In today's Wall Street Journal, an article titled, "Design Challenge: How to Make Stocks Safer for Older Investors" profiled so-called "safe stock" investments.

The article focuses on stock-based investments that guarantee upside plus protection. The last I checked, that doesn't pan out. The Journal likens this to alchemy. I say it's trying to have your cake and eat it too.

One of the reasons

 I was so pleased to read about investors withdrawing their assets from their wealth management firms in today's Wall Street Journal.

The old model is broken. It's based on getting as many assets under management as possible and charging fees based on the amount of those assets. What's more, many firms accept commissions and other fees on financial products they recommend.

That's just wrong. Too

In trolling for the most thought provoking insights about our money, I came across an intriguing article highlighting Social Security, Medicare and the current Universal Healthcare initiative sponsored by the Obama administration as....drum roll please....

PONZI SCHEMES.

That's right. The very scheme that Bernie Madoff pled guilty too last week is what columnist Craig Cantoni is calling two of our

In between Holiday parties and family gatherings, I'm encouraging you to set aside an hour or two to take a look at where you are money-wise...

I can imagine what your inner voice might be saying...

"Oh no! I don't want to go there. The economy / market has decimated my portfolio and it's hopeless to even think about my financial future now."

I'd like to challenge this thinking (not that you've had

I've been watching the headlines over the past month about the unprecedented financial crisis - as am sure you have too.

 Here's the link to an excellent summary of what this crisis is and isn't: Mort Zuckerman's (Huffington Post) article, Anatomy of the Financial Crisis. I encourage you to read it and post your comments.

"Is now a good time to invest?"

"Should I sell everything and buy CDs?"

"What should I do to protect my retirement?"

I'm getting these kind of questions from my clients and colleagues. They are rightfully concerned.

As I've been saying for a while now, market downs are to be expected. In fact, with a thoughtful investment strategy, market downs provide buying opportunities. But don't lunge into the

While we’re all riding out the bumpiness in the market (I know, you're probably getting sea sick from the most recent declines), it’s important that you have a strong remedy for feelings of panic that often come about when you see your investments performance falling.

As you discovered in part 1, bumpiness—also called volatility—is part of what you sign up for when investing in the market.

One key

As you probably already know, the stock market has been particularly bumpy for the last 6 months. And, seemingly, the bumpiness has been going in the wrong direction! Year to date, as of October 2, 2008, the S & P Index (a proxy for the US stock market as a whole) has declined 22.87% (Source: Morningstar).

I have news for you. Declines are normal. So are rises. Investing successfully requires

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I came across another brilliant posting from Dan Solin in the Huffington Post advocating investment industry reform. I'm a big fan of Dan's and we agree about the power of passive investing.

The net net: It's high time that the financial services industry be taken to task about the excessive fees they charge to 401(k) plans - most costs trickling down to the individual employee - and most of them