On the day following The Annointed ONE's big pre-State of the Union speech I thought that I'd share with my TigersX friends the key things that I learned in a lunch seminar yesterday sponsored by a local radio station in the ATL called "Surviving the Economic Crisis".
There were two keynote speakers; one was a major real estate investor in Atlanta, the other was a fund manager in Atlanta; John Adams and Dr. Gene Henssler respectively. Both rational and intelligent professionals. I've listed their websites below if you want to check their credentials and backgrounds for yourself.
Probably the most rational thing that I heard was that we've been through worse and we'll make it through this eventually. But two things that we can all expect are greater inflation and greater government interference in all our lives beginning with nationalization of public business to a lesser or greater degree. Investors of all levels need to prepare and protect themselves and their worth in this situation.
Real estate was mentioned as a safe bet but I was concerned that no mention was made of the glut of foreclosures that seem to be generally driving down the worth of real estate. Of course, real estate, like politics, is regional and they did make mention of that truism. Personally, I still think its a good bet but I'm very conservative and believe in the long range investment.
With all of my jaded thoughts about the stock market I was really encouraged by what I heard. They confirmed that there's a lot of fear and irrational behavior driving investors and, especially, traders right now. Most of it due to the ignorance of what the hell The ONE and his minions in congress are going to do. This irrational behavior is driving investors and traders to long-term treasuries which is even more irrational according to Dr Henssler. The market is cheap today and he suggested that the old tried and true practice of buying good, high quality common stocks that pay a good dividend with money you won't need for 10 years or more is the best bet. Some of the examples offered were ADP, Abbott Labs, Emerson Electric, 3M, McDonalds, and AFLAC. At least those were all the ones I could write down from the list.
He cited a study that I've heard of before done between 1900 and 2008 showing that if you'd been invested during that time in these kinds of stocks and missed the 10 best days your portfolio would be worth 2/3rds less than it would have been had you been invested in those days. Reassuring in this turbulence. He suggested not investing in commodities especially citing gold (cringe!).
Well, in conclusion, both presenters said think about equities and real estate...both investments that have a track record of increasing in worth. Remember that these situations move in cycles and you are not your net worth.
My fears were assuaged a bit but I still have some misgivings about this down trend until The ONE's intentions become clearer.
Hope this will be of some interest or help anyway.
Credential/information:
Dr. Gene Henssler:
http://www.henssler.com/gwh/service/why-henssler.aspJohn Adams:
http://money99.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
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