You Have Questions! I Have Answers!

It’s Hump-day, and I hope this Wednesday sends a smile to your face.  I have some great advice for you on how to add a global perspective to your investment approach. Before then, I have GREAT NEWS! Your fellow Charisse Says subscribers have grabbed up seats for the upcoming NEXT LEVEL: How to Make Money  in the Stock Market class, starting on May 18^th. They are ready to develop their own investing strategies, buy and sell stocks with confidence, and learn from people who’ve had success investing.

Are you ready? It’s not too late for you, or someone you love. You can even give the class as a gift to a phenomenal mother. Don’t let fear stop you! That said, I want to answer your questions about the NEXT LEVEL course.

Can you ask me your questions directly before you sign up for this class?

ABSOLUTELY – I’ve made it easy!

I am hosting a SPECIAL WEBINAR tomorrow, Thursday, May 11^th at 7:30pm CST to answer your questions and talk about all of things you will learn and do in this class. For all those who sign up and attend this webinar, I am offering a $75 discount off registration.

You can sign-up and submit your questions HERE!

If you asked yourself, can I make monthly payments over one year?

Here is the answer - YES!

I’m now allowing students to pay in installments over the course of the year. Check out the class details and get your spot to have the financial future you want. Seats are filling up quickly, so don’t miss your chance.

Now, onto that global perspective on investing…

With all the chaos in Washington, there’s so much activity globally, with new presidents elected in France and North Korea.

I recently got asked – how do I manage my investments with a global perspective and ability to take advantage of what’s happening in global markets? I attended a conference yesterday, and I was reminded that we are all connected globally.

Well, my short answer: I think it’s smart to incorporate a global perspective into your investments. One of the best ways that I’ve done so is through international equity mutual funds and exchange traded funds, where appropriate.  When my international funds are performing well, my U.S. funds and ETFs are sometimes performing poorly, and vice versa.  Now, this isn’t always the case because some international markets are highly correlated with U.S. stock movements, which dampens the effect of them moving in opposite directions.

I know this sounds counter-intuitive – wouldn’t I want all my stocks to do well at the same time? Not necessarily. It’s important for you to diversify your holdings so that you can protect yourself in case all your stocks go down at the same time. Most people neglect the downward cycled. As the adage goes, you do not want all your eggs in one basket and setting up a diverse portfolio is helpful to manage risk  (aka “in case Sh$t happens – and, it happens in investments)!

Do you have other questions or needs that you want to hear about? Email me.

Until then, have a great week and so pumped for all the mothers celebrating Mother’s day. Happy early mother’s day! A big shout-out to my mom, Barbara Conanan – she rocks and is an astute investor.

Let's Take Your Investing to the NEXT LEVEL!

I hope this first week of May is finding you in good spirits. Today, the House passed a proposal to over-haul the Affordable Care Act, and this would bring big changes to health care coverage. While the proposal would still have to go through the Senate, here’s a quick guide, from the WSJ, on how these changes might affect your money.

And if you (or have empathy on those who are) affected by the Affordable Care Act, you still have a voice in advocating to your local government officials, which at this time are your Senators. Please use your voice.

Affordable Care Act or not, health care costs are rising across the board and this affects us all. Some people are using a health spending account through their employers or other ways to invest and save for health care expenses. Please share any strategies you have used.

A NEXT LEVEL Solution

I recently received this question from a Charisse Says member:

“Charisse, how do I invest in the stock market without losing too much money?”

Well, the timing is perfect because I just announced the new online stock investing class, “NEXT LEVEL: Making Money in the Stock Market,” this past Sunday to help address this fear. I want to give you the tools to take your investing prowess to the next level.  Don’t worry – there’s still time to get in for the inaugural class, which starts May 18th. We’ve already had members of the Charisse Says community sign-up.  Yes!

As a reminder, in the class, you will:

• Learn how to make money buying and selling stocks with your current budget

• Get unlimited access to the class modules and bonus content, which are available to you anytime and anywhere you want

• Join weekly group calls with me to get your investment questions answered and join a community of like- minded individuals

By the end of the class, you will:

• Know how to do solid research on companies before you buy them

• Buy 5 stocks in a paperMoney account

• Develop a personal investing strategy, after I teach you how Warren Buffett and other well know investors have made money investing

I received so many requests to extend early registration accessforCharisseSays members through 11:59pm TONIGHT.  If you sign-up by then, you will get $100 off (Use Discount Code: LOYALTY).

Tomorrow, I will open registration to the entire world, and the price will go up. So, get your seat now before the price rises.

Ready to go NEXT LEVEL and have the lifestyle you want for you and your family?  Classstarts onMay 18th.Click on the button below to sign-up.

Embracing the Light

I hope that you are doing well I’m taking a minute to pause today. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone.  This past weekend, I attended the memorial service of a friend who passed away. While there, I was encouraged to remember her whenever I turn on a light because she could light up a room with her electric personality.

I turned on a light to write this post and it’s only fitting to pause in her honor.

Her name was Deirdre Louise Jackson Jones.

In addition to being a friend, she was a member of the Charisse Says community – speaking up to support this work, inquiring about ways to build wealth, sharing my financial content on social media, discussing money issues out loud, offering to be helpful to me when I started Charisse Says, and supporting the cause of financial empowerment.

Netflix & Bold Retirement Decisions

I hope this Wednesday morning finds you well. Boy, I have some goodies in store for you…

Keep Watch I have been following what’s been happening at Netflix ever since I got a subscription years ago. Truth be told – I’m a House of Cards and Orange is the New Black junkie. I wrote about “cord cutting” in favor of streaming services like Netflix earlier this year, so take a look if you missed it. The stock is up 19% this year and it’s continued to pique my interest as I always have my investor hat on.

Well, Netflix’s recent company results highlight an issue that most innovative companies deal with at some point in their lifecycle – how does the company continue to grow profitably? At Netflix, they can either grow subscribers or prices, both of which drive revenue. Recently, their subscriber growth has slowed and the cost of producing original content has gone up. While profits beat expectations this quarter, Netflix said that profits will take a hit next quarter.

So, you might be asking yourself – can I make money over the long-term by investing in Netflix’s stock at this time?

Whether it’s Netflix or some other company, I am going to help you answer that question. Next week. Please stay tuned.

Charisse Says Member Bold Question Given that this is still the year of boldness, I want to share a recent bold question that I received from your fellow Charisse Says community member. I’ve gotten this question plenty of times before and so now it’s time to answer.

In what cases should I keep 2 or more 401k accounts (holding my money) sitting with previous employers instead of combining them?

I’ll provide 2 cases for you to ponder:

1. The investment options in your previous 401k plan are better – more options and/or lower fees. I left JPMorgan almost 10 years ago but I’ve kept my 401k assets on their retirement platform because of the plethora of investment fund options. Also, many of the funds have fees less than 0.20%. Now, this fee structure is lower than average because JPMorgan manages a lot of the funds itself, unlike other employers who have to outsource the funds.

1. You can live with checking two or more different accounts – Most people think it’s a headache to check multiple 401k accounts. Not me, especially if case 1 holds true. Mathematically, if the funds are earning a similar return but in two different places, the performance will be similar. For instance, if you have $100K in one account and $10K in another, and both options return 10%, the $100K account will generate a return of $10k and the $10k will generate a return of $1K, giving you $121K across both accounts. If you have both of these in the same account, or $110K, and it returns 10%, your new total is also $121K.

The problem only rises if one 401k plan is doing better than the other consistently. Also, if you have multiple 401k plans in different places, you often may forget to look at your accounts holistically to manage diversification.

So, consider these two cases when evaluating whether you should keep separate 401k accounts with previous employers, or not.

Do you have other questions?

Defaulted Student Loans, 16% Interest, and a Rant

I hope this Wednesday is treating you well. It’s mid-April and we all know what that means – your tax filing is due in a few days. If you are in rut and need more time, get an extension. Don’t feel bad about it either. I will get an extension this year as life has gotten busy and I have no shame in my game. In fact, I’m jumping up for joy. Now, if you are expecting a refund, you’re probably rushing to file your taxes so I support you in meeting the 4/15 deadline.

This week’s chatter…

What really got me boiling this week was Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s move to allow guaranty agencies to charge a predatory 16 percent fee on defaulted student loans. Huh?

These agencies administer the federal guaranteed student loan program and collect payment from borrowers. DeVos’s move reversed the course of the Obama Administration, which prevented these companies from gauging borrowers who defaulted on their loans.

Talk about BAD move in my book – if there are little provisions to protect people from incurring more debt, how are people supposed to climb out of debt and build wealth?

I’m almost done ranting.

Before I stop completely, please make sure you know your student loan repayment options. If you need assistance, check out www.studentloan411.com, which provides advice to assists borrowers with payback options that could result in lower payment in the shortest amount of time.

On a more positive note…

Emily, a member of the Charisse Says community, shared a story about her family in response to my “Creating a Wealth-Building” blog post. Here’s an inspiring snippet:

What I find interesting is how, in these later years of her life, [my mother] seems determined to direct how that wealth will make an impact beyond her years – not just for building wealth, but also for strengthening family bonds. She has begun purchasing real estate…[Read More]

Over the last week, I have also had a lot of conversations with Charisse Says members who have a desire to build wealth by starting a social enterprise or investing in one.

Don’t know what social enterprise is? No worries.

I wrote about social enterprises for American Express’s OPEN Forum. One of the biggest challenges in starting a social enterprise is obtaining the right financing. In that vein, here are 3 takeaways:

• Impact investing means different things to different people, so find out what’s mutually important from the owner and investor perspective

• Place-based investing in social enterprises is growing

• In addition to financing, you might also need straight-up advice to scale

So, hopefully you’re all excited now!

For my Christian brethren, happy Holy Week and enjoy the Easter holiday. For those of you of the Jewish faith, Happy Passover!

Living a Wealth-Building Life

It’s Wednesday evening and here I am in your inbox on Hump-Day. Yipee. I just got back from a trip to see my family in NY, and I’m ready to be bold. While in NY, I went to see the 9/11 Memorial, which is beautifully painful (think about that one). In seeing the memorial and losing a friend over these last few weeks, I’ve been reminded that life is short. We cannot get back the time that we have on this earth, and I’m confronted with the question –

How do I live the life that I want?

A few things pop out for me - I want to spend time with my loved ones, make an impact, learn laugh a lot, enjoy new experiences, and have no regrets. Tell me about the life that you want?

In order for me to have this life, I must continue to have a wealth-mindset. I’ve talked about this earlier this year, but how does this play out in reality? Well, my recent trip to NY gives some insights into wealth-building activities.

Wealth-Building Mindset in Action

Have a plan. Before taking the trip to NY, my husband and I decided how much money we would spend on trips this year. Our NY trip fit into our travel plans, and thus decided to splurge a bit by staying in downtown Manhattan to be close to the action. Before we went on our trip, we allocated our trip money for the 5-day stay and utilized the same bank card for every transaction so that we knew how much money we spent. We compared rates on the Hotel Tonight app to hotels.com, and the hotels.com was actually far cheaper for some of the same hotels. We economized by staying at an apartment-style hotel with a full kitchen. For those who haven’t heard of AKA Hotels, it’s sweet. Since the NY location opened just 7 months ago, we got a room for $150/night – Yes!

Look for Sustainable Trends To Add Money to Your Pocket. Part of being a good investor is paying attention to your surroundings. While in NY, it was hard to miss the continued development of areas such as Park Slope and Battery Park. I’ve previously written about ways to evaluate a neighborhood for investment, but I was intrigued by a few trends – more concept food chains similar to Chipotle and the same construction companies outlined on the gates of redeveloped parceled land. I then asked myself what public companies are similar to the private ones and began to research which ones I might potentially make money on over the long-run.

Talk about wealth with the family. My family and I traded investment ideas on ways for us to build wealth. Sometimes it’s easy to default to our comfort topics of politics, culture, and food, but we found it refreshing to discuss how we can build wealth together. If you do not have a family structure to discuss these topics, consider a close friend group. Tell me what you’re talking to your family about on my blog.

BTW - Congrats to all you Tar-heels fans! Poorly played game, but surely a sweet outcome for the team.

Madness is Fuel for Mojo

I hope this Tuesday evening is treating you well. With March Madness in full swing, I’m in a playful spirit despite Trump’s budget cut proposals, a potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and today’s stock market dip. I’m also on a high because I got the opportunity to spend time with a group of fellow Yale alums interested in investing and setting themselves up for financial success. I was honored to speak with another Yale alum - shout out to John Caserta, ’01. Selfie time from last Thursday…

John and I both have a similar approach to investing. I also shared my Top 5 philosophies. In case you need a refresher, here they are:

• Invest in skill set

• Run your money like a business

• Find low-cost product

• Take risk with cushion

• Create personal investing mojo

Part of my own investing mojo is to stick to an investing philosophy, take action, and get results. I suspect that the market might be a bit choppy in the coming weeks, so remember to stay the course and execute on your own investing plan.

What Caught My Eye This Week

Basing Life on What You Can Afford – I love Ron Lieber’s NYT articles. The article goes into the stories of how and why everyday people make the hard financial trade-offs. As you subconsciously do the same by the end of the day, you might be surprised by what’s unveiled. To whet your appetite, one story describes how a mother has made serious trade-offs for her two daughters – inspiring.

A New Commercial Real Estate Investing Vehicle – Innovation is always happening on Wall Street. And, now individuals will have a chance to invest in commercial real estate. Currently, individuals can invest in this sector through REITs, or Real Estate Investment Trusts, which are pools of properties that trade like stocks. In the WSJ’s article, “A New Way For Individuals to Invest in Real Estate,” a new structure will give individuals easier access to commercial investments. Interestingly, “commercial real estate returned an average of 6.93% annually over the 10 years ended Dec. 31,” which is similar to the 6.95% return on the S&P500 Index.  Keep in mind, however, that the new vehicle comes with hefty fees of close to 2%.

Boldness in Action. Several members of the Charisse Says community have inquired about getting a financial advisor in the recent weeks. Way to go! Keep on living the bold life and recognizing that a financial advisor can be the COO of your money (If this is not sounding familiar, check out my video on how to make this happen).  

Laughter & Big Financial News

I’m checking in on you in the middle of the day today. Your fellow members of the Charisse Says community liked that I did so last week, so I’m trying again. If you need a laugh, press play again on the BBC video with the Dad side-swiping his little girl as she playfully interrupts him on live television. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve been working too hard, and I’m not judging you for missing out (wink wink).

In a follow-up interview, it is clear that the Dad loves his kids. While I do not have kids, I have plenty of godchildren and nieces and nephews, and I am a child of beautiful parents. Recently, I’ve gotten a lot of interest from parents about what they should be doing to help save and invest for their kids. I’m collecting the list and so if you have specific questions, please leave them on my blog so that we can address.

To get the ball rolling, here’s a few to ponder for your life, or for those around you with little ones:

• What’s my retirement nugget (dollar value) that would allow me to set up my kids for success?
• What kind of insurance coverage do I need to ensure that my kids are covered?
• If I have godchildren with whom I might be responsible for down the line, am I prepared to financially support them?
• Is a 529 right for me?

Keep Watching

And while we are laughing at funny videos, the market continues to roll forward. Over the last week, all eyes have been on energy prices, which have tanked. Remember what I said last week – stick to your investment philosophy and be cautious of your own human biases. A New York Times article highlighted that “Oil Price Drop Triggers Herd Mentality in Selling.” Have a read and let me know your thoughts on my blog.

Also, I read this comprehensive article on “The High Cost of Health Care in America.” Considering that health care has taken on a bigger and bigger piece of our wallets, we will need to see how Washington deals with this continued crisis. Oh boy!

And, a special shout-out to all my Pisces compadres. My husband’s birthday was yesterday (go, honey!) and mine was earlier in the month, and so I hope you too are celebrating with the close Pisces in your life!

It's Been Quite the Week

There’s been lots to digest over the past week…. A week ago this Wednesday, it was the start of Lent. For my fellow Christian sisters and brothers, blessings to you as we journey inward to grow in our relationships with God. Wherever you find yourself in this season, may it be a fruitful one.

A week ago this Wednesday, the Dow Jones was soaring above 21,000. Some readers have asked – What should I do with my investments? In short, I say – stick to your investment philosophy, no one can time the market, take some profits if you have serious gains, examine what is truly driving the market and its sustainability, and continue to speak to your financial advisor to help deal with it all. Check out my blog for previous articles on my views on a rising market. Here’s an NPR story that gives another view – keep investing in low-cost vehicles. I agree but I think this is part of your overall investment philosophy and approach.

A week ago was also the coming out party for Snap, the parent company to Snapchat. While it was priced at $17, everyday individuals like you and me could only get it when it popped to $24. For a reminder on why big institutional investors get preferred pricing, check out my episode on “How the Stock Market Works.”

I did not buy any Snap shares, but plenty of people in the Charisse Says community did and proudly shared their enthusiasm with me. A few messages went like this:

• “I don’t use Snapchat but I wanted to buy it because it looks like a hot stock. “ – Mark

• “I would like to tell you that I carefully did my research before making my decision, but I didn’t. It was totally irrational.” - Arianna

These comments underscore that some of our investment decisions are made out of emotion. I want to remind you that money IS emotional. Embracing this reality will help you realize that sometimes these moves will work in your favor and sometimes they won’t. At some point, we all make investment decisions that involve emotion over reason. The important thing is to recognize this bias and figure out how to protect yourself if things don’t go as planned and how to make money if things do go as planned. In the meanwhile, you’ll have to roll with your decisions and learn along the way.

Time will tell whether Snap will be a good investment. I must admit, I downloaded the app for the first time this week. Here are a few things that stick out to me:

• In its IPO filing, Snap identifies itself as a “Camera company,” and this rationale is spelled out in this worth-the-read Vox article. Others have put Snapchat in the social medial box, and pointed to the reality that Snap has eaten its social media competitors for lunch when it comes to going after the 18-34 market.

• Snap recorded $404.5 million in revenue in 2016, compared with $58.7 million in 2015. Net losses grew to $514.6 million in 2016, compared with a net loss of $372.9 million in 2015. As mentioned in this Market Watch article, Snap warned that it “may never achieve or maintain profitability.”

• The owners have an incredible amount of control and ownership. The company has three classes of common stock, and its common A stock does give stockholders any voting power – Wow!

Want to share what has stood out to you or why you invested (or did not)? Please leave a comment on my blog. It will be fun (yup, fun for me and perhaps for you too), to see Snap journey in the public markets.

Until then, enjoy the rest of your week.