Excuse me for being a little cynical but I just finished reading an article titled:

“Staying With Your Long-Term Strategy: Why It’s More Important in 2012 Than Ever”

Let me share some of the “wisdom” that was included in this masterpiece…

 - “The year 2011 has turned out to be one that most of us can’t forget soon enough. Mind-numbing volatility that got us nowhere all year”

 - “Indeed, many well-respected managers—including John Paulson and Bill Gross—are closing out horrendous years. Paulson is down 35% for the year, and Bill Gross issued a “mea culpa” in his October 2011 commentary and is lagging 90% of his competitors for the year. The latter is from a man who was named Morningstar Fixed Income Manager for the Decade in 2010.”

 - “And Paulson and Gross are not alone, as many of the outside managers we use also underperformed the Standard & Poors 500 Index and their benchmarks this year, including BlackRock, Morningstar, and our very own research department, to name a few.”

 What?? How could so many of the best and brightest gotten it so wrong for their managed portfolios, but more important, their clients?

 What did the so called experts blame the lack of results (yes I’m being extremely kind) on? Continue Reading

     January nights in northeast Ohio are really cold… So what better way to warm up than with a movie about baseball?

 Spring training, the crack of the bat, the cheers of the crowd and WARM weather!

What does that have to do with money and investing? I finally got around to watching Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, in the movie “Moneyball.”

 Surprisingly, there were some really good lessons to take away from this movie about how you and I can save and accumulate money.

 Here are 3 things I learned from “Moneyball” that apply to how we invest our money:

 1. We’re Not The New York Yankees

The movie talked about the advantages a big market team like the Yankees, with a payroll of $126 million (at the time), has over a small market team like Oakland who had around $40 million to spend on their team.

Pitt’s character, Billy Beane, puts it this way, “There are rich teams, and there are poor teams. Then there’s 50 feet of crap… and then there’s us.”

Bottom line? Wall Street is rigged against the small investor. It’s like going to Las Vegas with your hard earned money. The odds are ALWAYS in favor of the house. Continue Reading