Knowledge is power, but is there such as thing as too much information? In this day and age of technology, it’s so easy to get information.  Want to know how to replace a laptop screen? Watch a YouTube video.  Should you refinance your mortgage? Check out bankrate.com for current rates. Should you invest in a mutual fund [...]

In a surprisingly candid opinion piece in the New York Times yesterday, recently resigned Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith essentially pulled the curtains opened and showed how Wall Street really works. Smith declared that he was resigning from the large brokerage firm because, in his view, its culture is all about putting the client’s interests last.  “To put the problem [...]

If Rip Van Investor had fallen asleep at the start of the 20th century, and woke up with a yawn 100 years later at midnight, December, 1999, he would have been startled to see that his investment in the S&P 500 had gained more than 10% a year, on average, during his 100-year nap.   He [...]

When all is right in the world, investors have to make a choice between the steady income gained from purchasing bonds, or forfeit this steady income for the growth potential of stocks.  Since the 1950′s, this has been true, but recently, as stock prices have leveled out and Treasury rates have dropped, the U.S.markets have given us something that experienced investors haven’t [...]

Amazingly, the inevitability of Greek sovereign default has really been known for more than a year now but European political leaders have not publically acknowledged that they have received the memo.  We have lost count of the short-term fixes they have tried over the past 12 months.  Obviously none of them have provided lasting reprieve.  [...]

With inflation continuing to rise in today’s economy, how do we best plan clients’ portfolios to combat this issue? There is no surefire way to beat the inflation problem, but there are several strategies which can help defend against the current economic situation. With CPI currently running upwards at 3% and rising, there definitely needs [...]

The U.S. just recently finally came to terms on the debt deal, but there is another large dilemma to face: the free-falling stock market and growing concerns that have ensued and further curb the already slow economy. Signs of further slow growth have been building. Unemployment remains high, consumer spending is low, and lending is [...]

One of the advantages of Timothy Financial is our hourly model where clients can call in any time any where with any question and this week is no exception. As the market does cartwheels and somersaults, we’re here to help you navigate the circus.  Mark Berg even gave an example to the Wall Street Journal and [...]

Those of you who watched the LinkedIn initial public offering may have experienced a strange sense of deja vu.  The social media company was offered to the public at $45 a share, and an unexpected buying frenzy took the price up 171% on the first day of trading, before the company settled back to just over [...]

As an investor, you probably noticed, among the screaming headlines and constant media coverage, that the Standard & Poors bond rating division has threatened to downgrade the credit rating of U.S. Treasury bonds. The U.S. markets dropped 1% almost immediately after the news broke, and the S&P 500 index of large cap stocks finished the [...]