and exposure to your existing portfolio.

The bad news is that many of the ESG investment options have exhibited a fair amount of volatility and risk and returns over short periods have tended to underperform.

As investment professionals, we evaluate investments in this space through a mix of traditional analysis techniques, assessments of the secular trends impacting companies in this space and through the lens of our job to act “prudently” and in some cases act as a “fiduciary”. In the end, the answer for most investors is that ESG investments can be incorporated into a diversified portfolio to help individuals align their investments to their political, social and religious values and at the same time, achieve their long term investment objectives.

And beyond the traditional mutual funds and exchange traded funds, there are many complementary options such as the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, on which you can earn competitive interest in local investments and Kiva which is a no interest option that allows you to make loans to individuals worldwide.

So bottom line, it’s complicated. I invite you to join me on Thursday April 21st at noon in Nashua (1 Tara Boulevard Suite 200) to go into more detail on this topic and to answer individual questions.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Sage Financial Advice From 80's Cartoon Characters

Back in the 80's, TVs had knobs and networks actually went "off the air" at the end of the night with the National Anthem and didn't come back on until the next morning. You knew you were up early if you turned on the TV and still saw the color bar test pattern.

Cartoon characters of that era also gave some pretty sage financial advice.

Elmer Fudd laid it out pretty clearly for Sylvester: "Sywvester......the handwing of money is a gweat wesponsibiwity."

For individuals and advisors, this is as true today as it ever was, perhaps more so. Individuals have a responsibility to take great care of their hard earned money and help it work for them as hard as they worked to earn it.

Advisors should not only help clients find investments that are suitable, but should also work to a fiduciary standard, ensuring that all actions and investments are exclusively in the client's best interests.

Today, the vast majority of advisors, planners and investments managers do work in the best interests of their clients and thankfully, the cases of outright fraud and deception are rare, but everyone from Bugs Bunny to the SEC is on the lookout -- 

"Dat evil character's after that nice old lady's money! Looks like this Boy Scouts' gonna do his deed for today." - Bugs Bunny

Individuals need to inform and educate themselves on the basics of investing and seek help when they are unsure or face complicated investment choices. And as practitioners in the investment management and financial planning space, we need to be there when our clients need us and uphold the integrity of the capital markets at both an individual and industry level.

The recently released Department of Labor best interests standard for retirement accounts is a great step in the right direction towards the timeless wisdom of Bugs and Elmer.

If you need help with a complicated financial matter or would like a 2nd opinion of your financial situation, we would be happy to help.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Why her co-workers couldn't stop staring at her 401(k) statement!

Everyone knew Michelle drove a per-owned Nissan Altima, shopped at discount stores and packed her lunch every day. But what they didn't know is that from age 22 to age 38, Michelle grew her 401(k) to over $400,000!!

She accidentally left her account statement on her desk one day and her co-workers couldn't stop staring as they were astonished that she had saved so much. It's not typical for a 38 year old to have a 401(k) account balance over $400,00, but Michelle isn't typical. Here's how she did it:

She didn't "shoot for the moon"!

First, she contributed 12% of her salary every year and her employer matched her 1:1 up to 6%. 12% was a lot for Michelle, but she made some small changes in her budget and didn't really notice the difference in her life.

Next, her employer also made a 4% profit sharing contribution every year. Michelle is lucky to work for such a generous employer. We focus on salary, but total compensation and benefits matter too.

Although she started at an entry-level salary of $40,000, she also worked hard to get promoted and take on additional responsibility and increased her salary an average of 6% per year over the course of 16 years.

Michelle weathered the ups and downs of the financial markets and stayed invested in her portfolio in both good times and in bad, and averaged a 7.5% annual return for her moderately aggressive portfolio over those 16 years.

16 years later, her account balance now stands at $403,905.09!!

She is well on her way to a comfortable and secure retirement.

You can follow the same principles as Michelle.

- Contribute as high a % as you can afford to your 401(k). But not so much that you max out early and miss out on company match or if you have high interest rate debt.

- Ensure you contribute enough to earn a full employer match

- Manage your human capital (work life) as thoughtfully as you do your investments (financial life)

- Do an honest assessment of your risk tolerance and invest accordingly for the long term

If you'd like help becoming the next Michelle, schedule a free consultation.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Predicting the 2016 Boston Marathon

I went there, but I didn't see it?!? No prediction from Nate Silver and the 538 crew on the probabilities of winning the Boston Marathon. Not much on the internet either. So I decided to take a break from my investment analysis and build my own proprietary Boston marathon prediction model. What else would I do on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in New England?

Combining all of the masterful insight I have from the one marathon I've actually run (Reykjavik 2011) as well as weighted averages of recent Boston Marathons, other recent marathons, runner personal bests, two ranking sources and a little bit of personal analysis, I am proud to unveil my 2016 Boston Marathon predictions for the men's division. Probably a little crude, but maybe I'll keep going with this and add the women's and wheelchair races next??

Good luck to all the runners tomorrow! BOSTON STRONG!

5 Ways to pick your 401(k) or 403(b) differently than your basketball bracket

TOURNAMENT TIME

No doubt your office sports guru or the take-charge sports fan in your life has distributed brackets or the URL for you to make your picks in the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament.

But if you’re like most of us, you don’t know a whole lot about college basketball, you haven’t watched that many games throughout the season, and you probably won’t get around to doing the picks until just before the deadline.

When it’s time to pick, you’ll implement some combination of well-known strategies to choose your teams – pick the higher seed, pick teams playing close to home, pick teams that are hot and the ever-popular, pick the team with the cutest mascot. Maybe this year you’ll get lucky…

That kind of cavalier approach is probably fine for your basketball bracket, but if you pick your 401(k) or 403(b) investments in a similar fashion, you could be significantly and negatively impacting your investing objectives.

FIVE STEPS

So how do you pick investments from that daunting list of investment choices? Truthfully, it’s not easy and it can be quite complicated based on your situation and your individual risk factors, but in general there are five basic steps everyone should follow:

1)     You should first determine your ability and willingness to take risk. This can generally be accomplished by taking a risk questionnaire or other assessment tool either on-line or with a professional.

2)     You should align your risk tolerance with an appropriate asset allocation. There too, there are many sophisticated models available on-line, usually used in conjunction with a questionnaire or you can discuss your situation with a professional. No one single chart can be used by everyone, but a simple model may look something like this one, which is provided for illustrative purposes only.

3)     Determine the asset allocation mix of the funds available to you and find the possible combinations of funds that align to your allocation. There may be funds that you don’t want in your allocation and there may be many choices to meet a particular category, such as U.S. stocks. You’ll also want to be sure that your selections provide enough diversification, particularly if you have company stock.

4)     Make your final selections. Once you have a diversified mix of possible choices across multiple asset classes and are still trying to choose which ones - funds with lower fees and funds that have higher risk adjusted returns are two areas to consider focusing on. Sometimes that information is summarized in a nice chart and sometimes that information is provided in summary form through a third party, but often you have to go from fund to fund to make that assessment. Assessing funds against their benchmark and against their peers is another prudent step.

5)     Finally, you need to periodically rebalance your portfolio. As investments increase and decrease in value, your portfolio may become riskier than you intend or not be risky enough. You may have to buy or sell some positions to bring your asset allocation back into balance.

Again, each of those steps can have many complicating factors depending on your individual situation. If you would like help with any of the steps above or would like professional management of your 401(k) or 403(b), please schedule a free consultation or give us a call.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

Negative interest and saving for college in Switzerland

• Saving for college is hard enough, but with a negative interest environment as discussed in a previous blog, it's REALLY hard... 
• Rates are negative on some Swiss government investments
• Not likely an immediate concern for U.S. investors

COLLEGE SAVING IN SWITZERLAND

In Switzerland, the government recently sold 10-year government bonds at an ever so slightly negative rate of - 0.055%. What does that mean? Imagine a Swiss family trying to save for college for their eight-year-old child. Say they decided to invest 20,000 Swiss Francs in 10-year Swiss government bonds. At the end of 10 years they would get back roughly 19,890 Swiss Francs. About 100 less than they started with. If they had put it in their mattress, at least they would still have 20,000 Swiss Francs when Pierre-Yves turns 18.

Luckily there are many investment alternatives to 10-year Swiss bonds and this is one of the few situations where Swiss customers actually face negative interest rates. So far, the negative rates have generally been passed between banks and government institutions and the banks have simply absorbed the loss on negative interest as a "cost of doing business"

But if rates go further negative, things will get interesting. The banks may decide that at that point aggressive lending becomes preferable to the negative rates they are paying or they may pass the cost (i.e. the negative rates) on to business customers or even on to retail consumers and many more investments would yield "negative returns".

Certainly many investments can and do lose money over certain periods of time, but those are generally risky investments. The investments here are supposed to be "ultra safe" or even "guaranteed". Would you leave your money in the bank if the rate is negative? Would you buy a government bond with a negative rate?

Fortunately, in the United States, the Federal Reserve has indicated that they plan to slowly increase rates back to more historically normal levels. U.S. Markets have been quite volatile in late 2015 and early 2016 and there are many risks facing U.S. investors, but an immediate action to lower U.S. interest rates negative probably isn't one of them.

If you would like to discuss your College Saving strategy or the potential impact of negative interest rates in further detail, please schedule a free consultation.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.

7 Home Stretch CFA Exam Tips That Won't Make Your Hair Hurt

Home stretch candidates!! June 4th 2016 is fast approaching.

I passed the CFA Level 3 exam and became a CFA charter holder last year and in a very, very, very small way, I miss the energy and excitement of the exam and the rigor of the exam process.

And whether this is your first exam or your fourth or fifth exam, there can be a lot of distractions and self doubt about what you should be doing in the last month.

I tried many successful and unsuccessful strategies as I endeavored to become a CFA charter holder and if I were taking another exam in a month, I would be doing these seven simple things.

1) Make and use flashcards. I used colored cards to correspond to the CFA volumes. I made cards for both concepts and formulas. If you have a doubt, make a card. I would review them occasionally leading up to the exam and extensively in the last two weeks. There are many formulas and concepts that you just have to find a way to make room for in your brain. Flashcards worked great for me.

2) Make a formula page or pages. I rewrote and reorganized my three formula pages several times. It helped with memory and recollection. I made two copies for exam day and it was the one thing I stared at until the final moment before walking into the exam room.

3) Stop reading the curriculum. In the last four weeks, just do problems. Read the text if you need to clarify something or to fine-tune an approach, but don't bother trying to re-review entire volumes or sections. Even the summary sessions and re-watching lectures weren't an optimal use of my time. Learning and mastering through problem solving is your best bet.

4) Study when you do your best work. Some people are morning people and some people work well after a workout. I work best after dinner, from 7 - 12pm. So yes, I would get tired, but I knew that was the window I do my best work. Try to do your studying in whatever your optimal window is.

5) Practice and know how to use your calculator. When you need a change of pace, practice on your calculator. Switch decimal places, learn the shortcuts, use the logarithmic scale, practice with negatives, practice with long numbers, practice with some of the lesser used functions and you won't get tripped up on an easy concept with an unusual mathematical twist. There is nothing worse than studying the material, knowing the concept and then being confused by a twist in the math. Mastering your calculator will help prevent that.

6) Imagine yourself as a CFA charter holder. Becoming a CFA charter holder is partially mental. The collection of all the mental gymnastics that you have to go through is part of the challenge. My personal image of myself as a CFA charter holder helped me through some tough times. It will be a reality for many of you, so use it as motivation!

7) Become an expert on one treacherous problem out of spite. For me, it was sort of like fighting back at the question writers. I picked pricing and valuing currency swaps. I remember a currency swap practice exam problem that was just diabolical. The first couple of times, I would get it wrong while staring at the answer key?!? You can't do this for every area and every hard problem, but mastering just one gives you the confidence that you can master others to a lesser degree and if that one does show up on the exam, well, you can smile from ear to ear as you hear the moans and groans of other candidates.

OK, break's over. Get off of social media and get back to studying!

Good luck!

Wait, what?!?! Negative interest rates?!?

NEGATIVE INTEREST

• We are facing this situation because of the low interest rate environment that has persisted worldwide since the “Great Recession”

• Negative interest rates are as bad as they sound. Let’s say the interest rate is a negative one percent (-1%). I'm the bank and you give me $100. Then in one year, I give you back $99?!?

• The negative rates are primarily seen in borrowing and lending between governments and banks in Europe and Japan – consumers haven’t had much exposure to negative rates, yet.

Most of us recognize that we are in a “low interest rate environment” and have been since the Federal Reserve and Central Banks across the globe began lowering interest rates and taking steps to keep interest rates low in response to the Great Recession.

The practical impact to consumers of low interest rates has meant meager fractions of a percent of interest on our savings accounts, bank CDs and money market accounts and potentially no interest on our checking accounts.

GLOBAL IMPACT

The Great Recession had a global impact, so this low interest rate environment has generally persisted throughout much of the world for the last eight years.

Unfortunately, in many countries the economic expansion has been much slower and much less robust than anticipated and as a result, policy makers in many countries are continuing to look for ways to do three things:

1) Juice the engine of economic expansion

2) Strengthen currencies and

3) Fight deflation by inducing some inflation

All three objectives are generally accomplished by lowering interest rates. Generally, lower interest rates attract more borrowing for companies that would like to start or expand their businesses and when more companies borrow and expand – boom -- it creates jobs and economic expansion. That expansion should lead to rising prices and modest inflation and the low rates should strengthen the currency. The problem is that interest rates have been at or near zero for years and if governments now want to lower them further to pursue any of the objectives above, that means the rates have to be pushed negative.

In both Japan and Europe, some kind of negative interest rate environment similar to this is exactly what is happening. In many places the negatives rates only apply to banks and government borrowing and lending with each other, but it is happening. Because the rates are only ever so slightly negative right now, many banks are absorbing the losses associated with negative interest rates when dealing with retail customers and as a result, their profit margins are getting squeezed.

What happens if rates continue to go even further negative and the banks profit margins get squeezed too much? That remains to be seen because no one really knows for sure what the impact of significantly lower interest rates will be. Demand for the negative interest rate currency will likely rise and demand for hard assets like precious metals and real estate will also likely rise. But there will also be many unintended consequences and "shadow banking" type activities as consumers try and preserve the value of their money.

If you would like to discuss negative interest rates further or the impact on your portfolio, please feel free to schedule a free consultation.

PLEASE REMEMBER:

- Investing and investment management involves risk, including the loss of your initial investment or any investment gains.

- Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- This generic information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation for any individual to take a specific action.

- Please invest prudently and seek professional help from a financial advisor, investment manager, accountant, lawyer or other professional on matters that you are unsure of or that are unique to your personal circumstances.

- Financial Advisor and Investment Management Services provided by J. Bradford Investment Management, Nashua NH.