Prayers Asked & A Lesson To Learn

Prayers Asked 

& 

A Lesson The Lesson Of A Lifetime

by: Brendan Magee

You or a loved one is doubled over and can't breath. Your arms and legs are going numb and you have a history of high cholesterol. What do you do? Take your loved one or get someone to drive you to the hospital and get checked out. You don't wait. It's not a hard situation to figure out.

It's a situation that a friend of mine was personally dealing with recently. As he was asked several times if he was alright and did he want to go to the hospital, he always responded that he was fine. He was so fine that he just recently suffered cardiac arrest and is not in the best of circumstances right now. I ask you to keep him and his family in your prayers.

We all know the right thing to do under just about any circumstance so long as it is happening to some body else.Your chest is tight and heavy. "I don't want to go to the doctors and be hooked up to all those tubes. I don't want to die! It will probably go away in a few minutes."

Theory is so much different than reality. We can be way too quick to believe that under any and all circumstances we will be able to act rationally. This is true whether it be dating, our health, or our investments, but the reality is that we, are not. All you have to do is look at the presidential election. Do you really think rational thought has led us to the candidates we are most likely going to be choosing from?

When it comes to investing we already know what to do in order to be successful. Own equities, diversify, buy low/sell high. We have all heard these rules, especially buy low sell/high. They are not difficult to understand, but following them day-in-day out is not as easy as it sounds.

The British decide to leave the European Union and the stock market goes a bit hay wire. All the experts are on t.v. telling us the world will never be the same again. Everyone is in a panic and asking, " What should I do now?" You already have the answer, own equities, diversify, buy low/sell high. Why is their any confusion?

The answer is instincts and emotions. It's painful to think for one second your life savings is in jeopardy. You get scared that tomorrow you will be living on the street. You have to do something. Who cares about those damn rules. "We got to get out of the market! Sell every thing and put it in cash or a guaranteed annuity. Any body else and you give a calm "You got to keep the long-term in mind. The market always comes back. Don't panic response."

The lesson of a life time is that investing success or failure is a direct result of what the investor does or doesn't do/ What they allow and don't allow to be done with their money. This more than anything will determine an investors fate. Their decisions come from their brains which is where knowledge, instincts and emotions reside. If we can get that when it comes to investing our instincts and emotions cannot be separated from our thoughts or behaviors.

They will be leading the way in our decisions, and history shows that, repeatedly, those decisions will be wasteful.To guard ourselves from our instincts and emotions, starts with acknowledging that we, on our own, cannot protect ourselves from our instincts and emotions. We need to put that job in the hands of someone we trust and never deceive ourselves into believing we can do that job by ourselves.

Our coaches job and ours along with it will be managing a never ending flow of thoughts and ideas that  occur in a flash and on a 24 hour-7days a week -365 days of the year basis. We can only interrupt this pattern if we stop for a second and ask someone if our decisions and behaviors are consistent with our ultimate objectives. Once you do, you will hear and hopefully respond to answers like "No get yourself to the doctor now, not in two weeks. No we are not selling just because Jim Cramer told you the market was in a free fall"

Strength and wisdom are the result of acknowledging our lack of strength and wisdom. Your pride may sting a bit when you swallow it at first, but you and your family love the long-term results.

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.  

How On-Line Investing Addictions Take Root

How On-Line Investing Addictions Take Root

    by: Brendan Magee

I log on to the internet and one of the first headlines I read is, "The Death of Blue Chips." I click on the the link and the next headline reads. "Are Penny Stocks Better Than Blue Chips?" I read on and the article lists and gives detail as to why penny stocks could be better for investors than blue chip stocks. Among the reasons are:

-Penny Stocks are cheaper than blue chip stocks. As opposed to buying expensive stocks like Apple, an investor could by a penny stock for less than a dollar and  with all the shares you could buy for example a stock priced at $.30 if that rose to just a dollar a share. You could just imagine the profit potential.

-Massive return potential in hours if not days. "If you are subscribed to the right newsletter you gain the potential of penny stocks on the verge of exploding." Do research and you will see that it is not uncommon for a stock to double and even triple in just 24 hours. 

Don't these reasons remind you a lot about the buses that would come  get the senior citizens and take them to the casinos to play the slot machines or the advertisements to play the lottery? They are both cheap and imply the same level of cheap fun along with massive return potential?

Reading the article a little further and the right newsletter as mentioned above is the BioScience Report and you can subscribe for free. All you have to give when you register is your e-mail address. When you subscribe you will even be given their latest stock pick which their subscribers have already made thousands of dollars in profits on. Click on the link to get started it states.

Cheap stocks with massive potential along with a free source of stocks that are expected to make you thousands of dollars in returns. How can you afford not to register? How could it hurt?

The answer is plenty. No doubt the idea of doubling or tripling your money in 24 hours is appealing. The idea of getting hot stock picks for free is also a winner. It's enough to make a person lose their senses which is what the newsletter is hoping enough people do. Once they do, the hook has been set and sane people will begin to see destructive behavior as prudent.

No one knows in advance which stocks will be the winners or the losers, absolutely no one. If they did, they sure aren't telling you for free. Forecasting winners or losers is pure speculation/gambling, not investing.

Massive return potential also means massive loss potential. That is not something the publishers of this newsletter want you to get a whiff of. What they want you to start doing is plying the investment game according to their rules. Just start playing.

If you hit a winner you are most likely going to keep playing. If you lose a little money you will most likely want to keep playing until you have at least gotten your money back. None the less you keep playing, putting more and more of your money on the table hoping the dice come up your way. Feel  the excitement, the rush of adrenaline and after a while your brain starts to crave the rush. Bang! You are addicted! No different than the guy who drinks too much, eats too much, snorts too much, or gambles too much.

So how do you not get addicted? Do not start at all. See these behaviors for exactly what they are, destructive. Stay engaged in a conversation for prudent investing. Know that all available information is already factored in the price of stocks. Only unknowable and unpredictable information will move the price of stocks. Get also, that the attempts to get you to engage in destructive behavior will not stop. They will keep coming 24, 7, 365. They will be appealing and seem harmless. Your victory is not engaging at all.

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. 

Gold, Silver, or Wisdom? You Choose

Gold, Silver, or Wisdom? You Choose

        by: Brendan Magee

As the election heats up and the yelling at and the blaming of goes on and on, it is nice stop and hear someone you feel is actually talking to you and sharing themselves. To me, Dr. Ben Carson is such a man, and over these past couple of weeks I have enjoyed reading his book, " A More Perfect Union."

Oddly enough in learning a little more about our U.S. Constitution, I also read the phrase that encapsulates what just about everyone is after with their investment plans, but hardly anyone ever achieves. As Dr. Carson expanded on different parts of the Constitution, he started each chapter with a verse from Proverbs, and the one that had the biggest impact on me was,  

"Joyful is the person that finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. For wisdom is more profitable than silver and her wages are better than gold." Proverbs 31: 13-14

Joyful isn't how I would describe the candidates running for office, the voters, or investors for that matter.  It might be because we have the process brass backwards. Candidates tell us our problems will be solved if we vote them in and the other guy out. Investment companies tell us we will find joy, happiness, and security once we own their products. It is not an outside in process, rather it is an inside out process.

I know as a financial planner I was miserable, scared, and confused. It wasn't until somebody helped me to start asking the right questions and better understood how the world of investing works and could share that with others that I found joy in my profession. Money without wisdom can be one big tragedy waiting to happen. Look up the name Lenny Dykstra and you will see what I mean.

It not the money or the things they buy that will ever give you joy. It is the purpose it is used for plus the understanding that your money is being invested exactly as you know it should be that will be at the root of you experiencing joy, love, happiness, security, and freedom.

If you don't know the questions to ask, call me I will gladly help you.

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

Matson/DFA Portfolios vs. Vanguard

Without Your True Purpose Behind It, Investing Is One Great Big P.IT.A.

Without Your True Purpose Behind It, 

Investing Is One Great Big P.I.T.A.

           by: Brendan Magee

When I first got into the investing business some 20 years ago, it was a very exciting time. I felt like wealth and affluence were within reach. All the senior advisers I worked with drove luxury cars, played lots of golf, and lived in beautiful homes. Their clients all seemed to be in the same boat. They were people who knew something and were given a ton of respect, and what they appeared to have I wanted and was willing to work for.


After about five years of working 60 hour weeks, making 400 cold calls a week, and even built up a few loyal clients, I noticed something both funny and sad, I wasn't happy. The more I worked, the more I earned, the more assets I placed on my client's balance sheets the excitement and happiness seemed harder and harder to find. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. The hard work I was putting in became more like work, work that didn't seem worth it.

Similiarly, I met with a very nice man yesterday to talk about his investments. From the size of his portfolio, you would have every reason to think that he is happy and successful. However, when we looked at his investments there were some very big red flags. There wasn't any real diversification in his portfolio. Almost 50% of his entire portfolio sat in U.S. Large Company Stocks. In his early 60's and with retirement in sight, half of what he owns sits in an investment that in the past decade went down some 40 percent twice. In addition to his lack of diversification, he was paying his mutual fund company about 35 to 40 percent more in fees than he was aware of.

The biggest red flag was when I asked him if when it came to building his portfolio whether or not he knew exactly what he or his broker was doing with his money he said "No." So the choice he had at this point was to either, engage in a process to better educate himself about how to do a better job of investing his money or leave things as they are. He chose to leave things as they are. It's his choice and I respect it.

As we were winding down our meeting, he told me that he clearly saw the flaws in how he was investing his money. He saw the unnecessary risks and expenses. He also acknowledge the danger in not being able to better validate whether or not his money was being managed properly. What held him back he said was the thought of pouring over the charts, spreadsheets, and information that that would take. He would rather not spend his time that way. As I had found out as a financial planner, investing without a purpose is a very boring and unrewarding task, and it stays that way until you have established your true purpose for your money.

So what do I mean by purpose? A lot of people if I asked them their true purpose for money would answer and give me a list of their goals. Retire by age 60. Move to the beach house. Accumulate $5,000,000, etc. When those things are realized then they expect to be happy and fulfilled. Imagine that? With this criteria, a person is putting off experiencing happiness and fulfillment until they attain these goals which in some cases will take 30 to 40 years to achieve. For the better part of 30 to 40 years they will be in chase mode. Can you say boring?

 A purpose is not a goal. It is an emotion that gets expressed or experienced from the way in which a person uses their resources. Your resources include time, effort, energy, money, passion. Among the most powerful emotions are love, generosity, freedom, accomplishment, happiness, joy. Think about it. Do you want the money or the emotion that you feel in even trying to accomplish your goals? When you go on vacation, are you thinking about the money or the joy at being with your family on that wonderful beach? When you participate in your 401k plan, do you want the money or do you want the freedom that comes with one day knowing you will be able to walk out the door to your office never having to worry about running out of money and can do basically what ever it is you want to do?

Here is the great thing, your true purpose is what ever you want it to be. You get to say what it is. We all value different things, but we know when we have discovered it. We are filled with passion and we can never get enough of it. Can you ever have enough love in your life or too much joy?

The problem is that we have things a little backwards. Most people believe the love and joy will come once we have accomplished our goals. It's the exact opposite. First, the purpose has to be established. Why am I doing this again? This question has to be answered first and if it is not big enough, if it does not light you up with passion you haven't got it. The power of your passion will not go into full effect until it has been established by you, and without a purpose the pursuit of a goal will soon become a job, and jobs are work not pursuit of a passion. This is true whether it be a chosen profession or investing.

Now there is one other amazing thing about discovering your true passion. Once you have defined what it is you want to experience most in life, your brain will automatically seek out activities where you will experience your true purpose on a daily basis. You won't be able to stop yourself. You won't have to wait to experience love, joy, generosity, etc. until some point in the future. You will begin to experience these wonderful values and emotions now. I speak from experience on this.

Once I discovered my true purpose for money, love and generosity, I inherintley set up my life to experience these values. Because I knew financial planning didn't give me a feeling of love and generosity, I changed my practice to Investor Coaching. The breakthroughs I had experienced with investing as a result of coaching, I wanted to share with others. Funny how, once my profession became a lot more enjoyable, I became a lot more profitable. 

I volunteered more. I started going to mass on a daily basis. I became a Eucharistic Minister. I was a reader at church. I got married and had children. I volunteer on a monthly basis at a local hospital. All of these things are areas of my life where I experience love and generosity. Not only do I give it, I receive it in return. Why would I want to deprive myself or anyone else of these wonderful emotions?

Without having first established my true purpose, all the activities mentioned above are simply eating into the time I have to spend on me. I would simply put them off on someone else, make excuses as to why I didn't show up and put in the effort, or just put them into an "I'll get to them some day," category." I can't, nor, would I choose to do that given they are an expression of what I value most in my life.

So the lesson here is, before you expect to get any of what you are looking to get out of your life, investments, occupation, family life, marriage, social life, etc., you must first define the true purpose for your life, which includes your money. You will be amazed at how quickly your brain figures out how to experience what is most important and pleasing to you. You won't have to wait. You will experience it now and every day for the rest of your life. The work around acquiring love, generosity, joy, freedom, etc. will no longer be work. It will be a passion you can't get enough of.

Without it, be it work, investing, life, what ever, it will become work, and eventually become one great big pain in the _ _ _.

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.

Perception: For Politicians and Investors It Can Be Lethal

Perceptions: For Politicians And Investors, They Can Be Lethal!

by: Brendan Magee

Especially in America, we feel entitled to our opinions and interpretations.Once we have made up our minds about something that becomes the truth we go by. Unfortunately, before we base our decisions about how we will invest our money or who we will vote we never stop to see if  our brains have misinterpreted what our eyes, ears, sense of smell, and touch actually encountered. In the case of world events and investors account balances it would have been so much better if we could have gotten a perception double check.

"1924, The Year That Made Hitler" documents the trial for treason held when in November of 1923 Hitler and a group of National Socialists failed in an attempt to overthrow the government in Munich, Germany and use that action as a springboard to stage a march on Berlin and overthrow what they saw as the illegitimate government running all of Germany.

Hitler's trial was an international media event. As of 1920 through political rallies, he had become a fast rising political figure. Newspapers across Germany and the world added to the drama. Hitler was now going to   voice his political views and vent his frustrations about the problems facing Germany to the world.

In the German town of Rheydt some 400 miles from the court proceedings and having never met Hitler, a young university-educated  nationalist was eagerly reading the newspaper stories of the trial. In personal diary entries about the trial the young man wrote " "Communism, the Jewish question, Christianity, the Germany of the future. Hitler touches on many questions, but he makes the solution very simple.What is liberating about Hitler is the involvement of a really upright and truthful personality."This young man's name, Joseph Goebbels.

As I read this passage from the book, A. I am finding myself desperately wanting someone to shoot Hitler to stop the horrors he was to bring the world over the next 20 years, and B,  I was remembering a conversation that I had with a client almost eight years ago. Barack Obama was just about to become President of the United States.

I had a client call me up in a high state of upset. She wanted all her money out of the stock market. She said Obama was going to be a disaster for the the stock market and she wanted her money which is what we did, and in so doing terminated our professional relationship. Well,  we are coming to the end of Obama's term in office and here is what $100,000 invested in the various markets of stock grew to from Jan. 2009 through Dec. 2015:

U.S. Large Co. Stock $263,000

U.S. Small Co Stock $297,000

U.S. Large Value Stocks $222,000

As it did for the world with Hitler and my former client's perceptions, relying on them didn't prove to be beneficial for either.  This is why one of the biggest attributes an investor needs to be successful is humility which is defined as thinking less of yourself while at the same time not thinking less of yourself.

Our perceptions are prone to biases, misinterpretations, distractions, half truths, etc. Before coming to any conclusions about anyone or anything people might fare a whole lot better if they asked, "Am I seeing this right?' A five second double check could save a lot of uneccessary heart ache.

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

Sam Bradford & Investors, You Said, Yes!

Bradford and Investors,

Nothing Happens Until You Say, Yes!!

by: Brendan Magee

All in all, Sam Bradford was having a nice offseason. He had signed a new two year $36 million dollar contract to come back and play quarterback for the Eagles with $22 million guaranteed. Chip Kelly had been fired and the Eagles hired a new coach which would give Bradford a little more freedom to run the offense as he saw fit, plus the Eagles had signed a quite a few of their veteran players which should give the team even more of a chance to compete for a playoff spot in the upcoming season.

So all was looking good for Bradford until last week when the Eagles drafted what they hope to be their future franchise quarterback with the number two pick in the draft, Carson Wentz. From there Bradford went from the best available option to help the Eagles win to the guy the fans want out of town as quick as possible.

Bradford let it be known that he was angry the Eagles drafted another quarterback who was next in line to take his place. His agent, Tom Condon, told the press that Bradford wanted to be traded. Bradford would not return the phone calls of his new coach, Doug Pederson, and has been absent from the team's offseason workouts. Basically, every wrong message that could have been sent to the fans and the team, Bradford sent.

Some may blame the Eagles for creating an uncomfortable situation with their quarterbacks and that may be true, but the reaction to the draft, the demand to be traded, the not returning the coaches call, and not showing up for team workouts, that is all on Bradford. He said "Yes" to his comments and behavior and none of the fans ire would be directed at him at this point unless he said "Yes." He, and he alone, is responsible for the treatment he is getting at this point.

It reminds me of a meeting I had earlier this week with a couple. The wife, Jane, was considerably upset with the way their investments were being handled. Their adviser hadn't been in touch with them and she was worried that they were too far in the dark about where they stood with their investments. The husband, Tom,
when we sat down said he felt good about their investments. Even though the adviser hadn't been around too much, he was still fond of him. Even as he admitted that he was somewhat in the dark about their investments, he felt that they had made good decisions with their investments.

An analysis revealed their expenses were way higher than they realized. They were paying $3,500 above what they believed the were paying and that expense was going to go higher the longer they stayed with their investments. They were severely under diversified. 50% of all their investments were all in U.S. Large Company Stocks, the same asset class that went down almost 40% in 2008. They were taking more risk than they needed for the return they were getting.

Bottom line, there was no reason to have the confidence Tom had originally expressed. Jane at this point went from being upset to being frustrated, scared, and confused. She was sure that changes needed to be made.

Tom was little more analytical. He wanted to know why things had gotten to where they were. He wanted to go back and talk to their existing adviser. Even if the market crashed again, he felt he would not get hurt too bad. Whether it was protecting a bruised ego or something else, Tom was not of the mind to make any changes. He wanted to find out how things could have gotten as bad as they appeared.

Like Bradford, Tom is not going to find the answers that will make a dramatic difference by asking questions of his current adviser. He won't find them by researching his current portfolio. None of those will shine the light where it needs to be for him and every other investor out there. The light needs to be focused on who said "Yes" to how he is investing his and his wife's money.

When it comes to investing, an investor's success or failures comes form one source, themselves. Everything depends on what they do or don't do, what they allow or don't allow to happen to their money.

Tom couldn't be in a product that was under diversified, charged him thousands of dollars more, exposed him to more risk and less return until he said "yes" to the investment. Now why would he say "Yes" to an investment that put him at such a terrible disadvantage? It's because he couldn't see that that was what he was doing?

The changes Tom and Jane (or any other investor) want to see with their investments won't take place until they ask some hard questions of  themselves. Do they know exactly what they are doing when it comes to building their portfolio would be a good one to ask. Can they measure diversification? Can they account for all the expenses they are paying? These are amongst a few of the questions that need to be directed to the investor.

These questions will help place the responsibility where it belongs, in the lap of the investor. Once the responsibility is where it belongs,the power goes exactly where it needs to be, in the hands of the investor. Transformation, which is what most investors are looking for, but never get, is an inside out approach. It begins and ends with the investor.

Good luck Sam!

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.