I hope you are in a peaceful state! First, I want to share a success story from a fellow reader, Ken Dolan-Delvecchio. Ken shared this on my blog. I hope it inspires you: Hi Charisse, I really like your notes. They're refreshing and inspirational. I invested about $10,000 over the course of several weeks time when the stock market was slumping. I just kept throwing a couple thousand every week or so into my Vanguard account. I'm happy with what's happening now. And you never know of course. I'm in it for the long-haul. Thanks for your helpful notes.

- Best regards, Ken

Success stories like this are powerful because they are proof that ACTION matters.

After attending a funeral this weekend, I was reminded how important it is to take action NOW in order to prepare for an unexpected future. None of us is promised tomorrow and death is as common as birth. I know it’s hard to talk about, so I want to focus on a major aspects of it that involve investing – annuities and death stocks.

The Annuity Ambiguity

You might hear a lot of commentary around annuities, which may come into place before (or after) someone dies. The goal of annuities is to provide a steady stream of income during retirement, and usually an insurance company makes investments to make sure your annuity achieves its goal. If you are not familiar annuities, then I guarantee that your parent or someone close to retirement age has heard of these.  There are four major types of annuities – immediate, deferred income, fixed, and variable.

Your Action - If you have an annuity, leave a comment below and share your experience.  If you don’t have an annuity, check in with your loved ones to see if they have an annuity and why they chose a specific type. The important thing is to start the conversation because if you have to take care of a parent, it will be important for you to know this.

If you have a desire to learn more about annuities, please let me know.

Death Stocks

Did you realize that some people make a killing by investing in death stocks? Think caskets, funeral homes, and cemeteries – I know, it sounds morbid but people make loads of money investing in these companies. When I worked at JPMorgan, I use to do research on these stocks because they generally had good cash flows and people are always dying. Remember what I said last week – if you can invest in things that you are familiar with, you will have more confidence.  

Your Action – Think about what sectors of the market generate good cash flows. Leave a comment below.

OK I want to leave on an upbeat note - Tell 3 people in your life you love them! You might not get a chance tomorrow.