Wealthtrack

Volatile U.S trade relations with China are immediately reflected in the financial markets but what about the economic impact? Could they push the U.S. into recession? Leading global economist and strategist Nick Sargen weighs in. SARGEN: "Number one is don't add to risk. That's the simple message. Number two is, is it a good time to d begin to do some reduction of risk in the portfolio? And I think the warning signs are Yes." SARGEN: "What I'm concerned with today is that I think there is no solution in sight. We are at a complete standoff. We are playing brinksmanship. And just today, the president makes a statement. I never thought I'd hear that U.S. businesses should stop doing business with China." SARGEN: "In my view, the upside for the stock market is limited because if the economy slowing, profits are slowing, they're not going to be robust as they have been. And then the real risk to the downside. I think the Fed tries to provide support. But if the trade war keeps going the wrong direction, I see th

 China expert Jim McGregor gives us his candid assessment of the competitive threat that China’s leadership poses to the U.S.  It’s a fascinating conversation and a wakeup call for the U.S. It’s currently summer pledge season on Public Television, so WEALTHTRACK might not be airing on your local channel. Consequently, we are revisiting some recent interviews with some of our most popular Great Investor guests. We are revisiting an exclusive with value investor and financial thought leader Joel Greenblatt.  He is living proof that active management can still work really well.    https://wealthtrack.com/great-value-investor-joel-greenblatt-reveals-the-2-secrets-to-beating-the-market/ WEALTHTRACK #1608 published on August 23, 1019. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Additional discussion about how Social Security rules are changing.  As benefits guru, Mary Beth Franklin told us on a recent WEALTHTRACK, there are nearly 3,000 rules governing this benefit and there are specific advantages for different situations. This week we look at three: Divorce, Retiring Single, and Medicare. WEALTHTRACK #1607 published on August, 16. 2019. https://wealthtrack.com/retirement-benefits/ It’s the start of the summer fund-raising season on Public Television, we'll be back with full episodes in a few weeks. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Paying attention to Social Security benefits pays off and needs to be taken seriously from an earlier age than most people realize.  Many of us underestimate how important this benefit is.  - It is the single largest source of income for the majority of Americans age 65 and older.  - It accounts for half or more of total income for 53% of married couples and 74% of unmarried individuals. - It is one of the only sources of guaranteed income that retirees can count on for the rest of their lives. - Its cost of living adjustments helps maintain buying power over decades of retirement.  Mary Beth Franklin points out that Social Security isn’t static and there have been some major changes in recent years.  In addition to being the author of Maximizing Social Security Benefits and an acknowledged expert on the subject, she is Contributing Editor at InvestmentNews, a leading publication for financial advisors, and an award-winning personal finance journalist.      Order a co

Who is carrying on the traditions of today’s great investors? When you are investing in a fund with an impressive track record and distinctive philosophy and approach is there any guarantee that those qualities will continue with the next generation?   We recently launched a new series on “Next Generation Investors” on WEALTHTRACK to introduce the younger portfolio managers sharing management responsibilities with some legendary investors. This week we have another exclusive with Miller with the Co-Portfolio Manager of a very different and younger fund. This fund is a family affair. Miller’s Co-Portfolio Manager is his son, Bill Miller IV, known in the firm as “Bill Four”.  Our premiere episode was an exclusive with Bill Miller and Samantha McLemore, the Co-Portfolio Manager of his flagship Miller Opportunity Trust fund which has beaten the market and its mutual fund competitors since the market bottom in 2009.  You can watch the episode here: https://wealthtrack.com/market-beating-value-invest

 We have launched a new series on WEALTHTRACK, Next Generation Investors, to introduce ourselves and you to the younger portfolio managers working alongside today’s investment greats.  As part of that series, we are doing one on one podcasts with the less well known, but deserving partners.  Our guest this week is Samantha McLemore, Portfolio Manager at Miller Value Partners who has been working with legendary investor Bill Miller since graduating from college in 2002. WEALTHTRACK #1604 published on July 25, 2019. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Influential investment advisor and author Bill Bernstein shares key insights with Morningstar’s “The Long View” podcast which they are sharing with us on WEALTHTRACK this week. Listen here: https://wealthtrack.com/if-youve-won-the-game-stop-playing/ During this summer public television fundraising week we are revisiting a recent program about the greatest retirement fear – running out of money. Advice from Morningstar’s Christine Benz and Wells Fargo’s Fredrik Axsater on how to avoid it.  https://wealthtrack.com/running-out-of-money-is-the-greatest-retirement-fear-how-to-avoid-it-with-two-retirement-experts/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

Seismic shifts in the municipal bond markets and the portfolios of award-winning muni manager Robert DiMella.     The nearly $4 trillion dollar municipal bond market is attracting record amounts of investor money. Year-to-date more than $40 billion has poured into municipal bond funds, one of the highest inflows on record. One key factor for muni’s attractiveness is the higher taxes being paid by many individual taxpayers following the tax reform bill, which was passed in 2017 but took effect in 2018. The combination of higher tax rates and a dearth of income globally are adding to the allure of municipal bonds. On this week’s program, top muni fund manager Robert DiMella says there are other factors at work as well which are causing a seismic shift in the municipal bond market and a significant change in strategy at his firm.  WEALTHTRACK #1602 broadcast on July 12, 2019. More at: https://wealthtrack.com/municipal-bond-m…f-investor-money/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.f

Consuelo Mack WEALTHTRACK launches a new season with its “Next Generation Investors” series featuring an exclusive interview with legendary value investor Bill Miller, and Samantha McLemore, his Co-Portfolio Manager on the Miller Opportunity Trust fund.   We want you to meet the individuals that some top fund managers have chosen to manage money with them, for them and possibly succeed them. The investment horizon, even for people in retirement can stretch into decades. Plus, in this era of passive index investing, a firm’s culture, its independence of thought,  investment discipline, and integrity are going to matter even more. As Sir John Templeton said “If you want to have a better performance than the crowd, you must do things differently from the crowd.”   And that frequently means “To buy when others are despondently selling and sell when others are greedily buying…” which he said “…requires the greatest fortitude and pays the greatest reward. “ That approach takes a certain mindset and t

Better financial advice for women with Yie-Hsin Hung, one of the most powerful women in finance.  The economic might of women is large and growing. According to research put together by New York Life Investment Management, 51% of the personal wealth in the U.S. is controlled by women - an estimated $22 trillion worth.  That number is expected to jump by 30% percent to nearly $29 trillion over the next 40 years as intergenerational wealth is handed over. Women are the key financial decision makers: 96% of women have primary or shared responsibility for family financial decisions, yet there is a gap in how women view and handle money.  Women score lower than men on financial literacy tests, and women invest less - by one study, 40% less. Yie-Hsin Hung is determined to change this dynamic, and she is in a position to do that.  WEALTHTRACK #1554 broadcast on June 28, 2019. https://wealthtrack.com/51-percent-of-personal-wealth-in-the-u-s-is-controlled-by-women/ https://wealthtrack.com/women/ -

Berkshire Hathaway stock has underperformed the S&P 500 for the past decade. By a recent calculation Berkshire’s stock has risen by nearly 260% versus the market’s more than 300% advance in the decade ended in 2018.   Despite Berkshire’s stunning record since 1965, 21% compounded annualized gains, this is not the first time that the company’s shares have underperformed the market for a decade. It’s happened several times in recent years.  This weeks guest: "The advice is stay put, and then you’ll get the returns from the S&P because 90 percent of the investors in the S&P 500 funds don’t earn the return for that fund because they’re out when the market is most cheap, and they’re overexposed when the market is too expensive." Are Berkshire Hathaway’s best years behind it? Great investor and long-time holder, Tom Russo responds.  WEALTHTRACK #1553 broadcast on June 21, 2019. https://wealthtrack.com/follow-buffetts-investment-principles-great-investor-tom-russo-continues-to/ --- Supp

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint” describes the investment time horizon of Tweedy, Browne’s senior portfolio managers William Browne and John Spears.   Wall Street is haunted by the ghosts of brokerage firms past. Names such as Dean Witter, Kidder Peabody, PaineWebber, and Smith Barney were thriving independents. No more! Even the Merrill Lynch name is being gradually erased by parent company Bank of America.   There is one old-line firm still standing however with an impeccable investment pedigree that is carrying on its deep-rooted value traditions. It is Tweedy, Browne Company   Although they are both traditional long-term value investors there is nothing old fashioned about their performance.  Buffett’s partner Charlie Munger once described Tweedy Browne as “…absolute spiritual descendants of Ben Graham… they are like Buddhists or Tibetan monks who absolutely bought into the catechism.” Classic value investing – delivering modern outperformance.  In a WEALTHTRACK

As it’s currently fundraising season on public television WEALTHTRACK might not be airing on your local station,  so we are revisiting a recent interview on the topic of impact investing.   NEW THIS WEEK:  In this week's extra feature we’ll share a link to a report about how you apply socially responsible investing principles to your portfolio from the forum for sustainable and responsible investment. It is a roadmap for professional investors which is also useful for individuals and anyone managing money. You can find it here: https://wealthtrack.com/how-do-you-apply-socially-responsible-investing-principles-to-your-portfolio/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

It’s the first week of the spring fund raising season on Public Television we are revisiting a recent exclusive interview with Fund Manager of Year winner David Giroux on the growing secular risks in companies. NEW THIS WEEK: A large group of T. Rowe Price’s portfolio managers and analysts recently returned from the firm’s annual trip to Silicon Valley where they pick the brains of top executives of leading tech-oriented companies. The firm is sharing its findings with us in their recently published report, “Technological Innovation and Disruption.” It’s a fascinating read. https://wealthtrack.com/secular-risk-threats-to-longterm-t…/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wealthtrack/support

 International investing star Mark Yockey joins us in a WealthTrack Exclusive to discuss his global stock picks. With episodic exceptions the U.S. has been the place to invest since the global financial crisis. There have been occasional bouts of outperformance by European and emerging markets, specific geographical locals and individual countries but overall, the U.S. markets trajectory has been higher, the U.S. economy stronger and the dollar dominant.  The past year is a case in point. No matter where you looked around the world currencies weakened against the dollar. From the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc, to the Indian rupee and the South Korean won, to the British pound and the Euro to the Chilean peso and Brazilian real.  It’s been a challenging time for global investors, especially those running international funds. This week’s guest is up to the challenge and has been investing overseas for nearly three decades. It’s been a challenging time for global investors, especially thos

Our focus this week: The challenge facing most of us! Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist Richard Thaler recently called the drawing down of money in retirement “way harder” than the saving phase because of the uncertainty of how long we will live.  He is proposing adding 401(k) funds to social security to increase monthly payouts.  This week’s guest, Mark Cortazzo, wholeheartedly agrees with Thaler about the difficulty of the spend-down phase and says another largely unrecognized danger is portfolio volatility, which can mean the difference between solvency and insolvency at the end of life.  He has the research to prove it.  Cortazzo has done a number of studies showing how the accumulation phase of investing assets for retirement if done regularly and systematically over many years can make just about anyone feel like a genius.  However, once the withdrawals begin, what the pros call the decumulation phase, it’s a whole different ball game. What worked so well in building up a

Market volatility is back.  The roller coaster trade negotiations between the U.S. and China are lurching downward again causing a multi-day market sell-off rivaling declines in December of last year. The much bigger question is how stable is the world financial system?  A decade ago in the midst of the global financial crisis, it appeared to be on the brink of destruction.  Massive and unprecedented monetary stimulus by central banks and fiscal stimulus by governments stabilized financial markets and supported banks and businesses. There was a huge unwinding of debt in the financial, corporate and household sectors. Fast forward and the U.S. which was the epicenter of the financial crisis has led the world out of it. Since 2009, we have experienced the longest bull market in our history and are just weeks away from setting a record for the longest economic expansion. Why then is there a sense of unease? Two economic thought leaders assess the still challenged stability of the global financi

Short term interests remain steady. The Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark federal funds rate at the same 2-1/4 to 2-1/2 percent range it had since January when it put its previous series of rate hikes on hold. Two percent is of course the Fed’s target rate for inflation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the Fed’s view of price weakness as “transient” but said if it continued it would be “something we would be concerned about.”   As far as the stock market is concerned growth is back in a big way and it continues to outdistance value.  Tech is providing the leadership. According to Strategas Research Partners the S&P 500 technology sector has risen 27% so far this year versus the market’s 17.5% gain.  And the famous FANGs are part of that tech dominance.   Last year’s fourth quarter rout had decimated shares of the extended FAANG family.  Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google parent Alphabet all suffered significant declines. They have made up for

This summer will mark the longest economic recovery in U.S. history. The bull market already made it into the record books for longevity in August of 2018. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ reached new record highs just this Tuesday. Rather than a cause for celebration many economists, business leaders, consumers and investors have viewed these unparalleled achievements as cause for concern.  Their thinking: this must mean the end is near. This week’s guest is not in the end is near camp. Anything but!  She has been a believer in the U.S. economy’s recovery capabilities since it emerged from the global financial crisis.  Nancy Lazar is Co-Founding Partner and Head of the Economic Research team at Cornerstone Macro, a leading independent macroeconomic investment and policy research firm she launched in 2013.  Lazar was one of the first economists to recognize what she dubbed, “America’s Manufacturing Renaissance,” the re-emerging competitive advantage of the United States as a manufacturing ba

  Remember the expression, “Follow the money” from the Deep Throat character in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN? We are following the money for you. We also want to, “Show you the money,” Tom Cruise’s mantra in JERRY MAGUIRE. We can do both with one investment approach. Socially responsible investing, also known as ESG (for Environmental, Social and Governance), sustainable or impact investing. It is attracting massive amounts of investor dollars - follow the money - and is performing as well if not better than non-ESG investments - showing you the money! The latest evidence comes from Morningstar. In its most recent “Sustainable Funds U.S. Landscape Report” Morningstar found that the ESG fund group “attracted record net flows in 2018,” its sixth year of “ever higher annual net flows” while non- ESG U.S. funds “collected less than half their historic annual… average” of the last 10 years. And sustainable funds relative performance remained strong, even in the challenging environment of 2018.  Environmental