Blog Posts

Money Anxiety

10/31/2023

Is gold the ultimate investment? Hardly! It is an investment, period; just like any other. You can’t buy it and hold it forever, just like you can’t (or shouldn’t) do that with any other security. And until grocery stores and gas stations have little scales by the cash register to take payment in physical gold, you still have to change it back to currency to spend it, and that’s going to cost you a commission. Be careful and know what you’re getting into before you know how much it might cost to get out.

If you’re anxious about your money, your savings, or your investments we should talk. Please call us before you put everything in gold, or silver, or other precious metals, or currencies, or Iraqi Dinar because some doomsday e-mail has you convinced it’s a sure thing. Nothing is a sure thing. There are ways to invest in most of these things without taking physical possession of them and without paying the penalties associated with cashing out your IRA. The conversation is free, there’s no obligation and there’s never a high-pressure sales pitch.

0 Comments

How Much is Enough?

10/31/2017

0 Comments

This is the toughest question we face on a routine basis, and it doesn’t only apply to retirement. “How much is enough?” can apply to college savings for your kids; a downpayment on a new home, or boat or car; your next vacation; your second or third vacation home or timeshare; and of course, to retire comfortably. Sadly, there is not a one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The answer depends on your specific needs at a specific time.

Funny…folks seem much more able to grasp this concept than a very similar one when it comes to investments. A broker who sells insurance and annuities as investments is basically offering the same answer for every question.

When you work with Crow Financial, your portfolio is always custom-made to suit your needs and desired outcomes. Please call us if you think we can be of service. The conversation is free and there’s no obligation.

0 Comments

Financial Advisors

5/17/2017

0 Comments

This is no joke! Just about anyone can call themselves a “Financial Advisor.” It is not a licensed or regulated designation. You owe it to yourself to know the difference. Crow Financial is a Registered Investment Advisor, and we are held to a fiduciary standard by our regulators in New Mexico and other states where we have clients. Everything done for you must be done such that your best interest was placed ahead of the advisor’s or the company’s.

We get paid a small percentage of your account. That means we make more money when it gets larger and less when it gets smaller. We don’t sell insurance or annuity products. We don’t get kickbacks from brokers or mutual fund companies, and we never get paid sales commissions. If we recommend a purchase or sale, it’s because it’s the right thing for you. Please call or e-mail if you have questions. The conversation is free and there is never any obligation.

0 Comments

I See Losses

10/14/2009

0 Comments

n retirement accounts especially, seeing losses month after month is just wrong in our opinion.

Crow Financial Advisors uses a proprietary technical screening process to set stop-loss positions on almost every security held. That way, the decision to sell is no longer an emotional issue, but a logical one. We calculate a price below which we believe the stock should no longer be held.

In 2000, folks who kept their accounts in tech stocks saw huge losses. We have back tested our strategies and they sold every, single stock early in the bear market. Did we get out right at the top? No. Our stops allow for some amount of expected day-to-day volatility. Did our models keep us in and let us ride down with the indices until we saw 50%, 60%, 70% losses? No again. Our models got us out on paper in 2000, and in practice in late 2007.

A word about emotions and investing. Selling stocks to avoid losses is the toughest decision to make. Either investors hate to admit they made a bad decision, or they’re sure the stock will bounce back, or both. Allowing emotions to control your investment decision is a guarantee to buy high and sell low every time. At Crow Financial, our technical indicators tell us when it’s time to buy and sell, and there’s no emotion involved.

0 Comments

How Many More Years?

8/12/2009

0 Comments

Is “Buy and Hold” broken? We think so, but it’s really a question of risk more than anything. We believe the riskiest thing you can possibly do with your hard-earned savings is put them in an investment, any investment, and then forget about it, assuming the market will take care of you over time. Of course, looking at the long-term history of the markets, they do go up over time, but who’s time horizon started before 1900 and goes to eternity? Should you still own the stock of the companies that led the economy in decades past? Does your mutual fund manager ask you whether or not you’d like to realize, or avoid and taxable gains this year? The answer to both questions is, “no!”
Will your advisor go to cash, or pull back on risk if you feel uneasy about the markets or the economy, or do they talk you into “riding it out?” My guess is they won’t, and here’s why. A lot of them, or their companies, even if they charge you an annual management fee, also get paid by the funds or products they sell you. If you sit in cash, they don’t make as much money so, even when the markets are lousy, you’ll be encouraged to stay fully invested…no matter what you want.
If you’re not going to keep track of your investments yourself, why not, for the cost of about 2% per year or less, have a professional do it for you? That’s what we’ve done at Crow Financial for individuals and families for over 30 years. We don’t just buy and sell stuff. We manage investments to meet your, individual, specific needs. We work with accounts of all sizes and we don’t have minimums. We don’t get commissions for selling anything and we don’t push any insurance or annuity products. Why not call? Set up an appointment and go over your investment accounts with us. There’s no obligation and no charge for the conversation.

0 Comments