Inevitable Wealth Coaching
3350 Township Line Rd.
Drexel Hill, Pa. 19026
Ph. 610-446-4322
Fx. 610-789-4927
e-mail address: brendan@coachgee.com

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Shady Mccoy & Investors- Emotions Usually Win

Shady McCoy & Investors Emotions Usually Win, You Lose
by: Brendan Magee


One of the most entertaining aspects of last week's Eagles game was the drama surrounding Shady McCoy's return to Philadelphia and playing against the coach that traded him, Chip Kelly. Upon his trade, McCoy stated that his race played a role in being traded to the Buffalo Bills.  All week long speculation ran rampant about what would happen when these two men came face to face.


Even though professional athletes get traded all the time, clearly, McCoy did not expect to be traded and has voiced his upset publicly on many occasions. By his statements leading up to the game and behavior after it, he's still quite angry. Kelly has tried to defuse the situation. He owned up to the fact that McCoy's trade had not been handled in the best way. He said he should have contacted McCoy before the announcement by the media, and that McCoy deserved better. He said if the occasion arose he would shake McCoy's hand in an attempt to put the whole episode behind them.


Whether it's burying old wounds or investing, emotions can easily over power what you know to be the right thing to do and keep you stuck in a bad spot. You perceive someone to be embarrassing you, you get furious at them. They are done as far as you are concerned. Unfortunately, you may have only perceived an insult. Maybe your best friend/ tormentor was making a joke (perhaps it was a bad joke) with no intention of hurting your feelings, at all. A life long friendship maybe damaged forever, based on a simple misunderstanding and the emotions that take over. Anyone else and you would tell them to talk with their friend and work things out. Simple, but not when emotions are running so high.


Same thing with investing. The market drops by a few hundred points. Your portfolio is down 15% maybe 25%. You get scared. "This is all the money I have! I can't lose it! I can't go live with my kids! How humiliating would that be!"


Any one else's account and you would know what to do, calm as a cucumber. "Buy low
/sell high. This is a long-term investment. Let's turnoff the cable television shows and go get some ice cream or play some golf. There's no need to panic." None of this is easy when it is your money, but this is exactly what you know you should do.


The key for getting through life's challenges big or small and investing is recognizing and appreciating the enormous power that your emotions and instincts have. You also need to be able to recognize the areas of life and investing where they are going to be working against you. In other words, you need to be able to know where your emotions will have you engaged in self sabotage, and get help.


Last week in a radio interview, Ike Reese and Seth Joyner, two former Eagles' players, talked to McCoy about the time they were both traded from the Eagles. They were trying to give him the benefit of their experience. They both said how emotional and upsetting that had been for them. They felt as if they'd been slapped in the face by the Eagles. They spoke about how hard it was to separate personal feelings from what was purely a business decision.


McCoy having placed unwarranted racist accusations at the feet of Kelly, Joyner and Reese were trying their best to help McCoy take the high road and get beyond this incident. They told McCoy that it is ok and natural to let emotions get the better of your mouth. People could understand that. Everyone has been in that situation and could forgive all grievances if they were owned up to. McCoy refused the opportunity and left Lincoln Financial Field still stuck.


If as an investor, you are stuck. If you cannot say  that you have the peace of mind or experienced the success you were looking for with your money and investing, it's not because you do not know what to do. Own equities/stocks, diversify, buy low/sell high are rules are the time tested rules for ssuccess and I am sure you have heard them at some point in the past. Consider that your emotions and instincts at some point got the best of you. They had you say yes to something that you can look back on and say, perhaps grudgingly, was inappropriate to do with your money. Perhaps you can see where this has happened more times than you can count? That's ok. You are human and our humanity can be difficult to deal with.


Let's have our come to Jesus moment and own up to our fallibility. Let's own up to our inability to police our own instincts and emotions and, for a moment take a look at what would be possible if we stopped letting our emotions get the best of us. How different would our lives and investments look?
Then get help and take the coaching. You and Shady will be the better for it.


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail Brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.







Monday, December 7, 2015

Guns, San Bernardino, & Investing- We Have The Power

Guns, San Bernardino &; Investing- We Have The Power
by: Brendan Magee

Finding the words to put San Bernardino in a proper and justifiable context is just about impossible. Since Friday a week ago, I have been scared, angry, frustrated, saddened. I can't imagine what would cause someone to pick up a gun and kill 14 of their neighbors, friends, and coworkers. I can't imagine the pain of your loved one not walking through the door at night all because they attended a Christmas party that turned into mass murder.

Like it was at 9/11, I am asking a lot of questions where there doesn't seem to be any answers that make sense. How or who do we need to turn to make sure things like this never happen again? At times like these it is easy to feel powerless. To gain perspective, I often turn to the experience of others who dealt directly with overwhelming circumstances.

I just got done reading a book, The Price of Courage, which documents the German invasion of France during World War II and how a French family dealt with the occupation of Paris. Two sisters and a brother risked everything to serve in the French Resistance. They endured the constant threat of being discovered as agents of the Resistance and the instant death sentence that would bring. The brother even endured and survived being thrown in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Where most of the country wouldn't, this family took responsibility and said no to the loss of their country and liberty to Nazi Germany. Ordinary citizens who took responsibility for themselves and their country.

We tend to forget just how powerful we truly are. Some times it is easier not to assume responsibility. I do not know whether or not it falls on deaf ears or not, but when I begin to coach someone on their investments, I start out by telling them that what ever success they achieve or failure they suffer it will be a direct result of what it is they do or don't do, what they allow or do not allow to be done with their money.

Take some of the most sinister and devastating investment scandals of our time. Bernie Madoff could not have stolen $65 billion unless the people who invested with him said yes to what ever it was he was offering them. On a much less sinister scale, over the past 20 years investors would not have underperformed the stock market, by half, if they had not continually sold low bought high. If they would have maintained the discipline to stick to a prudent strategy they'd be doubling their money roughly every seven years according to the available statistics. No matter how complex or overwhelming the situation, it usually boils down to very simplistic decisions.

So as we grapple with the next few weeks of the tragedy in San Bernardino or , with what pales in comparison, our portfolios, pray for the victims, their families, the people who will be left to take care of them, our leaders, and yourself. Pray that you will have the courage to do what you know is the right thing to do, even when it seems as if you can't.

God Bless America!

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

San Bernardino,

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Chip Kelly & Investors-Impossible To Police Themselves

Chip Kelly & Investors-Impossible To Police Themselves
by: Brendan Magee

As painful as it is to come to grips with, it looks like the Eagle's season is going to go down in flames. I can't see the Eagles putting together a one game winning streak much less a six game winning streak. It's hard to believe we, the fans and head coach Chip Kelly, didn't see this coming. Kelly won twenty games in his first two seasons and seemed as though he was always a step ahead of the opposition. All he needed was to get his players on the roster and success seemed inevitable.

In hindsight, it seems as though this is where the Eagles problems started. In his first two seasons, Kelly worked under a general manager who evaluated the players Kelly would be given to coach. After last year, Kelly became the general manager and coach. He had complete authority to sign and keep the players that would be on the Eagles roster. Chip had all the power with no one to answer to or rebuke any of his decisions. By what we have seen on the field this year, it is pretty easy to see that Kelly's perspective was flawed. What he was seeing and said yes to when he signed free agents and drafted rookies hasn't translated to success on the field. It has been a disaster.

The coach needed a coach. He needed to entrust someone with the task of telling him that what he was seeing in a player, his scheme, or his vision for the roster was flawed. Without his permission what individual would have the gall to question the man in charge of their paycheck?

In order to give that individual the authority to question Chip's perspective, Chip would have needed an extraordinary amount of humility and wisdom. How many of us ever question our perspective? We are seeing things as they are, aren't we?

Whether it's a professional football team we are coaching or a retirement nest egg we are trying to grow, it is all driven by our perspective. Shady McCoy isn't hitting the hole fast enough, cut him. The market's going to crash, sell.

Think about all the noise there is in coaching a professional football team. You have 53 players, reporters, player's wives and girl friends, meetings, injuries, trades, your own life to deal with, etc. How easy would it be do get distracted, not hear something exactly as it was said or intended? How easy would it be to give into hidden biases that have been developed and hard wired over 30 to 40 years of your life? On top of that, you are Chip Kelly one of the best coaches in all of college football. You have never had a losing season in your life. You know football. It's your life.

Now think about investing. Think about all the noise investors have to deal with. The internet, cable television, your spouse, the guys at work, Google, etc. 24, 7, 365, investors are hit with news, information, and opinions as to what they should be doing with their money. Compound that with all the messages you heard about money and investing from parents, uncles, and friends. On top of that remember the 1990's. Your portfolio grew to over a million dollars. You know investing.

 "If I just read a little more, I can find the winning stocks or fund managers again. I know it." A bias can easily take over without an investor knowing it. The wrong decision can look like the right one. How does an investor, on their own, quiet down the noise in their head and focus on what is important?

The answer for Chip and investors is, you don't solve this problem on your own. You need help. Unfortunately, that help will not come until the coach or investor realizes they need help and can't do it on their own. As much as we would like to think we can, we cannot police our selves on our own. Instincts, emotions, perspectives, egos, etc. are just too powerful. A little humility will go a long way for the Eagles and Chip Kelly as it would for investors.


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments go to brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Malcolm Jenkins, Concussions, & Investor Instincts

Malcolm Jenkins & Investor Instincts
by: Brendan Magee

I know I am a week late on this, but today I would rather write about the aftermath of the Eagle's game vs Dallas as opposed to yesterday's vs the Dolphins. Last week, as weary as we were from a late night game, we were all thrilled that the Eagles pulled out a win in overtime and, finally, seemed to have put the season on the right track. Today, boy do we all know different.  

One of the subplots coming out of Dallas was that safety Malcolm Jenkins played a the majority of the game with a concussion. Eagle's fans applaud Jenkins for his toughness and doing what it took to win the game. Just about everyone else, with all that has been discovered about the dangers of concussions, say Jenkins was crazy for risking his health and well being by not telling the medical staff what he was dealing with.

No one doubts the toughness of professional football players. They kill themselves week after week, but they also play with the fear that today's game could be their last. They could get hurt or someone better can come along and take their jobs. In a moment, there goes the contract and financial security. To last in that game, you have to have a real knack for survival, and sometimes that instinct works against the player. Be it a football player or an everyday human being, we all have instincts. We were born with them and they operate without our permission. Pain, pleasure, survival are amongst the strongest instincts we have.

Touch a hot stove, pain makes sure you never do that again. Pleasure makes certain that this weekend's cheese steak will not be your last. The thought of coming out of a game, letting the medical staff know you have a concussion, being forced to leave the game, perhaps needing to sit out the next few week's worth of games and maybe seeing your back up take your job is pretty painful. Under normal circumstances, and if it happened to be happening to someone else, your instincts would be telling you to get to a doctor.

The choices aren't so clear when your livelihood might be hanging in the balance. This is why as much as possible the National Football League is taking the decision as to whether or not a player stays in the game after sustaining a blow to the head out of the players and coaches hands.

When it comes to the long-term health of the players it doesn't bode well to rely on the instincts of the player. They have been conditioned to get on the field and play no matter how painful the injury might be. Instincts might be considered a player's worst enemy. The same can be said for investors.

No matter the investment advertisement or commentary have you ever heard a word about watching out for your own instincts? Have you ever heard Jim Cramer say that as far as your instincts are concerned, you have little to no shot at policing your instincts and emotions? Have you ever heard any investment analyst talk about how they can use your instincts to work against your best interests? The answer to all these questions is a big fat "No." As a result investors have very little appreciation for the role and the impact their instincts have on their investment decisions and behavior. They cannot even start to be accountable for them.

You wake up to headlines screaming that China's stock market is in a free fall. You have money invested overseas. "Holy ####! Pain! I got to call my broker and sell everything I have in international stocks." Cramer comes on and plays up the latest can't miss stock. "My portfolio is in the tank. If this keeps up I'm sunk." Pain!  "Let's go all in on company XYZ." Scenarios occur like this everyday and are too numerous to count.


Just like Jenkins knows a concussion isn't anything to play with and needs proper medical attention,  investors know they should not sell low/ buy high. They know diversification is the cornerstone for prudent investing. However, instincts in the blink of an eye can over power prudent behavior and put you on a crash course for disaster. The same guy who said one more beer or slice of pizza won't kill you is the same guy dealing with congestive heart failure. "Damn didn't that pizza taste good!"

I've heard the more you resist the more things persist. Perhaps, the solution for football players and investors is to admit how overpowering their instincts and emotions truly are. Perhaps even more so, they need to admit they are powerless in dealing with their instincts. Hence, they need help. As far as their football careers and financial security are concerned, both investors and players would be better served if they put the task of policing their instincts in the hands of someone they trust. 


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions and comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Alcoholics and Investors-The Urge Never Goes Away

Alcoholics & Investors-
The Urge Never Goes Away
by: Brendan Magee

I attended the funeral of a great guy I had known for a long time. He died at the age of 85 and  lived a long life. One thing that I didn't know about my friend, Dave, was that he was a fifty year member of Alcoholics Anonymous. I only found out because at the luncheon after the services, I sat down next to a nice gentleman, Tom, who had been attending A.A. with Dave for the better part of 30 years.

One thing that struck me about the conversation we had was that Tom said, somewhat jokingly, that he bet his good friend Dave was up in heaven at that very moment enjoying a nice cold bottle of Budweiser. I was a little taken aback. I asked why he said that. I was thinking the last thing a person, after devoting 50 years of his life to sobriety, would be doing is entering the pearly gates with a cold beer in hand. Being a curious sort, I asked Tom, why he felt that way. He told me that no matter how much an alcoholic had spent in recovery, the urge or desire to drink never completely goes away. After spending so much time in a conversation and structure for sobriety, the urge might not be as strong as someone who has been sober for a month or a year, but it is always there Tom said.

Tom went on to say two things about A.A. that I thought related to investing. He said that is why he made it a point to go to his meetings on a consistent basis, going to at least two meetings a week whether he was on vacation or not. He said in order to not have his addiction get the better of him, and potentially ruin his life, he needed to make sure he stayed close to a conversation for sobriety. He said "Beer and booze are always  around me. I can't escape it, and without my meetings and fellow meeting makers, I don't know how I would have made it this long."

Tom said he and Dave also knew when someone who had been sober would start drinking again. He said that when ever someone stopped coming to meetings, invariably, they would hear a story that so and so started drinking again. They either got a DUI, got kicked out of their house, lost a job, or was in some kind of trouble due to drinking.  Tom told me there were two things an alcoholic needed to have any chance of staying sober. One was, the understanding that alcoholism wasn't going any where, it would always be there., Two was, that they needed to stay in a conversation for sobriety, via meetings with a group of committed individuals. On your own he said, an alcoholic has very little chance of staying sober.

I thought the perils of an alcoholic are very similar to that of many investors. When it comes to investing, gambling and speculation are all around. Investors have access to behavior that on the surface might seem harmless, but can quickly get an  investor, unknowingly, on a destructive path. How many people take, what on the surface is an innocent beer with the guys or partake of a wine and cheese party, with no idea that that would lead to tragic consequences?

Stock picking, market timing, and track record investing are all over the place. There isn't a commercial out there that isn't trying to goad the investor into behavior that is harmful to their financial security. The ability to transact business with a brokerage firm is a click of a computer away. One trade, one mutual fund purchase that based on a superior track record can easily hook an innocent investor. Once embedded, the urge never goes away. The high of perhaps beating the market or coming oh so close to picking a winner can be intoxicating.

So how does an investor thrive and survive in such a destructive world? One, admit that the forces trying to talk them into destructive behavior are all around them. They cannot escape them. They are powerful and in all likelihood more powerful then they are. Two, immerse yourself in a conversation for prudence, just like an alcoholic immerses themselves in a conversation for sobriety. Understand that a conversation and strength take place in a group of like minded people.

 Prudence, staying away from gambling and speculation, most likely will not be found at a day trading facility (People, places, and things to avoid).

Lastly, be it drinking or gambling and speculating with your money, they have benefits and a costs. With drinking, any personal pain you are dealing with gets numbed. You are around people who are laughing, singing, and having a great party, to name a few of the benefits. There are also costs to drinking, waking up with a hangover, relationships can be damaged, even severed for good as a result of drunken behavior or things that wouldn't be said while sober. Your career and finances can suffer as a result of excess drinking. A drinker needs to decide what they want more, a life with or without drinking.

Gambling and speculating with your money has benefits too. There's the action and shot of adrenaline waiting to hit on a hot stock tip. The dream of hitting it big and living a life of luxury can be very exciting. The idea of being able to brag to your friends about beating the market and out performing the Wall Street hot shots is enticing too. There's also the down side of gambling and speculating. The expected rate of return on gambling and speculating is zero. For every winner there will be thousands of losers. It can be upsetting seeing your money wasted on bad investment choices. It is sad to see other investors getting ahead of you while you make your broker rich at your expense.

Again, you just have to make a choice about which activity is costing you more. Once the cost outweighs the benefit, the path to go down or to avoid becomes obvious. You may need help staying on the right path, but that is also a sign of wisdom, to know what you should and shouldn't take on on your own.

So understand, no matter the vice, the urge isn't going any where. It will always be with you. You just need to understand and appreciate how strong it will be. Get help and then enjoy life. Isn't it great to know that you have the power to choose how great the quality of your life will be?

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching.With questions or comments go to brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322. For more educational material go to www.Coachgee.com.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Investors, If You Can Predict The Future, You Don't Need To Diversify

Diversification, Not Needed If You Can Predict The Future
by: Brendan Magee

Investors spend a great deal of time dealing with uncertainty. What will the market do this year? What are the winning stocks going to be? What are the losing stocks going to be? When is the next crash coming, and when should I get out of the market? These are just a few of the many uncertainties investors have to deal with on an everyday basis. Some turn to professionals to handle the job and some do it themselves with the help of what ever research they think best.

Let me tell you who doesn't have to deal with any of this, people who can predict the future. If you know what is going to happen tomorrow, next month, the next year, the next 20 years, you have no uncertainty to deal with. Matter of fact, if you know what is going to happen in the future you have no uncertainty at all. You know what and when it is going to happen.

Imagine for a second if you were one of those people. What would your life be like? How much money would you be making on a consistent basis, if you knew when the next market crash was coming? How much would you be worth if you knew who and when the next Microsoft was going to pop up. You would be worth trillions. Work would be a thing of the past. What ever you wanted, when ever you wanted it,would be at your finger tips. You could have a tremendous impact on any cause or charity you deemed worthy. Politicians would be calling on you to support their candidacy and you could play a major role in the political landscape of the world. Sounds good doesn't it!

Now, how many of us actually believe/know we can predict the future on a consistent basis? If you are in your right mind, you would not stand up and say you have this super human skill. By the way, if you did, there's nothing wrong with that. You could do a lot of good for the world and yourself. Predicting the future just isn't one of the skills the Good Lord blessed us mortals with. However, how many of us go about our investing as if we or someone else can predict the future? Many more than would actually admit it.

How many of us believe, we or someone else, can spot a trend in the market? Lots of people.  I talk to investors every day, and read and listen to countless analysts on television on a daily basis. Based on what they have read and seen they tell us what is going to be happening in the stock market. When you take away the fluff, they are telling us or themselves they can predict the future. Their actions, though, betray their beliefs.

Case in point, a woman I was talking to this week told me she could predict the future. She knew what the trends were and based on that she knew which stocks to invest in. She told me she had a portfolio of some 30 stocks and ten mutual funds in her portfolio, but I had a question. I asked her if she knew what stocks were going to do well, why she needed to have 30 as well as 10 mutual funds? Why would you need a broker? Why couldn't she just every year pick the the stock that was going to be the top performing stock and invest all her money in that one stock?

 Imagine how wealthy you would be if every year you owned the top performing stock? Bill Gates would be your neighbor. Her reply, "That wouldn't be diversified." No kidding! Now what she or anyone else with her ability to consistently predict the future is failing to see is, if you can predict the future you don't need diversification. There isn't any risk of uncertainty if you can predict the future.

The lesson here is this. If you cannot and you know that you, nor anyone else, can predict the future don't do any thing with your money based on someone's predictions (This means yours as well). Learn what diversification really is and how it truly works. Now, if  you can predict the future and have a 50 year history that backs up that ability, please call me and I will give you every dime I own and ask you to let me benefit from your superhero powers.I will gladly cut you in on a portion of the profits.


Brendan Magee is the owner and founder of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322. For more educational material go to www.coachgee.com.



Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The Eagle's Running Back Dilemma vs The Investor's Dilemma

The Eagle's & Investor's Dilemma
By: Brendan Magee

On top of a record of three wins and four losses, Chip Kelly has a huge running back dilemma on his hands. He is faced with a very difficult decision. By all accounts, it looks like between running backs Ryan Mathews and Demarco Murray, Mathews should be getting the ball more often. Mathews has more yards per carry than Murray and, as his 62 yard touchdown run against the Carolina Panthers showed, he has an explosiveness to his running that Murray doesn't appear to have.

So what's the problem in starting Mathews as opposed to Murray? Nothing,  if you are an Eagle's fan. You want the best player on the field. However, if you are newly appointed general manager and head coach, Chip Kelly, you might not have it so easy. You are not the one who decided to give Murray a $40 million contract with $21 million being guaranteed. Eagle's owner Jeff Lurie might have a problem with you giving a running back so much of his money to sit on the sidelines. Now if you don't play Mathews more, your 3 and 4 record could go to three wins and five losses when you play the Dallas Cowboys in two weeks and Kelly could be looking for a new job at the end of the season. There just isn't that many jobs paying $7 million a year floating around out there.

So Kelly has a dilemma. He has a problem and the two most obvious answers could lead to bigger problems. The same type of dilemma is one that investors deal with every day. You have a problem and the two most obvious answers could make the problem you are trying to solve worse. You are trying to build up your nest egg for retirement. You can't stand the thought of becoming a ward of the state and relying on the government to take care of you. So you start to invest and this is where the dilemma hits you.

This is you life's savings. When you retire, this is it. You cannot go back and make up for 40 years worth of work. You look at your investment options and are trying to make as sound a decision as you can. You need to be safe with your money, but you also need your money to grow. Go down to the bank and the safe investments don't even give you enough in interest to beat the rising cost of living. At that rate you will have to work until you are 80 and that doesn't quite cut it.

You look to investments with a higher return like stocks and stock based mutual funds and that looks a little more appealing. Since their inception stocks have a double digit annualized return. Compared to the banks this is more like it. But wait! This is a bit of a downer. The stocks and stock based mutual fund's returns aren't guaranteed. "My money won't be as safe as I would prefer. I will be incurring a risk, and look at the decade of the 2000's. Investors lost almost $17 trillion dollars due to stock market crashes. That's downright scary. What am I to do?"

What am I to do? Is what both Chip Kelly and investors grapple with on an every day basis. This is the dilemma, and to deal with it, both have to ask the right questions. Chip has to ask what's best not only for himself, but, more importantly, the Eagles. The answer may take courage to follow through with, but it won't come at all unless he asks the right questions. Investors won't solve their dilemma without asking the right questions, either.

The most important being, What is my true purpose for money? What is it that is most important to me in my life and how do I want to use my money to fulfill on what is most important to me? Again, the questions may reveal answers that take courage to implement, but they won't come at all without the right questions. For the Eagles sakes and your family's sakes let's hope the right questions are being asked.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322. For more educational material go to www.coachgee.com.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Eagle's Wins & Investing, They're Not Always Pretty

Eagle's Wins & Investing, They're Not Always Pretty
by: Brendan Magee

Unless you are an Eagle's or Giant's fan, you probably turned off last night's game after the second quarter. The game was sloppily played by both teams. Fumbles, interceptions, dumb penalties and bad play were par for the course.  The Eagles just made fewer costly mistakes than the Giants. However, as someone who sat in Franklin Field watching some of the most God awful football teams ever, I will gladly take the win.

Now neither team practices, or trains, as Chip Kelly calls it, all week long to go out there and play lousy football. These are tremendous athletes who have a lot of pride, and the last thing either team wants to do is look bad in front of a national television audience. Sometimes, it just works out that way.However, no matter how bad each team may have played, there is one thing that pretty much holds true in every football game, the team that controls the line of scrimmage usually wins the game. Anyone watching last night's game could clearly see that the Eagle's offensive and defensive lines controlled the line of scrimmage.The longer runs and the longer passes for the most part belonged to the Eagles and ultimately they came away with a decisive victory.

The same type of scenario can be said of investing. It's not always pretty, but the person who sticks to the principles of investing ultimately prevails.

There can be years of unexpected losses, flat returns, returns that lag behind media driven benchmarks, times when the idea of buy and hold makes you want to kill somebody, and your adviser has to be on drugs if he wants you to rebalance into asset classes that are down 40 percent. Oh my God! We are out of Scotch again? Investing is not always a walk in the park.

Like blocking and tackling there is grunt work and who ever sticks to it the longest eventually wins. Owning equities, diversifying, and rebalancing away from top performing investments into investments that haven't performed or are down is the formula for long-term investing success. Just like avoiding the latest fad running the National Football League, resisting the lure of the hot investment of the day or abstaining from the investment analyst whose prediction just happened to come true is not easy.

As an Eagle's fan I really don't care if the Eagles win the ugliest played Super Bowl in history. Before I leave this Earth, I would like to see a parade down Broad Street. I am sure Jeffrey Laurie would not give the Lombardi Trophy back simply because the Eagle didn't win a beautifully played game. Football success, nor investment success, ever comes to those who don't do the grunt work.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With comment or question go to www.coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Michigan, Michigan State, Investors-When They Need Their Coaches The Most


When Players & Investors Need 
Their Coaches The Most
by: Brendan Magee

To borrow a line from Forrest Gump, College football and a box of chocolates have one thing in common, from game to game, "You never know what you're going to get." This past Saturday's Michigan vs Michigan State game fell right into that category. With just 10 seconds to go in the game and leading 23-21, Michigan lined up for a punt that if completed successfully would have made it all but impossible for Michigan State to win the game (I am having visions of the Eagle's "Miracles at the Meadowlands as I right this).

In good order the ball is snapped back to the Michigan punter, Blake O'Neill, and the blocking is good enough for him to have enough time to punt the ball away. Unfortunately, he drops the ball and rather that fall on the ball or just get tackled, he flings the ball in the air. The ball lands in the hands of a Michigan State defender, Jalen Watts-Jackson, and he races some forty yards for an improbable game winning touchdown.
Michigan State breaks into a euphoric celebration and Michigan is left to figure out "What happened to their all but in the bag victory. For better or worse, O'Neill and Watts will be a part of college football history.

College football coaches like Michigan's Jim Harbaugh and Michigan State's Mark Dantonio get paid big bucks to deal with circumstances like this, and their teams will need them now, more then ever. How does Michigan pick up the pieces, especially their punter, and get ready to play next week's game with the memories of Saturday's game? How do they exercise the demons? Michigan State needs to come down of f their high. How do you not have a once in a life time play distract you from getting ready for next Saturday's game? How do you make sure the hangover doesn't interfere with preparing their next game? The seasons for both teams could be hanging in the balance of just how well their coaches perform their duties this week.

The same can be true for investors. How well investors handle the unexpected determines how successful they are. For example, you have your money in what you believe is a diversified portfolio. You believe with this portfolio you will never lose money. You see two or three quarterly statements of negative returns. This isn't what you were expecting at all. Something has to be wrong! Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't. Before you throw out what could be the portfolio that will bring you the security you were after, you better get someone to help you deal with your upset. That better be your coach. Alone, we rarely do a good job of policing our emotions.

It can also work in reverse. That diversified portfolio has one of the investments that is up 35%. It's been on an upward trend for the past two years and you want more it. The other parts of your portfolio aren't doing nearly as well, some have even lost a little money. You say it's time to dump all the poorly performing investments and load up on the highest performing investments. You want to be on the float for the victory parade. Before you enlist in the Japanese Navy on December 8, 1941, you better have someone help you to temper your enthusiasm. Something that can go up 35% in two years can and most likely will go down 50% in a month.

When it comes to sports and investing, the one thing that we can count on is that there will be the unexpected. Out of the blue when you least expect it, you will see something you never saw before. How you deal with the unexpected will have a lot to do with the long-term success you experience or don't enjoy. For the overwhelming majority of football players and investors, they are going to be much better off with a coach.


Brendan Magee is the founder of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With comments or questions go to www.coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Investors, Are You Swinging A Dull Axe?

Investors, Are You Swinging A Dull Axe?
by Brendan Magee

What if you were a lumberjack and (sorry environmentalists) your livelihood depended on the amount of trees you were able to cut down? Take the case that you, being an able bodied individual found a job with a lumber company and every day you went to work they supplied you with your axe. What would be the impact on your ability to provide for your family, and what would be the toll on you personally if you went to work every day with a dull axe? How would you feel if you found out the lumber company was intentionally giving you a dull axe?

With that dull axe, could you still cut down trees and earn a living? Absolutely!  Could you cut down as many trees as you could if every day you were making use of an axe that was sharpened properly? No! Would your shoulders, back, arms, and hands take a bigger pounding with that dull axe? Absolutely! So you will most likely have to work harder and longer hours to meet your quota, and you could miss some quality family time. Maybe as a result of swinging the dull axe you can't work as long or be forced to retire earlier and not make as much as you would have with a sharpened axe. Inconveniences? Yes. Tragedies? No

So would using a dull axe be the biggest tragedy of your life? Absolutely not! The dull axe just puts reduces the possibilities that you and your family get to experience. Some may say that is a tragedy others wouldn't look at it so pessimistically.

As a coach I think I sometimes over inflate the amount of hardship an investor who uses imprudent investing strategies will endure as a result of using investing's equivalent of a dull axe- stock picking, market timing, and track record investing.

If you use these strategies to invest your money will you make money? Absolutely! Studies show that investor who do you use these strategies do make money. *The average stock fund investor over the past 20 years or so did around an annualized five percent. Some did a little, better some did a little worse, but there is no denying they made money. They just didn't make as much as they would have if they would have thrown away the dull axe and eliminated any and all stock picking, market timing, and track record investing. If they did, those stock fund investors in U.S. Large Company Stocks would have done an annualized 11.11%. (Past returns in no way indicate their performance in the future)

So at 5% you made money. It's just that you most likely will have to work a little longer to retire or you are going to have to cut out some unnecessary luxuries to be able to put more money into your 401k or IRA to make up for the lack of return.

You may just say the hell with it. I'm retiring at a certain age no matter how much I have and just cut out a few of the goals you and the wife had set out to achieve. Is working longer, harder hours a tragedy? Absolutely not! Is not taking the trip you always planned a tragedy? Absolutely not! Is having to put in more hours at work away from the family a tragedy? (Maybe according to the wife she would prefer it that way.) No! There are far greater tragedies that a person could experience than these.

It's just that there are consequences to every action. You have to be the one to say what you are willing to give up or endure. Unfortunately, a lot of investors are unaware that they are swinging a dull axe. All they know is that the returns they were expecting just aren't there. The amount of money they expected to be seeing in their retirement accounts is a fraction of what they were hoping for at this point in their lives.

Even sadder is when they make a change they still can't see that they have picked up another dull axe. Even worse is that in most cases, be it through a financial planner or over the internet on their own, the investment industry is handing the investor the another re-fried version of a dull axe.

Here's the bottom line. If you do not have peace of mind with your money and investments and what you are experiencing is confusion, disappointment, and resignation consider that you are swinging a dull axe. There are ways to find out. Focus on the right questions and if you cannot answer them, you are no doubt swinging a dull axe. Put it down and never pick it up again. Swing with the axe that makes your life the easiest.


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions and comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322   

-Source of returns data is the Dalbar Corpaoratiojns "Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior for 2014."

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

For USC Football & Investors, Surrender Is The Right Move

Surrendering, Sometimes Makes The Most Sense
by: Brendan Magee

If you are a college football fan, you must have some idea of the drama unfolding with the University of Southern California football team. Their head coach, Steve Sarkasion, was just fired. Over the past several months it has become obvious to everyone associated with the team that Sarkasion has a drinking problem that has gotten out of control. You don't show up for work at such a prestigious football program drunk, unless you have a serious alcohol problem.

As opposed to putting Sarkasion on administrative leave, Athletic Director Pat Hayden, opted to fire Sarkasion and make a clean break for the school and Sarkasion. As sad as it is to see someone lose a position like that, admitting that the problem has gotten out of hand and cannot be dealt with using the same old-same-old methods, is most likely the best way to allow Sarkasion to deal with his problem. In essence, Sarkasion and the school are surrendering to the problem. They are not giving up. They are just acknowledging that the problem has gotten too big to handle on their own.

Investors, in a lot of cases, would do well to learn from Sarkasion. They often times dig their heels in and by the sheer force of their will believe their problems will go away. How many investors are engaged in strategies they really do not understand? How many investors have suffered through massive losses, only to try and pick up the pieces, virtually, using the same strategies that caused the losses in the first place? How many are investing, but do not have the first clue about how markets really work? How many cannot tell the real difference between investing and gambling?

Yet, many investors with their retirement and financial security hanging in the balance, plow ahead and hope and pray for the best. Some times you just have to say, "Stop! I don't really know what I am doing. I need help!" It's not a sign of weakness or a lack of intelligence. It's actually an expression of wisdom and courage. You will be amazed at the breakthrough you can have when you surrender to your problems and get the help you need.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Investors Have To Know When

If You Don't Know When, 
You Are Gambling & Will Lose!!
by: Brendan Magee

I was listening to a radio commercial today about how investors can crash-proof their portfolio. In essence, invest in something and the investor's money will never experience any stock market losses. Oh, if we could only continually experience double digit returns and never see a statement with a negative return! Isn't that every investor's dream? Invest without any fear what so ever!

So on the commercial one of the firms clients starts talking about her experience with the system. Being a professor with all her education, certainly she will add credibility to the firm's message. She talks about how "She knows there's going to be a crash." She has seen it happen in the past. So here's the truth, she is right. There will be a crash some day. If you live long enough, you will see several stock market crashes. If you have been investing for just the past 15 years, you have experienced two crashes.

What the professor fails to grasp about her assertions about the market is this, she doesn't know when the crashes are going to take place. She doesn't know how severe they are going to be. She doesn't know how long the crashes will last, and she doesn't know when the market will rebound. Without having that information,she and any other investor who makes investment decisions based on a prediction about the stock market is speculating and gambling with their money, not investing it, and there is a heavy price to pay for imprudence.

So let's say you were back in 1999. The stock market has just been through an incredible five year run and, as this lady says, the market is going to crash. You agree and feel the decade of the 2000's is going to be nothing but a huge bear market (You'd have been just about the only one), and get rid of every stock you own and put it in guaranteed investments. Here are the rates of return of a few asset categories and the returns you would have missed out on from the year 2000 through 2014

U.S. Large Company Stocks      4.24%
U.S. Large Cap Value Stocks    7.84%
U.S. Small Cap Stocks              11.50%
U.S. Micro Cap Stocks             11.78%
U.S. Small Cap Value Stocks     13.95%

(Please know that investing involves risk and the use of these return figures in know way guarantees these returns will occur again in the future. Please consult a professional before making any investment decisions)

Remember as far as many experts were concerned the decade of the 2000's was a lost decade for stock investors. These numbers tell a different story, and you would not have benefited from them one bit, if based on a feeling that the market was going to crash, which it did twice and still produced these kinds of returns, you took all of your money out of stocks.

The point here is this. There three kinds of people that make predictions about the stock market: Those that don't know, Those that don't know they don't know, and those that know darn well they don't know, but get paid big bucks trying to convince you they do know! (I wish I invented that saying, but since it fits, I am going to borrow it from Professor Burton Malkiel) As enticing as it may be, stay as far away from people making predictions about the stock market as you can. You and your portfolio will be glad you did.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With any questions or comments go to brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

           


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Unconscious Driving, Unconciious Investing Will cost You!

Unconscious Investing Is Costing/ Will 
Cost You!!
by: Brendan Magee

We have all seen the life and death consequences of people texting while driving. This story, although a pain in my butt, isn't quite so tragic. It involves me backing out of my driveway and not noticing that my neighbor had parked his car right behind my driveway. Not a great way to start out the day by having to leaving a note on your neighbor's windshield letting him know you dented his car then dealing with your auto insurance and body shops.

All of this is a problem, but the real problem was me not paying attention or being aware of what I was doing and I will pay a heavy price in time, effort and money over the next couple of weeks.

There is also a price to pay, although you don't feel the pain until much later, when people invest in an unconscious way. How many investors are on cruise control or automatic pilot when it comes to investing? In a somewhat robotic way they do things the way their parents taught them how to do it. Invest as the guy in the next cubicle does it because it seems as if he knows what he is talking about or it's the quickest way to get the task of enrolling in their 401k plan off your to do list. How many are taking the advice of the pundits on cable television or the magazines assuming they are actually acting on sound investment advice?

Investors in a lot of cases fail to take notice of the process they are allowing to be used in how their money gets managed. They don't stop to determine whether or not it is being manged as it should or if they are simply allowing the brokerage house to get rich at their expense. Without the pain of having to reach into their wallets, it usually takes a momentous event like the crash of 2008 or the breaking news of a Bernie Madoff stealing $65 billion from investors for investors to stop and take notice of what is actually happening to them.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, those events don't take place all the time and investors, easily, fall back into the same old routine.

To determine if you are asleep at the wheel, it takes being asked a few questions to raise your level of consciousness.. How does the market work? Where are the returns of the market coming from? Can I measure to the penny what I am being charged to have my money managed? What are the expenses being deducted from my account? What services am I receiving in exchange for them? Can I tell the warning signs that I am engaged in or allowing someone to gamble and speculate with my money as opposed to prudently investing it? If you cannot answer these questions with a 100% yes, yes you are asleep and there are things going on with your money that if you knew about it, you wouldn't allow them to happen.

Now here's the problem you just don't wake up and stay vigilant. You need to engage in a conversation that allows you to maintain a prudent investment strategy. That requires staying engaged in a conversation for prudence. Without a structure it's just too easy to go back on automatic pilot. If your adviser doesn't offer an ongoing education process there's probably a good chance he is profiting off of your staying unaware about how your money is being manged and I would strongly suggest you consider hiring somebody else. 

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments go to brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322




Monday, September 21, 2015

What Did Chip Kelly and Investors Say Yes To?

It's All About The Yes
by: Brendan Magee


Yesterday was about as painful as it gets for Philadelphia Eagles fans. Visions of making the playoffs and maybe even a Super Bowl run came pretty much crashing down to the ground in a ball of flames as the Dallas Cowboys beat the Eagle in a putrid display of football.

One of the prime target of Eagle's fans anger is their newly acquired, $60 million cornerback, Byron Maxwell. He couldn't stop anybody the past couple of weeks and he is making ordinary wide receivers look like superstars.However, yesterday's terrible loss, the poor performances turned in by the players, or the fan's upsets could not have happened without someone first say yes to something that is completely at odds with playing good football.

Someone had to say yes to paying $60 million dollars to a cornerback who at this point isn't worth $200. Someone had to say yes to an offensive line that can't block. Someone had to yes to letting Chip Kelly take full control of player personnel decisions. In essence someone had to saying yes to a lot of things that were in complete conflict with what the Eagles and their fans were out to produce. It's going to be a wast of time if the Eagles don't start working on the right side of the problem.

Same thing holds true for investors. I hear complaints from investors all the time about the stock market, their advisers, their company's 401k plan, the low returns they are experiencing, etc. Now, how do they typically go about fixing these problems? They change their adviser, get out of the market, stop contributing to their 401k plan, or change their investments. The one thing they don't do is, stop to do is find out what it is they are saying yes to that is in complete conflict with their peace of mind and investment success.

Think about it for a second. Bernie Madoff could not have ripped off dime one unless people said yes and given him their money. Your adviser could not have misled you without you saying yes to whatever they were suggesting. The market couldn't deliver terrible returns unless you said yes to a poorly diversified mix of assets. Investments that took a dive and then missed the rebound couldn't have done that unless you said yes to taking your money out of the market at the worst possible time. You couldn't stay confused to what your 401k plan was doing unless you said yes to not making a phone call and had your vendor sit down and help you better understand the plan and how to best take advantage of it.

So here is the crux of the matter for the Eagles and investors, It is so much easier to point the finger in someone else's direction and blame them for your troubles. It is easier and completely disempowering. Nothing but nothing happens without a football team or investor first giving their permission. Byron Maxwell doesn't collect a cent or step on to the Eagles football field without someone in the Eagle's front office saying yes. Investors don't feel disappointed, angry, and frustrated with their money and investments before having said yes to something that is in complete conflict with achieving peace of mind.

Now here is why you cannot fix this problem on your own, what ever the Eagles or an investor said yes to had to look reasonable and sound at the time. No one hands a football player millions of dollars without doing tons of research on that player. No one hands their hard earned money over to a mutual fund or investment manager without doing a fair amount of research on the fund or adviser. If you did, shame on you, no one else. So it is fairly predictable that,  given the same set of circumstances, you will make the same choices all over again. You will be making choices and engaged in behaviors that by all appearances are the right ones to be followed. but you will be in conflict with yourself. We are the product of our habits.

Both the Eagles and investor, before trying to fix their problems, would do well to first find out what it is that they are saying yes to. They also need to realize that they are hard wired to make those same kinds of decisions going forward. They need to have someone they can turn to who will step in and let them know when they start to go down those same paths again. That's a coach and they are invaluable.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.


Thursday, September 17, 2015

Former Weatherman Bill Ayers & Your Investments

Dynamite And Investments Easy To Access
           by: Brendan Magee

In March of 1970 a group known as the Weatherman was planning on bombing a dance that was to be held at Fort Dix, N.J. If you are a student of late 1960's and early 1970's history, the names Bill Ayers, Cathy Wilkerson, Jean Boudin, Terry Robbins, Teddy Gold, Diana Oughton, and Sam Melville would be familiar to you. This was a group that had determined that the best way to fight what they saw as an oppressive U.S. Government was to start attacking its military and financial institutions as well as the police through bombings, bank robberies, and kidnappings.

This group led by Robbins was meeting in,planning the bombing, and building bombs in the Fifth Avenue townhouse of Cathy Wilkerson's parents who were away on vacation. Robbins like just about every member of the group was college age, not an expert by any stretch in building bombs or handling dynamite. After a late night conversation between Wilkerson and Robbins, Robbins admitted how intimidated he was by the technical difficulties of building a bomb. In college he was an English major and studied poetry, not science or any thing to do with handling bombs made of dynamite. Most of his knowledge came from books he found an the local library.

Now one of the things that surprised and made the idea of carrying out the bombings much more feasible was the easy access to an ample supply of dynamite. With just a fake i.d. card and for less than $60 two fifty pound cases of dynamite was easily purchased from the New England Explosives Company.

So, driven by the desire to create a revolution the group persevered. The days leading up to the attack date, Friday, March 6th, Robbins busied himself in basement of the townhouse putting together the bombs that were to be used in the attack. The morning of the day scheduled for the attack later that night, the group is busying itself trying to put the finishing touches on the bombs. They are also getting ready to clean and leave the house without leaving any clues that they had been living there while Wilkerson's parents had been away. They are about to commit a crime and do not want to leave any clues behind. This when the unthinkable happens.

The bombs are still in the basement and as some are cleaning up the house, bathing, etc. the bombs go off. Remember,they have got two fifty pound boxes of dynamite in the house. A solid brick house goes from home to flying splinters and plaster in a matter of minutes. There are two immediate blasts that destroy the first floor of the house, the top floors of the house are dangling balconies at this point, and the house is engulfed in flames. Wilkerson who was doing ironing on the first floor and Oughton was showering in a second floor bathroom at the time of the blast were buried under the rubble of the explosion.
They managed to get out of the house before its inevitable collapse.

Others who were in the house at the time were not so lucky Robbins and Gold perished in the explosion. As described in the book "Days of Rage" I would remind you of the scenes reported of the bodies found in the courtyard of the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001 to describe the gruesome state the police found the bodies of Gold and Robbins.

Not only the Wilkerson's house was damaged in the blast, as well, all the homes on the block suffered damage. Windows were blown out of all the homes on the block and the adjoining homes were destroyed as well. The scene was one of needless death and utter destruction to the property of innocent people.

My point here is not to make a political statement. It is to point out how easily disaster strikes when people engage in things they have no expertise in. Easier than accessing dynamite, people can access an unlimited supply of investment products. If you have the money there is always someone willing to sell you anything.

The question every investor needs to be asking themselves is this, "When it comes to building your investment portfolio, do you know exactly what you are doing and why?" If you cannot answer this question 100% with a yes, stop, put down the dynamite, back away quietly, and go and call an expert to coach you.
If not, eventually it's all going to blow up. Peoples lives will be affected permanently.


Brendan Magee is the founder of Inevitable Wealth Coaching.With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Investors, What Is The Price Of Peace of Mind?

The Price of Peace of Mind
        by: Brendan Magee


Consumers are used to paying money for services, and we have been conditioned to think that once I have paid my money, it is completely up to the store or vendor to deliver the value I am expecting. Perhaps with a car, restaurant, a stereo, clothes, a home repair, etc. that is an appropriate way to think. Unfortunately, that thinking doesn't serve people well when it comes to investing and achieving peace of mind.

It would be great if all it took was money, by itself, to achieve investment success. All a person would need is a certain amount of money to get access to the stocks, mutual funds, or adviser and from that point on all your money worries would be taken care of, forever. The reality is that we know that this is pure fantasy. We all know someone or have heard the stories of wealthy people losing fortunes from making bad investment decisions. Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford bilked the affluent, not the Joe six pack investor.

So if money isn't the answer, what is the answer? They are time, mind, body, soul, ego, and when they are not given in the necessary proportion, the investor will inevitably pay a far greater price than money.

I recently met with a woman, Donna. As it turned out, she was suffering from the same problems for the better part of 15 years and she realized she was in danger of running out of money in retirement. So we agreed to meet and prior to that meeting I asked her to complete a couple of homework assignments which would take a total of two hours over the next 10 days. The homework's purpose is to create the context for us to make sure all the problems she is experiencing are brought to the surface and we have a meeting that provides maximum value for the time we would be spending together.


She said she had no intention of completing the homework because she was way too busy with work and everything and she needed her weekends to relax (Time + Effort). So against my better judgement, I eventually met with Donna and ask her a list of questions that are fundamental to a person experiencing peace of mind with their money. It's no big deal, but she could only answer a few of the questions, and I can sense in her tone she is getting agitated. She doesn't know why she is being asked these questions. She says that she has been investing for the better part of 25 years and never even heard of the questions I was asking.

Honestly, I don't believe it was the questions, I believe Donna's upset was coming from the fact that she was being asked questions that she knew in her heart she should know the answers to, but didn't (Ego). She told me what she really wanted was not to be asked a lot of questions, rather she wanted me to tell her what investments she should be in. Where was it that she could make the most money was what she wanted to know. She wanted to see the track records of the top performing funds she could be investing in. She didn't want to spend the next couple of weeks answering questions she didn't know the answers to (Time + Body + Ego).

As I explained to her that if all we did was focus solely on products, we would be ignoring behaviors, decisions, strategies, and philosophies that were really at the root of the problems she was experiencing, she said that those were the responsibility of the adviser,not her. Once she invested the money, the results were the advisers responsibility, not hers (Ego). She said that she already knew how the stock market worked. She didn't need any lessons there, just the answers as to where to invest (Mind + Ego)

So what I am pointing out here with the parenthesis is the parts of the conversation where Donna was not willing to give what was really needed to fix her investment problems. At times she, like a lot people, needed to set aside her ego and acknowledge she didn't have the answers or knowledge that would fix her problems. There were other parts where she would need to devote more time, be present, and give the mental effort to get the answers to questions she couldn't answer. That would enable her to see what she couldn't. Unfortunately,she saw her problems as solely money problems.  In her opinion, all she had to do was move her money to the right investment and her problems would go away forever.

She didn't even want to begin to find out that perhaps she was using a faulty decision making process, nor find out what a good decision making process looks like. She didn't want to consider that the amount of time she was devoting to maintaining a good understanding of her investments was insufficient. Again, some how she has been conditioned to believe that investing is purely a money decision. She like a a lot of investors is sorely mistaken.

It takes time to put your listening in the right place to begin to absorb a conversation for prudent investing. It takes time to go through the questions and it takes humility to admit that you can't answer those questions. It takes humility for an investor follow a process you don't, initially, understand or create. It takes faith (not blind faith) to allow an investor to let a coach lead them to answers that on their own they won't see.
It takes committing to a process of follow up and continuing education. Investing is not a once and done process.

Money can't do any of that. Only the investor can. Only the investor can determine if they are willing to pay the price peace of mind requires.


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With comments or questions e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.




Monday, September 14, 2015

NFL Week One & Investing Lessons

NFL Week One & Investing
by: Brendan Magee

As far as I can tell, the only thing that gets more attention than investing is the National Football League. People can't wait for the season to begin. I believe in large part it's because, like investing, so many people are participating in the each week's games to one degree or another. Most people do not have the athletic ability to get on the field, but they can put their heart, soul and money in to the games by gambling on the games or, the latest rage, fantasy football, which I do not fully understand or par take of. The key word in that sentence is gambling and in many ways people approach gambling on football games the way they approach investing.

I think if people could step back and recognize the similarities in how they approach and participate in football games and investing, they would do a better job of separating the two activities and the one that should be for entrainment only, gambling on football games, would not be dealt with in the same manner, as investing for your retirement.

Let's start with a game that turned out completely different than most people would have predicted. The Buffalo Bills could have conceivably been predicted to beat the Indianapolis Colts at home yesterday, but how many people would have believed/predicted and bet their hard earned money that Buffalo would pretty much blow out the Colts by a score of 27 to 14? To have profited from betting on the game you would have had to been able to predict that Buffalo would have beaten Indianapolis by such a wide margin. Most fans can tell you they may have a gut feeling or a favored outcome for a game, but they have no idea how the game will actually play out. This, with all the info that is made readily available to the betting public before the game is played.

Relate that to the stock market. How many people are making predictions about which direction the market is going to go, up, down, sideways, etc. Given all the news and information that is readily available about the economy, the publicly traded companies, political scandals, etc., any investor who is making a decision about how to invest and feels good because of all the information that is behind that decision is standing on the same ground as the football handicapper. Neither knows how the game is going to be played out in advance. Investing for retirement involves way more serious money than money bet on football games, hopefully.

Gamblers don't know who will get hurt in the game and how those injuries impact the game. They don't know which of the players was up all week with sick child, or whose marriage is on the rocks and how those events will impact the players performances. Investors are speculating on news and information that has already occurred and has already had their impact on the market. It's only unknowable and unpredictable news and events and how people around the world react that are going to move the stock market. Honestly, doesn't the investor's and handicapper's dilemma sound exactly the same?

The other similarity between the NFL and investing is the impulse of taking short term results and making long-term conclusions out of them. Yes the Colts lost, but how would you like to take your hard earned retirement money and invest it based on a hunch that the Buffalo Bills will outperform the Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, or Philadelphia Eagles over a sixteen game season? How comfortable would you be if hundreds of thousands of your dollars were riding on whether or not you guessed right? Yet, every day some investment show or web site is telling people where the market will wind up based on the day's news and events. Think back to just a few weeks ago. How many were predicting doom and gloom based on what was happening with China's stock market. How many investors made decisions based on those recommendations? Right now I bet you would have a hard time finding 10 people who could tell you what happened in China's stock market.

Here's the deal. The NFL for the majority of people, should be used purely for entertainment purposes. If you want to bet on the games or engage in fantasy leagues, do it to your hearts content. Treat it as no more than that. Investing, especially for retirement, is serious business. Any activity with investing for retirement that remotely resembles gambling on football games should be eliminated immediately. Your wallet will thank you.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. with comments or questions e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.


Thursday, September 10, 2015

An Investor's Ultimate Slap In The Face

The Investor's Slap In Face 
by: Brendan Magee

There isn't anyone who likes it when their time and money are disrespected. Doctors and investment companies seem to give new meaning to the phrase "We don't mind, cause you don't matter."
Here's two examples of that.

After having received notice that it was time to have my eyes checked, I go to the optometrist. I am there and they know that I am there for my annual check up which I have taken the time to make sure would be covered by my health insurance. The receptionist also informs me that every so often it is a good idea to have your peripheral vision checked by a test that is not covered by my insurance and for $20 I agree to have that test done and am expecting to pay a total of $45 at the end of my visit.

After my visit the receptionist informs me the bill would be $135 because I had a contact lens evaluation which I had no notice would be done. Again, their notice to me was for an eye exam. Worst of all, I have several months of contacts at home so I am not even thinking about replacing my lenses. Yes, the evaluation was done, but I never asked for it, nor was informed prior to my visit that it would be done. I ask why I wasn't informed that the contact lens evaluation would take place in addition to the eye exam and the receptionist just looks at me with a blank face.

 I realize I am going to get no where with any protestation and, quite pissed off, pay the bill questioning whether I will ever set foot in an office I have been going to for 15 years. I can't believe they feel justified in having me pay a bill for services that I never would have agreed to pay at that time. I was not given the right to make an informed decision. Thinking about it now I am getting angry all over again.

This same scenario is happening to many investors. In particular to sponsors and participants in 401k plans. The other day I sit down to discuss a company's 401k plan and the sponsor believes his company is getting a pretty good deal on the costs of the plan. The problem is, though, we can't account for all the costs the plan is paying. They are buried within the investment contract itself. They can't be accounted for.

I go to Morningstar, a data collection company for the universe of investment products. I find a listing of all the costs associated with this contract. The list details over 20 expense items but doesn't list include the costs associated with those expenses. I call Morningstar and ask the representative where or how I could find that information. He informs me that if the investment company doesn't release the information they cannot publish it. (Are you smelling a rat too?) So how much is this gentleman and his participants paying for just the investment portion of their 401k plan? Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

Two big problems here: The plan sponsor is responsible for being able to account for all plan expenses or he can be found to be in breach of his fiduciary responsibilities to the plan. That is a personal liability. The participants are absorbing the costs of the plan. Their retirement is being directly impacted by these costs. They have no way of knowing what those costs are and whether or not they are receiving value in return for what they are paying. The plan and its participants are in the dark. They are at a terrible disadvantage and the investment company seems to prefer it that way.

At least with me and my optometrist I found out what I paid. I am smarter for the experience and will not make that mistake again. I will ask more questions the next time and will walk out of the office (If  I go back at all!) if my time and money are disrespected. The 401k plan sponsor, nor participants, are given the opportunity ( To feel the sting of getting burnt!) to learn from their mistakes. Neither their time or money is given the respect that it deserves.

Lesson here:  If you can't account for it, the damage being done is almost always way more than you think and way more than the investment company wants you to know about. No one cares more about your money than you. Do not assume because you can't see it that the investment company has put your agenda ahead of theirs. Trust is good, but trust with the ability to verify is way better.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Investors: Neither China Nor Or The Dow Will Lose You A Dime!

Neither The China Or The Dow 
Will Lose You Any Money!
by: Brendan Magee

So here we are a little less than a week from the sudden drop in the Chinese Stock Market and the subsequent drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. No doubt when the Shanghai Index has dropped by 14.46% and the Dow goes into thousand point swings people will start talking.

With all the hoopla, I wanted to remind people that their fate as investors is and will always be in their hands. The rules for investing no matter market conditions have not changed in 80 years, own stocks/equities, diversify, buy low/sell high.  The decision to follow those rules and allow your advisor to execute those strategies rests solely with the investor. 

Should the investor panic and sell after Monday's sell off, whatever wealth was coming their way will be going to the investor who either held on to their portfolio, rebalanced their portfolio by shifting money from investments that have gone up or held steady into asset classes that went down, or brought outright stocks that went down. Eventually, when the rebound that inevitably comes, the wealth that was lost by the panicky seller will go to the steady and disciplined investor who followed the rules. The loss or gain had nothing to do with what took place in China or the Dow. It begins and ends with the investor.

Isn't it empowering to know your fate is solely in your hands, not faceless bureaucrats. So, turn off the news.There is nothing you are going to see or hear that will have any impact on your financial security.  Go play some tennis or golf. Get some exercise and wait for the tomorrow's crisis.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments go to WWW.Coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322


Monday, August 24, 2015

Investor: Should You Be In The Ring & Can You Tell That You Have Stepped In It!


Investors: Should You Be Getting In The Ring?
                                              by: Brendan Magee

Almost two years ago, I walked into a U.F.C gym and started taking the boxing and kickboxing classes. U.F.C. (Ultimate Fighting Champion) has grown in popularity along with stars like female champion Ronda Rousey. In the two years, I lost some things and gained a few things. I have lost about twenty pounds, gained some muscle mass, and and learned how to deliver a pretty good kick that produces a pretty loud thud when my shin hits the heavy bag. It's a grueling workout, and a great one for anyone looking to lose weight and get in better shape.

One  thing I haven't lost, though, is my mind. See at the gym there is a regulation size ring for those who would like to box and a cage for those who would like to participate in mixed martial arts. There was one  night where two of the gyms trainers put on a martial arts exhibition. The gym's owner told me that it was only going to be an exhibition, nothing too intense. Let me tell you something, in my eyes, intense wasn't the word. I do not know how these two guys were able to get up and walk out of the ring. They were jumping on each other, kicking each other, punching each other, etc. The ring was not the place to be unless you were thoroughly trained in mixed martial arts. I haven't and I know the ring is not where I belong.


Days like today and last Friday when the markets are in a reported free fall are days that the location of the ring gets a little hazy and investors can find themselves in a place they are not trained for. The market plunges a few hundred points. Investors go on the internet and look at their account balances starting to turn in a downward direction and its go time. "I got to get in there and save my my retirement." What does that usually mean?  "Get me out of the market! I don't care if we agreed this was a long-term process. I need to get to my corner and cover up for a while."

It can happen the other way as well. The market has gone on to record highs and "I can't miss out on this gold mine. Take me out of this diverisfied portfolio and load up on tech stocks, U.S. Large Company Stocks, etc. I know I said I believed in diversification, but this is different."

I know what boxing gloves are. I can even do a pretty good job of wrapping my hands so they don't get torn up by hitting the bag. I can do fifty sit ups in about two to three minutes. I can point out head gear and point out the padding that will protect the most sensitive of body parts, but that doesn't make me qualified to go in the ring and start mixing it up with another boxer, especially one who has been trained for a while.

There are those who are very knowledgeable about investing too. They know the difference between stocks and bonds. They know the difference between the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. They can read the Wall Street Journal without falling asleep. But that doesn't mean that they should be handling or managing their investments.

When I see an experienced boxer or kick boxer hit the bag and hear the thud it makes, I know that would hurt and hurt bad. When investors see stellar track records, hear about their friends brilliant investing exploits, or hear Jim Cramer brag about how he got it right that the market was going to crash, they don't necessarily feel how bad it is eventually going to feel when they step into the ring of investing and start breaking the rules of prudent investing.

In boxing matches at least their is a referee, who if they see enough blood, steps in and maybe stops the fight or gets the fighter some medical attention. Investing on your own there is no referee. The fight goes on until the investor says stop. Usually they don't stop until they have lost way more money than they bargained for and are left wondering how they are going to pick up the pieces.  

Investors need to be informed and be engaged in what ever process they are using to invest their money. They need to understand what is being done  and why. They should be able to explain it and feel in their gut that they have been the one determining how their money should be managed. They need to take ownership, but maybe they should not be the ones actually executing that process. The mind can very easily play subtle yet deadly tricks on an investor or boxer.

Joe Frazier fighting Muhamad Ali in Manila thought he could go out for the last round, but his trainer, Eddie Futch, knew that if he took one more shot to the head he could go blind or even die. Frazier after his fighting career was over thanked his trainer for looking after him and be able to walk away from boxing in one piece. Investors can get overly confident and say "I can do that. I don't need to be paying fees for that.Let me open my E Trade Account" Unfortunately, the ref isn't there to stop the fight from getting out of control. Stay out of the ring. Pay a few bucks to watch on pay per view. Your ribs, your money, and your family will thank you later.

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments go to brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.


Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Investors: There Will Be Pain!

Investors: There Will Be Pain!
                                     by; Brendan Magee




When ever my sons are going in for their doctor check ups, invariably they ask "Am I getting a needle?" Honestly, I don't always answer as truthfully as I would prefer. I sometimes think it's better to spare them needless all day anxiety dreading the moment the needle comes out and gets stuck into their little arms. In retrospect, I don't know if I am doing the right thing or not by not being totally up front and properly preparing them for the pain that is awaiting them.


Survival is important to most people. Like the boys going to the doctors, we do things to ensure our health, survival and quality of life. We exercise and we invest our money, two things we need to engage in if we aspire to a long and healthy life. Most of us know that if we are going to exercise to the degree we need to, there will be physical and emotional pain.


When I go to my exercise class at 6:00 am, there is pain. I am tired and would like to lay in bed a little longer. When I get to the class and am doing the push ups, sit ups, burpees, squats, planks, etc, there is physical pain. Honestly, if not in the class with an instructor, I would not be working as hard as I need to. It's too easy on my own to convince myself that I have worked out as hard as I need to. Other than me, who really knows? Truth is, I know and there is pain from the guilt. When I go to bed the night before the class, I know there will be pain. I also know, after a year and a half, the pain is temporary and there are good long lasting results from enduring it.


I don't know that investors and, maybe more importantly, investment advisors do a good enough job in helping investors understand that with prudent investing there will come a significant amount of pain as well.


Properly diversified portfolios will experience down years. Sometimes they will experience consecutive years of negative returns and that is painful. It is especially painful when your friend boasts that they made 15%. It is painful to do be told the best course of action is to do absolutely nothing with your portfolio when your are under performing investments that are beating the pants of off your investments. In a portfolio designed to be held for 30 years or more you will not experience pain like this just once. Their will be numerous times when everyone is telling you that you are making a huge mistake to stay with your properly diversified portfolio. They will even have tons of statistics to prove how wrong you are.


In the midst of it, the pain can be unbearable. It can seem as if it will never go away. As it is with exercise, the pain is temporary and their are long lasting benefits from being able to endure it.
I can't think of any one who lived to regret exercising too much. Matter of fact, when they are going into the operating room for the bypass, the regrets are that they drank too much, smoked too much, didn't eat properly and didn't get off the couch and exercise.


The same can be said in regards to successful investing. Long-term, there is little if any regret to following the rules in a disciplined fashion. No one that I can think of ever lived to regret systematically rebalancing their portfolio by routinely selling a portion of what was up and buying a portion of investments that were down. In the midst of executing the strategy you may think your advisor nuts and the devil in disguise by recommending such a strategy, but in the long run you will live to thank him or her for helping you to stay disciplined.


Investment advisors do their clients a disservice by not letting them know and preparing them that there will be times when their investments will be the source of a lot of pain and frustration in their lives. Rather than focusing so much attention on funds with stellar track records and building up false hopes that those returns will continue in routine fashion, perhaps advisors would do better by the investor if they went over years like 2002 and 2008. Try as best they can to let them know that those years will come back again and that it would be foolhardy to try and predict and avoid those years.


Let the investor know what the course of action will be not just for their money, but the investor as well. Turn off the television. Take walks instead. Plan on attending coaching sessions and briefings. Let the investor know that it will be times like this and how they handle the panic that is going on around them that will make or break their financial futures.


Advisors also should prepare investors for the pain that can occur during booming markets. How will it feel when you see a couple of years when U.S. Large Company Stocks has done 20%, 30% and maybe even 40% when your properly diversified portfolio has been flat the past two to three years? Everyone is going to be enjoying the party that you apparently weren't invited too. That hurts! How do you not give in to the pain and buy a lot of U.S. Large Company Stocks or Gold or Tech Stocks while they're booming. How will that feel? What will the plan be on how to deal with all the pundits telling you the market has changed and the old prudent rules no longer apply?


How investors and investment advisors can succeed is by understanding that above any thing else, it is their behavior that will be the source of their success or failure, not the market or who is the president. Let them know that this is not the easiest thing to do. There is no such thing as a free lunch. You do not lose 20 pounds by sitting on the couch eating pizza. You need to be engaged in the process and there will be times when the easiest thing to do, what people are recommending for you to do is disengage and throw it all away. Your advisors main job is to keep you disciplined and not enable destructive behavior even if you threaten to take your business from them.


I wouldn't expect my fitness instructor to allow me to walk in to their class with a bucket of fried chicken. I might be a little upset in the moment if he should take the chicken out of my hands and throw it in the trash can so I don't eat it. (Let's be honest, in the moment I would be completely pissed off!) But, if he didn't react that way to my destructive behavior, "What good is he to me?" When I am, hopefully, dancing with my wife at my children's weddings and enjoying my grandchildren I won't be missing that chicken in the least. Investors deserve and should expect nothing less from their investment advisors


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions go to www.coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Are Investors & Adviosrs Vicitims of Brainwashing?

Have We Been Brainwashed?
by: Brendan Magee


We have seen over time where people have been brainwashed into committing ungodly acts. The Nazis indoctrinated Germany into believing it was perfectly ok to kill Jews by the millions. ISIS has their soldiers at total peace in cutting off the heads of people who don't believe in their brand of Islam. People have been persuaded into drinking Koolade laced with poison that would kill them instantly. We look back at those acts and many more like them and have a hard time believing how people get talked into such behaviors. For the most part, I believe people take the position that, if under the same circumstances, they would not have caved in. They would have stuck to their principles and not succumbed to the peer pressure or brainwashing if you will.


It's our moments of pride and overconfidence that I believe we become the most susceptible to unhealthy forms of indoctrination/brainwashing. Unfortunately, investing is one of those areas where we would do well to take a step back and see, "Have I been brainwashed?" Have I been talked into behaviors and believes that on the surface seem ok, but in reality are doing harm to myself?


Brainwashing as a noun is defined as a method of systematically changing attitudes or altering beliefs. It is embodied by any method of controlled systematic indoctrination, especially based on repetition or confusion. Can you think of any industry that produces more information that absolutely no one can begin to comprehend then the investment industry? If I can control your beliefs haven't I gone a long way towards controlling your behaviors, what you will and won't do with your money?


If you do a word search on Google for the word money, 923,000,000 will come up for you to read. It would take about 5,268 years to read all those pages. Every one will have a suggestion as to what to do with your money and tons of statistics telling why their suggestion is the right one. My bet is that after 10 to 20 pages your head will start to spin. This doesn't say anything about the 28,000 mutual funds out there.


Now we come to the repetition. Every last bit of the information you read about what to do with your money promotes one of three strategies. Stock picking, market timing, and track records. Here are the stocks to own or get rid of. Now is the time to get in the market. Now is the time to get out of the market. Now is the time to buy these kinds of stocks or gold. Here is a fund with a brilliant track record over the past five, ten, 20 years and the person you should hire to manage your money. Are there any other kinds of messages that you see on TV, the inter net, the magazines, the cable shows, etc. It is a constant 24, 7, 365 stream of messages coming at investors. Does the word repetition seem appropriate?


Now long before the 1930's with the Nazis and long before the 2010 with ISIS, it was pretty much accepted that murdering innocent people was wrong. So how did so many people get talked into committing such atrocities? They couldn't tell the difference. Some were born into it. Some through coercion came to see their behavior as acceptable. They couldn't see the harm in it. They couldn't feel the harm they were inflicting on others or themselves. This wasn't the result of just one message. It was massive amounts of information going out to people and being manipulated to get people to believe and act as desired.


How does this apply to investing? Most people would never dream of taking their life savings and walking into a casino and start a daily habit of gambling and speculating with it. They know that would be downright foolish. They probably couldn't be convinced no matter how much information they were given to allow somebody else to start playing roulette, blackjack, or shoot craps with their retirement savings.


Back in 1990 the American Law Institute in writing the Prudent Investor Law came to the conclusion that "Bargain shopping in an attempt to separate the winners and losers through forecasting was deemed to be wasteful." By it's very nature stock picking, market timing, and track record investing are forecasting. It is an attempt to predict the future, no different from gambling. Yet in the fog of 28,000 mutual funds and 900,000,000 inter net pages that reality escapes the overwhelming majority of investors. They are led to behaviors that cripple their chances of ever experiencing true peace of mind with their investments.


The results don't lie. Most people, no matter what the casinos would like us to believe, do not walk into the casinos on a consistent basis and become affluent. The odds are not in their favor. In fact, there are mathematical formulas proving that the more you gamble, the more you will lose. That same mathematical evidence applies to stock picking, market timing, and track record, investing. Affluence does not result from those activities. More accurately, poverty results from those activities. From 1984 through 2013 U.S. Large Company Stocks annualized return was 11.10%. The average Stock mutual fund investor's annualized return in that time  was 3.69%.Inflation was up an annualized 2.80% over that same time. The tragedy is that investors are doing it to themselves.


I don't believe someone, unless mentally disturbed, would intentionally do harm to themselves. Most people would prefer to grow, thrive, and be at peace. Yet we can't ignore that it is the decisions and behaviors of the investor that is at the root of their problems.


There is only one way to begin to start the healing process and end the cycle of destruction investors are inflicting upon themselves. That is for investors to consider and see for themselves,  that are the victim of a systematic effort to brainwash the investing public. The only way to do this is through being asked the right questions. 


 Do you know the three warning signs that you are engaged in or are allowing someone to gamble and speculate with your money as opposed to prudently investing it? If you can't, brainwashing has seeped into your beliefs, attitudes, decisions, and behaviors. Best not to resist or deny the condition. The damage will only continue unabated. The best course of action would be to accept it and accept that most likely on your own you will not overcome it. On your own, you will be taking on years and years of mental hard wiring. Allow someone qualified to lead you to the cure by helping you to ask the right questions and keep you there.


The great news in all of this is that if your are the source of the damage being done, you are also the source of the cure as well. You are more powerful then you may realize. Access to this power is accepting responsibility for what has been done. Be generous to yourself and don't condemn yourself for being human, and perhaps most importantly, realize where it is that you are powerless. You are up against your own hard wiring, the media, and the investment industry. Maybe you need to realize that to take on the evil empire you need help.




Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments go to www.coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322