Q4 2011 IFS Quarterly Letter

Written by Joe Pitzl, CFP® | 17 January 2012

The Intelligent Financial Strategies fourth quarter newsletter is now posted to your private client portals and is also available for download on our website by clicking here.

Intelligent Decisions.               Simplification.              Peace of Mind.

This Holiday Season, Ignore the Relatives

Written by Joe Pitzl, CFP® | 09 December 2011

‘Tis the season to gather and celebrate with friends and family. Each year, old traditions are remembered and new traditions are made. We reconnect with those we see often and long-lost relatives alike. Reliability has become an evasive event in the busy world we live in today. In the craziness and uncertainty of our day-to-day lives, we take solace in the certainty that some of these events provide.

In some families, it is a holiday tradition to attend church or temple together. In others, Grandma will play the piano while everyone sings along. And in others, it is a virtual certainty that everyone will get their year’s worth of invaluable wisdom from that goofy brother-in-law that goes by “Blaze”.

Celebrating with relatives is a wonderful thing, but this time of year, we must all be more conscious of the unrelenting human desire to compare ourselves and our decisions to the people and things around us. The relatives you ought to ignore are not people, but perceptions.

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The Good Old Days

Written by Joe Pitzl, CFP® | 07 December 2011

"The hardest arithmetic for human beings to master," wrote the great American working man's philosopher Eric Hoffer, "is that which enables us to count our blessings."

It's a piece of wisdom worth recalling after another year that has tested the nerve of many investors and prompted questions about what current generations have done to deserve to live in such a tempestuous stage of history.

As the year winds down (if that's the word for it!), financial markets are gripped by uncertainty over developments in the Eurozone crisis. Each day brings fresh headlines that send investors scrambling from virtual despair to tentative optimism.

While not seeking to downplay the very real anxiety generated by these events, particularly in relation to their effects on investment portfolios, it's worth reflecting critically on our often second-hand memories of the "good old days."

A Brief History of the 20th Century

Nearly 100 years ago, Europe was engulfed by a war that destroyed two centuries-old empires, redrew the map of the continent, and left more than 15 million people dead and another 20 million wounded. The economic effects were significant, with widespread rationing in many countries, labor shortages, and massive government borrowing.

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Mirror, Mirror....

Written by Joe Pitzl, CFP® | 22 November 2011

Occupy Wall Street is creating a great deal of buzz around the globe, and it is a remarkably fascinating movement to witness. No matter what side of the proverbial fence you reside on, this movement is drawing a great deal of attention to several issues our country’s leaders have long ignored.

Opponents and critics of the movement argue that there is no leadership, no direction and no central reason for its existence. And while proponents may have had no consensus rationale for participating in the first place, many are beginning to rally around the general idea that their future has been compromised in one form or another. For the rest, it simply appears to give them something to do.

It is unfortunate that it often requires devastating pain and suffering to draw attention back to issues that we turned a blind eye to in the past. While the Wall Street movement is drawing some attention to our macroeconomic and political issues, we ought to pause individually from time to time to consider the personal financial decisions we, collectively, have turned a blind eye toward the last several years.

While our political leaders and the big, bad banks had plenty of involvement in the financial crisis, consumers played an equally vital role. While it is unpopular to state this, much of the angst and turmoil “caused by the financial crisis” is really the result of poor (or a complete lack of) planning.

Before we cast stones, let’s take an honest assessment of our personal situations and the decisions we have made to ensure that we have built an adequate moat around our financial lives.

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