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What Is a Security – Definition & Types That You Can Invest In

Securities are one of the most important assets to understand when you’re starting to invest. Almost every investment you can make involves securities, so knowing about the different types of securities and how they fit in your portfolio can help you design a portfolio that fits with your investing goals.

What Is a Security?

A security is a financial instrument investors can easily buy and sell. The precise definition varies with where you live, but in the United States, it refers to any kind of tradable financial asset.

Securities may be represented by a physical item, such as a certificate. Securities can also be purely electronic, with no physical representation of their ownership. The owner of a security, whether it is physical or digital, receives certain rights based on that ownership.

For example, the owner of a bond is entitled to receive interest payments from the issuer of that bond.

Types of Securities

There are many different types of securities, each with unique characteristics and a different role to play in your portfolio.

Stock

A stock is a security that represents ownership of a company.

When a business wants to raise money — for example, to invest in expanding the business — it can issue stock to investors. Investors give the business money and receive an ownership interest in the company in exchange.

The number of shares that exist in a company determine how much ownership each individual share confers. For example, someone who owns one share in a company with 100 shares outstanding owns 1% of the company. If that business instead had 100,000 shares outstanding, a single share would represent ownership of just 0.001% of the business.

Investors can easily buy and sell shares in publicly traded companies through the stock market. Shares regularly change in value, letting investors buy them and sell them for either a loss or a profit. Owning stock also entitles the shareholder to a share of the company’s earnings in the form of dividends if the company chooses to pay them, and the right to vote in certain decisions the company must make.

Bonds

A bond is a type of debt security that represents an investor’s loan to a company, organization, or government.

When a business or other group wants to raise money but doesn’t want to give away ownership, it can instead borrow money. Individuals typically borrow money from a bank, but companies and larger organizations often borrow money by issuing bonds.

When an organization needs to borrow money, it chooses an interest rate and the amount that it wants to borrow. It then offers to sell bonds to investors until it sells enough bonds to get the amount of money it wishes to borrow.

For example, a company may decide to issue $10 million worth of bonds at an interest rate of 5%. It will sell bonds in varying amounts, usually with a minimum purchase requirement, until it raises $10 million. Then, the company stops selling the bonds.

With most bonds, the issuing organization will make regular interest payments to the person who owns the bond. The payments are based on the interest rate and the value of the bond purchased. For a $1,000 bond at an interest rate of 5%, the issuer might make two annual payments of $25.

The bonds also come with a maturity date. Once the maturity date arrives, the bond issuer returns the money it raised to the bondholders and stops making interest payments. For example, when it matures, the holder of the $1,000 bond might receive a final interest payment of $25 plus the $1,000 they initially paid to buy the bond.

Interest payments and returned principal go to the person who holds a bond on the payment date, not necessarily the original purchaser. This means that people who own bonds can sell them to other investors who want to receive interest payments. The value of a bond will depend on how much time is left until it matures, the bond’s interest rate, the current interest rate market, and the bond’s principal value.

Money Market Securities

Money market securities are incredibly short-term debt securities. These types of securities are similar to bonds, but their maturities are generally measured in weeks instead of years.

Because of their short maturities and their safety, investors often see money market securities and investments in money market funds as equivalent to cash.

Mutual Funds and ETFs

Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are both securities that purchase and hold other securities. They make it easier for investors to diversify their portfolios and offer hands-off management for investors.

For example, a mutual fund may purchase shares in many different companies. Investors can purchase shares in that mutual fund, which gives them an ownership stake in the different shares that the fund holds. By buying shares in one security — the mutual fund — the investor gets exposure to many securities at once.

The primary difference between mutual funds and ETFs is how investors buy and sell them. With mutual funds, investors place orders that settle at the end of the trading day. That makes mutual funds best for long-term, passive investment. ETFs are traded on the open market, so investors can buy them from or sell them to other investors whenever the market is open. This means ETFs can be used as part of an active trading strategy.

There are many different types of mutual funds and ETFs, each with its own investing strategy. Some mutual funds aim to track a specific index of stocks. Others actively trade securities to try to beat the market. Some funds hold a mix of stocks and bonds.

Mutual funds and ETFs are not free to invest in. Most charge fees, called expense ratios, that investors pay each year. For example, a fund with an expense ratio of 0.25% charges 0.25% of the investor’s assets each year. Fees vary depending on the fund provider and the fund strategy.

Preferred Shares

Preferred shares or preferred stock are a special kind of shares in a company, which have different characteristics than shares of common stock.

Compared to common stock, preferred shares typically:

  • Have priority for dividends over common stock
  • Receive compensation before common shares if a company is liquidated
  • Can be converted to common stock
  • Do not have voting rights

Derivatives

Derivatives are securities that derive their value from other securities rather than any value inherent to themselves.

One of the most common types of derivatives is an option, which gives the holder the right — but not the requirement — to buy or sell shares in a specific company at a set price. Derivatives are more complex financial instruments than generally aren’t suitable for beginners because they can be confusing and come with elevated risk.

How Securities Fit in Your Portfolio

Most investors use securities to build the majority of their investment portfolios. While some people may choose to invest solely in assets like real estate rather than securities like stocks and bonds, securities are highly popular because they make it easy for people to build diversified portfolios.

The mix of investments you choose is called asset allocation. Each type of security fits into an investment portfolio in different ways.

The Role of Stocks

For example, stocks generally offer high volatility and some risk, but higher rewards than fixed-income securities like bonds. People with long-term investing plans and the risk tolerance to weather some volatility may want to invest in stocks.

Within stocks, investors often hold a mixture of large-cap (large, well-known companies) and small-caps (smaller, newer businesses). Typically, larger companies are more stable but offer lower returns. Small-caps can be risky but offer greater rewards.

Large-caps often pay dividends, which are regular payments to shareholders. This makes them popular for people who want to produce an income from their portfolio but who don’t want to shift too heavily into safer, but less lucrative investments like bonds.

Pro tip: Earn a $30 bonus when you open and fund a new trading account from M1 Finance. With M1 Finance, you can customize your portfolio with stocks and ETFs, plus you can invest in fractional shares.

The Role of Bonds

By contrast, bonds are good for people who want to reduce volatility in their portfolios. A retiree or someone who wants to preserve their portfolio’s value instead of growing it might use bonds.

Bonds experience much less volatility than stocks, with their values changing primarily with changes in interest rates. If rates rise, bond values fall. If rates fall, bond values rise.

If you hold individual bonds and don’t sell them, you can only lose value from the bonds if the issuer defaults and stops making payments. That means that bonds can provide a predictable return, assuming you can hold them to maturity.

Bonds also make regular interest payments, often twice annually, making them very popular for income-focused investors.

The Role of Mutual Funds

A huge number of everyday investors opt to invest in mutual funds and ETFs instead of buying individual stocks and bonds. These funds hold dozens or hundreds of different stocks and bonds, making it easy for investors to diversify their portfolios. There are also many different funds that follow different investing strategies, meaning that almost everyone can find a mutual fund that meets their needs.

One of the most popular types of mutual funds is the target-date fund. These funds reduce their stock holdings and increase their bond holdings as time passes and gets closer to the target date. This makes them an easy way for investors to reduce risk and volatility in their portfolio as they get closer to needing the money,

For example, someone who wants to retire in 2062 might invest their money in a target date 2060 or 2065 fund. In 2020, the fund might hold a 90/10 or 80/20 split of stocks and bonds. By 2060, the fund will have reduced its stock holdings and increased its bond holdings so that its portfolio is a 40/60 split between stocks and bonds.

The Role of Derivatives

Derivatives are designed for advanced investors who want to use more complex strategies, such as using options to hedge their portfolio’s risk or to leverage their capital to produce greater gains.

For example, a trader could use options to short a stock. Shorting a stock is like betting against it, meaning the trader earns a profit if the share price falls. On the other hand, if the share price increases, the trader will lose money.

These are best used by advanced investors who know what they’re doing. Derivatives can be more volatile than even the riskiest stocks and can make it easy to lose a lot of money. However, if they’re used properly, they can be a safe way to produce income from a portfolio or a hedge to reduce risk.

Final Word

A security is the basic building block of an investment portfolio. Most assets that people invest in — like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds — are securities. Each type of security has different features and plays a different role in an investor’s portfolio.

Many investors succeed by investing in mutual funds or ETFs, which give them exposure to a variety of securities at once. If you want an even more hands-off investing experience, working with a robo-advisor or financial advisor can help you choose the best securities to invest in.

Source: moneycrashers.com

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Investing in Food Stocks

You may not know what the future holds, but you know there’ll be a meal involved. A good meal or grocery trip is not only a necessity for survival, it can also be part of an investment strategy.

While restaurants and grocery stores may come to mind, the world of food stocks is larger than one might think, encompassing everything from a grain of wheat to the latest on-demand app.

Food stocks and the industries surrounding them have long been a part of investors’ portfolios. The most recent figures show that Americans dedicate close to 10% of their disposable income on food, a level that’s been consistent for about two decades. Roughly half that is spent for food at home, and the other half is on dining out.

But some types of food stocks can hold more risk than others. Read on to learn the history of food stocks in the market, the types of food stocks, and the overall risk profile of these investments.

Are Food Companies Consumer Staples or Discretionary Stocks?

Looking at the market as a whole, food stocks are part of the “consumer staples” industry, which is considered to be a “defensive” sector in investing. Defensive sectors are those less closely tied to the economy. That means even if the economy is in a recession, consumer staples are seen as less risky and more stable than other industries.

However, no stock is recession-proof. And not all food stocks are actually consumer staples. For instance, restaurant companies typically fall into the consumer discretionary category, which consist of “cyclical stocks,” or those tied to how well the economy is doing. That’s because of how people tend to dine out when they have more income to spend in their pockets.

Recommended: Investing With the Business Cycle

When deciding whether to invest in a food stock, beginner investors might want to research which industry the company falls under: consumer staples or consumer discretionary.

Different Types of Food Stocks

Food stocks include more than just memorable brands. It’s more encompassing than just consumer-facing brands or restaurants. Anything that helps food get to your plate can be considered part of the food supply chain.

Food stocks generally fall under these seven sub-industries:

Farming

Food stock investing can start at the granular level–investing in raw agricultural commodities like soy, rice, wheat, and corn. Farming stocks can also include the ancillary companies that foster that growth–companies that create and distribute insecticide and herbicide or build the industrial-size farm equipment to help harvest goods.

While one might think investing in farming stock would be actual farms, the reality is the opposite. About 98% of farms in the U.S. are family-owned and therefore, not publicly traded. So investing in farming stock primarily means the chemicals and machinery that help harvest the raw product.

Farming stocks can waver based on things like the weather and current events. It can be challenging to predict the next rainy season or drought, sometimes making it hard to track and predict value. In addition, tariffs and trade agreements can influence the performance of these stocks, making them more volatile.

Recommended: Understanding Stock Volatility

Food-Processing Stocks

Companies that work in food processing buy raw ingredients that are combined to make items in the grocery store aisles or on restaurant menus.

Some names and brands in the food processing sector might not be familiar to the casual investor. More often than not, these companies are behind the scenes, operating at a large scale to provide the world oils and sweeteners.

Food processing stocks have their own quirks when it comes to investing. Unlike farming, they’re less influenced by the whims of weather or season, but they still have an associated set of risks. The costs associated with this industry vertical are vast, and price competition across brands can lead to drops or jumps in the market.

Stocks of Food Producers

Further up the supply chain comes food producers, where novice investors are more likely to know these brands and companies from daily life and dietary habits. Food producers take the raw ingredients provided by processors and create the items found on store shelves.

Break this vertical down further to find “diversified” and “specialized” producers.

As the name suggests, diversified food producers are companies that create a ton of different products under the same name umbrella, like Nestlé, which makes everything from baby food to ice cream.

Then there are specialized producers. They make consumer products as well, but these companies often cater to a narrower audience, producing only a few items, often within the same vertical.

In times of recession, luxury or expensive food processing stocks might take a dip. Additionally, consumer trends can influence the market. Take the alternative meat craze–a popular investment trend in recent years. Investors saw larger-than-average returns for the industry due to interest in the trend.

Food-Distribution Stocks

Distribution companies have little to do with consumption or production and focus more on logistics and transport. These companies send products across the country and world.

Distribution companies range from very large, reaching national distribution, to fairly small, where they connect specialty retailers. The distribution market might have its long-term players, but investing in it comes with its own risks.

Grocery-Store Stocks

Grocery stores have become big business in the investment game. The next link in the chain, grocery stores are where the products end up once a distributor drops them off.

Grocery store investments are hardly recession-proof, but the necessity of groceries as a staple for consumers suggests these investments take a lesser hit in a market downturn.

Recommended: Investing During a Recession

Restaurant Stocks

Restaurants are an additional resting place for food distributors. In economic downturns, discretionary restaurant spending is usually the first to go, making this industry within food investing slightly less stable than the others. Additionally, this arena might be most susceptible to trends.

Food-Delivery Service Stocks

The newest addition in food stocks is more about tech than good eats. Online delivery services have burst onto the scene, and with a limited history of performance, are considered to be riskier than the traditional food stocks outlined above.

Right now, delivery service companies are still duking it out across the country, expanding to new cities and slashing the price of services to entice customers.

Pros and Cons of Investing in Food Stocks

With all the ingredients in order, it’s time to highlight a few of the basic pros and cons of investing in food stocks.

• Pro: Food stocks, particularly those that are consumer staples, can perform consistently. Food stocks can be a relatively safe, recession-resistant investment (but remember all stocks have inherent risk).
• Con: Food stocks perform consistently. For an investor looking for a higher-risk investment, the steady year-over-year earnings might not be as enticing for someone trying to build a high-return portfolio.
• Pro: Familiarity with brands. Many food stocks are also commonly found in investors’ pantries and refrigerators. For someone new to investing, buying stocks in the brands they trust and use could be a great way to dip their toes in the market.
• Con: Not all food stocks are immune to ups and downs in the economy. Some companies, particularly restaurant groups or those that produce higher-priced products, may be hurt if discretionary spending by consumers pulls back.

The Takeaway

Investing in food companies can actually lead to investing in a wide range of different companies–those that are defensive and more immune to economic shifts, those that are cyclical and rise when the economy is hot.

It can also involve wagering on stocks that have long been a part of the food supply chain, as well as startup unicorn companies that are using innovative mobile technology to deliver meals to consumers.

For individuals who want to try their hand at picking food stocks, SoFi’s Active Investing platform may be a good option. Investors can buy traditional stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or even fractional shares of some companies. For those who need help, the Automated Investing service builds portfolios for SoFi Members and Certified Financial Planners can answer questions on investing.

Get started with SoFi Invest today.

SoFi Invest®
The information provided is not meant to provide investment or financial advice. Investment decisions should be based on an individual’s specific financial needs, goals and risk profile. SoFi can’t guarantee future financial performance. Advisory services offered through SoFi Wealth, LLC. SoFi Securities, LLC, member FINRA / SIPC . SoFi Invest refers to the three investment and trading platforms operated by Social Finance, Inc. and its affiliates (described below). Individual customer accounts may be subject to the terms applicable to one or more of the platforms below.
1) Automated Investing—The Automated Investing platform is owned by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (“Sofi Wealth“). Brokerage services are provided to SoFi Wealth LLC by SoFi Securities LLC, an affiliated SEC registered broker dealer and member FINRA/SIPC, (“Sofi Securities).

2) Active Investing—The Active Investing platform is owned by SoFi Securities LLC. Clearing and custody of all securities are provided by APEX Clearing Corporation.

3) Cryptocurrency is offered by SoFi Digital Assets, LLC, a FinCEN registered Money Service Business.

For additional disclosures related to the SoFi Invest platforms described above, including state licensure of Sofi Digital Assets, LLC, please visit www.sofi.com/legal.
Neither the Investment Advisor Representatives of SoFi Wealth, nor the Registered Representatives of SoFi Securities are compensated for the sale of any product or service sold through any SoFi Invest platform. Information related to lending products contained herein should not be construed as an offer or pre-qualification for any loan product offered by SoFi Lending Corp and/or its affiliates.
Third Party Brand Mentions: No brands or products mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.
Financial Tips & Strategies: The tips provided on this website are of a general nature and do not take into account your specific objectives, financial situation, and needs. You should always consider their appropriateness given your own circumstances.
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Source: sofi.com

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Stock Market Today: Dow Leads in a Mixed May Start for Stocks

The Dow Jones Industrial Average kicked off the month with a 0.7% gain to 34,113 on Monday that came despite a weaker-than-expected Institute of Supply Management manufacturing report.

Supply bottlenecks resulted in an April reading of 60.7 – a slower rate of expansion than March’s 64.7 reading indicated, but expansion nonetheless.

“Although the composite was a fair bit below expectations (Barclays 64.5; consensus 65.0), the decline comes off of a robust March reading that was the highest since 1983,” says Barclays economist Jonathan Millar. “Indeed, components of the composite continue to point to very strong growth, which comes as no surprise, given highly favorable demand conditions amid fiscal stimulus, easing of social distancing restrictions, and ongoing progress in vaccinations.”

We’re glad to see that at least some investors heeded our advice to ignore the urge to “sell in May and go away.” But stocks weren’t exactly up across the board. The Nasdaq Composite (-0.5% to 13,895) struggled, thanks to weakness in mega-cap tech and tech-esque names such as Tesla (TSLA, -3.5%), Amazon.com (AMZN, -2.3%) and Salesforce.com (CRM, -2.9%).

“For the first time in a while there is a clear value/cyclical bias while growth/tech is under pressure,” says Michael Reinking, senior market strategist for the New York Stock Exchange. “Tech wobbled last week despite blowout numbers from the mega-cap stocks. This is especially concerning as the rate environment remains in check.”

Sign up for Kiplinger’s FREE Closing Bell e-letter: Our daily look at the stock market’s moves, and what moves investors should make

Other action in the stock market today:

  • The S&P 500 gained 0.3% to 4,192.
  • The small-cap Russell 2000 also finished in the black, up 0.5% to 2,277.
  • Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, +1.7%) held its 2021 annual shareholder meeting this weekend. Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and Executive Vice Chairman Charlie Munger addressed a number of topics, including trimming Berkshire’s stake in Apple (AAPL) in Q4 2020. “It was probably a mistake,” said Buffett, adding that AAPL’s stock price is a “huge, huge bargain” given how “indispensable” the company’s products are to people. Also of note: Berkshire grew fourth-quarter operating income by 20%, to $5.9 billion, while cash grew 5% to $145.4 billion.
  • Domino’s Pizza (DPZ, +2.6%) was a notable winner today. The pizza chain revealed an accelerated stock buyback program, saying in a regulatory filing that it will pay Barclays $1 billion in cash for roughly 2 million DPZ shares.
  • U.S. crude oil futures jumped 1.4% to end at $64.49 per barrel.
  • Gold futures snapped a four-day losing streak, adding 1.4% to settle at $1,791.80 an ounce.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) declined 2.3% to 18.18.
  • Bitcoin prices improved by 1.1% to $57,530.32. More impressive was the 18.6% improvement in Ethereum, to $3,300.64 (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)
stock chart for 050321stock chart for 050321

Another Big Week of Reports … And Dividends

What should investors be looking forward to this week?

On Thursday and Friday, we’ll get the latest weekly unemployment filings and April jobs data, respectively, but throughout the week, another heaping helping of earnings reports, anchored by the likes of General Motors (GM), Pfizer (PFE), Under Armour (UAA) and PayPal (PYPL).

And given that many companies tend to synchronize their dividend and buyback actions with their earnings reports, you also can expect plenty of news on the dividend-growth front.

In some cases, those raises might be token upticks meant to secure current or future membership in the Dividend Aristocrats. But others are bound to compete with this year’s most explosive payout hikes – improvements of 15%, 20% or even 30% that drastically change the income aspect of current shareholders’ investments. Ideally, of course, investors want the best of both worlds: income longevity and generosity.

These 10 dividend stocks just might fit the bill. This group of mostly blue-chip household names offer a strong history of payout increases, a sharp level of recent hikes compared to their peers, and the operational quality to continue affording these annual raises.

Kyle Woodley was long AMZN, CRM, PYPL and Ethereum as of this writing.

Source: kiplinger.com

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Bitcoin Gold (BTG): Creation, Controversy, and How it Stacks up to BCH

Any conversation about cryptocurrency has to start with Bitcoin. It was the first crypto (it’s been around since 2009), it is the most valuable (worth over $1 trillion), and it’s the most traded (over $60 billion in daily volume). It also has the most spinoffs, or “forks,” that have become widely-used cryptos in their own right.

Perhaps the most well-known forks are Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which came out in 2017, and Bitcoin Gold(BCG), which was the product of a fork from Bitcoin a few months later.

What is Bitcoin Gold?

Bitcoin Gold was a hard fork from Bitcoin with the intent of further decentralizing Bitcoin. The idea was to use a new algorithm for the mining process that would not prioritize major mining operations, as some believed Bitcoin did.

Bitcoin Gold was an implicit criticism of Bitcoin, essentially arguing that it had betrayed or at least strayed from its initial roots as a decentralized currency with its increasingly centralized mining operations. Even if anyone can buy Bitcoin, it’s much harder (or at least not profitable) for anyone to create it.

Developers wanted to make it easier for normal computer users to mine on their own machines, a contrast to the massive Bitcoin mining industry, which is mostly done on specialized computer equipment purchased and operated by big-time operators in places like Iceland, where electricity is cheap. With Bitcoin Gold, however, the humble graphics card could carry the load.

Bitcoin Gold Controversy

Bitcoin Gold has been controversial almost since its inception. Typically with hard forks, owners of the initial cryptocurrency also receive units of the new one. For example, when Bitcoin Cash forked from Bitcoin, all Bitcoin owners got Bitcoin Cash.

When the Bitcoin Gold fork occurred, on the other hand, Bitcoin owners did not immediately get their new cryptocurrency. Instead, developers kept the Bitcoin Gold blockchain private for a few weeks so that they could mine BTG without competition—which they described as a “premine”. Critics opposed this practice, as it left fewer coins available for others to mine and also amounted to “free money” for the BTG developers.

As a result, cryptocurrency exchange and service provider Coinbase said it would not support BitcoinGold, explaining that because developers hadn’t made the code available for review by the public, it posed a security risk.

BTG Security Issues

Bitcoin Gold was worth over $8 billion when it launched, but fell dramatically in value as security issues emerged.

BTG has experienced multiple “51% attacks,” where an entity or individual or hacker is able to do the one thing that cryptocurrency is supposed to prevent: take control of transactions and “double spend” them, essentially stealing money. After one of the attacks, Bitcoin Gold was delisted from some exchanges.

In 2020, the developers behind Bitcoin Gold were able to fend off another attempt on the cryptocurrency’s network.
In early March 2021, the Bitcoin Gold team posted on its blog that its “hibernation has come to an end”—the 51% attacks that plagued the coin last year were ultimately defeated by the BTG miners and community.

What is Bitcoin Gold Worth Now?

Bitcoin Gold is ranked 73rd among cryptos according to CoinMarketCap (as of late April 2021) and has a total value of around $1.6 billion and a value per coin of around $90. Bitcoin Gold’s value was over $470 per coin at least twice in 2017, but has been under $100 since early 2018.

Bitcoin Gold vs. Bitcoin Cash Value

When comparing Bitcoin Gold vs Bitcoin Cash, the numbers speak for themselves: the original fork has a total value of almost $11 trillion, volume of almost $3 billion, and a value per coin of over $500. Bitcoin Cash is about 87 percent from its absolute peak value but is still substantially more valuable than its forked cousin on a “per coin” basis, at least so far, when it comes to Bitcoin Cash vs Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash is winning.

How to Invest in Bitcoin Gold

Bitcoin Gold is not available to buy and sell on mainstream exchanges like Coinbase, but, according to its organizers, it is available to trade on exchanges like Binance and Bitfinex.

The Takeaway

Bitcoin Gold is yet another hard fork of Bitcoin, like Bitcoin Cash. What distinguishes Bitcoin Gold is its intent: To further decentralize and democrative mining, making it more accessible to individual miners, rather than large groups with massive computing power.

For investors interested in building a crypto portfolio, buying crypto on SoFi Invest® can be a great way to start trading crypto. You can get started with just $10, we keep your crypto secure and protected from fraud, and you can manage your account in the SoFi app.

Find out how to invest in crypto with SoFi Invest.

SoFi Invest®
The information provided is not meant to provide investment or financial advice. Investment decisions should be based on an individual’s specific financial needs, goals and risk profile. SoFi can’t guarantee future financial performance. Advisory services offered through SoFi Wealth, LLC. SoFi Securities, LLC, member FINRA / SIPC . SoFi Invest refers to the three investment and trading platforms operated by Social Finance, Inc. and its affiliates (described below). Individual customer accounts may be subject to the terms applicable to one or more of the platforms below.
1) Automated Investing—The Automated Investing platform is owned by SoFi Wealth LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor (“Sofi Wealth“). Brokerage services are provided to SoFi Wealth LLC by SoFi Securities LLC, an affiliated SEC registered broker dealer and member FINRA/SIPC, (“Sofi Securities).

2) Active Investing—The Active Investing platform is owned by SoFi Securities LLC. Clearing and custody of all securities are provided by APEX Clearing Corporation.

3) Cryptocurrency is offered by SoFi Digital Assets, LLC, a FinCEN registered Money Service Business.

For additional disclosures related to the SoFi Invest platforms described above, including state licensure of Sofi Digital Assets, LLC, please visit www.sofi.com/legal.
Neither the Investment Advisor Representatives of SoFi Wealth, nor the Registered Representatives of SoFi Securities are compensated for the sale of any product or service sold through any SoFi Invest platform. Information related to lending products contained herein should not be construed as an offer or pre-qualification for any loan product offered by SoFi Lending Corp and/or its affiliates.
Crypto: Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t endorsed or guaranteed by any government, are volatile, and involve a high degree of risk. Consumer protection and securities laws don’t regulate cryptocurrencies to the same degree as traditional brokerage and investment products. Research and knowledge are essential prerequisites before engaging with any cryptocurrency. US regulators, including FINRA , the SEC , and the CFPB , have issued public advisories concerning digital asset risk. Cryptocurrency purchases should not be made with funds drawn from financial products including student loans, personal loans, mortgage refinancing, savings, retirement funds or traditional investments.
Third Party Brand Mentions: No brands or products mentioned are affiliated with SoFi, nor do they endorse or sponsor this article. Third party trademarks referenced herein are property of their respective owners.

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Source: sofi.com

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Getting Good Rate on a Car Loan

Buying a new car? Planning to get a car loan for it? Then keep the following tips in mind to get a good interest rate – and avoid the crucial mistakes that cost you even more money over the long run.

Tip #1: Don’t Get Financing at the Dealership

The vast majority of car buyers get their car loans at the same dealership where they buy the car. Their reasoning: It’s convenient, and/or the dealers give great interest rates. Do you have the same sentiment?

Here’s the problem: As attractive as the dealer’s advertised interest rates are, they’re likely reserved only for buyers with excellent credit scores. What’s more, there’s a pretty good chance you can find an even better deal elsewhere, such as with community banks and credit unions.

Our advice: Do your homework, and get your loan lined up and ready before you visit the dealer. If the dealer offers you an even better deal, you can still have the loan canceled.

Tip #2: Check Your Credit Score

Do you know your credit score? If not – and if you let the dealer come up with your car loan for you – you’re in BIG trouble! The dealer might convince you that your credit rating is worse than it actually is, and jack up your interest rates accordingly.

Get your credit score by requesting your credit ratings from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You can also check your credit score by applying for preapproved car financing. Car loans from banks and credit unions can give you a pretty good idea of the vehicles and interest rate your credit score qualifies you for.

Click here to learn how you can improve your credit score. 

Tip #3: Watch Out For Scams.

Another risk you run when you let your dealer set up your financing for you is getting scammed. A common scam is carried out when, a few days after you sign the dotted line and bring your new car home, the dealer calls you and tells you the car loan “didn’t work out,” and that you’ll need to re-negotiate a new loan with a higher interest rate – or give the car back, losing your deposit in the process.

Protect yourself by getting your car loan elsewhere, or by not buying the car until you’re 100% sure the dealer’s financing is finalized.

Tip #4: Don’t Focus on the Monthly Fee

Lastly, one of the biggest mistakes car buyers make is going for the loan with the lowest monthly fees. Low monthly fees normally mean higher interest rates and longer payment periods. If you’re not careful, you might end up paying over twice the car’s value throughout the life of the loan.

Remember that there are at least two things that go into the monthly fee: The price of the car and the car loan’s premium. (If you’re trading in your old car, that’s an additional factor.) A single monthly fee won’t tell you how much of each is going into it – and there’s no way of knowing whether you’re paying too much for your loan or getting too little from your trade-in.

So if the car salesman asks you how much you can afford to pay each month – you don’t need to answer. Don’t get trapped! Focus instead on the total amount you’ll be paying for the car loan over its lifetime. It’s the best way to save money and get a decent car at the same time.

Source: creditabsolute.com

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Stock Market Today: Stocks Sag Despite Slew of Earnings Beats

Wall Street finished the week on a down note Friday, ignoring even more sterling first-quarter earnings reports.

John Butters, senior earnings analyst for FactSet, says that 60% of the S&P 500’s components have reported Q1 earnings, and, so far, 86% of those companies have reported a positive earnings-per-share surprise.

“If 86% is the final percentage, it will mark the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting positive EPS surprises since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2008,” he says.

Estimates have been strong, too. “The second quarter marked the second-highest increase in the bottom-up EPS estimate during the first month of a quarter since FactSet began tracking this metric in 2002, trailing only Q1 2018 (+4.9%),” Butters adds.

Amazon.com (AMZN, -0.1%) was the latest to beat expectations, reporting profits of $15.79 per share that clobbered estimates for $9.45 and announcing a 44% surge in sales. Twitter (TWTR, -15.2%) earnings beat the Street as well, but shares plunged on disappointing numbers of “monetizable daily users” and Q2 revenue forecasts.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s FREE Closing Bell e-letter: Our daily look at the stock market’s moves, and what moves investors should make.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-0.5% to 33,874), S&P 500 (-0.7% to 4,181) and Nasdaq Composite (-0.9% to 13,962) all finished in the red – and have effectively been flat over the past two weeks.

Ally Invest president Lule Demmissie suggests that investors are increasingly getting anxious. “The mindset has switched from ‘what could go right?’ to ‘what could go wrong?'” she says.

Other action in the stock market today:

  • Chevron (CVX, -3.6%) skidded after reporting first-quarter earnings. While Chevron beat on the bottom line, revenue fell short of expectations.
  • Fellow oil giant Exxon Mobil (XOM, -2.9%) also retreated today, as weakness in the energy sector overshadowed the company’s first profitable quarter in a year on stronger-than-expected revenue.
  • Skyworks Solutions (SWKS, -8.4%) was another post-earnings loser. The semiconductor name reported profit and revenue above estimates for its fiscal second quarter, but a tepid current-quarter outlook was the likely weight on shares.
  • The small-cap Russell 2000 dropped 1.3% to 2,266.
  • U.S. crude oil futures slumped 2.2% to settle at $63.58 per barrel.
  • Gold futures finished fractionally lower at $1,767.70 an ounce.
  • The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) jumped 5.4% to 18.56.
  • Bitcoin prices plunged 4.5% to $55,470. $52,951. $57,031.60 (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.)

And a quick reminder to Warren Buffett faithful that Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK.B) annual meeting, which we preview here, will take place Saturday.

stock chart for 043021stock chart for 043021

A Boffo 100 Days for Biden

Despite Friday’s losses, President Joe Biden has now presided over one of the best market performances ever during an American president’s first 100 days in office.

For instance, the 8.6% gain for the Dow since inauguration is the best 100-day rally for any president since Lyndon Johnson, who was inaugurated in November 1963 and enjoyed a 9.2% run after 100 days. Many individual-share gains have been far more generous; 25 stocks have popped between 39% and 97% in Biden’s first few months.

And the S&P 500’s performance, on an annualized basis, puts Biden among the best presidents for investors of all time at this early stage.

Will that hold up throughout his presidency? We simply have no way of knowing. But what we do know is that Biden has clearly telegraphed his various policy proposals, from the stimulus package that cleared Congress in March to his recently proposed American Jobs Plan, and that allows investors to identify potential winners should the votes go the president’s way.

Read on as we take a fresh look at many stocks (and a couple of funds) that should continue to benefit if Biden continues to score policy wins.

Source: kiplinger.com

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PODCAST: Estate-Planning Your Stuff with T. Eric Reich

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Transcript

David Muhlbaum: When it comes to estate planning, money is usually front of mind. Makes sense, that’s where decisions about wills, trusts and more can realize real tax savings. But it’s stuff, tangible things like houses, china and collectibles that often generate drama and conflict. We talk with a financial advisor who’s touched a nerve on this front. Also, meet Generation I. All coming up in this episode of your money’s worth—stick around.

David Muhlbaum: Welcome to Your Money’s Worth, I’m kiplinger.com senior editor David Muhlbaum, joined by my co-host, senior editor Sandy Block. How are you doing Sandy?

Sandy Block: I’m doing good.

David Muhlbaum: Well, good. Short of talking politics, there’s probably no quicker way to generate angry feedback than waging intergenerational battles.

Sandy Block: But you’re going to do it anyway?

David Muhlbaum: Sort of? I say that in part because while the study I’m going to discuss sounded like it was going to be kids versus the olds, it turns out there’s more nuance than that. Anyway, I’m going to talk about Generation I, which isn’t really even a generation but rather a handy little term that the Charles Schwab Investment firm cooked up for new investors. By that they mean people who are new to stock market investing.

Sandy Block: And those folks have been the source of some of the market drama we’ve seen this year like the GameStop bubble we talked about earlier this year.

David Muhlbaum: Yes, yes. There is overlap between the whole meme stocks crowd and Generation I. I stands for investor but since it’s a new term, let’s start with the definition. What Charles Schwab means by Generation Investor, Generation I, is people who started stock market investing in 2020—not before. So it doesn’t matter what your actual age is. There are Generation I members who are Boomers, Gen X, Millennials. Obviously, the group skews younger than investors broadly, but what’s striking is that Generation I, according to Schwab, accounts for 15% of all U.S. stock market investors.

Sandy Block: By population, not by dollars invested.

David Muhlbaum: Yes, by population. They don’t have a figure for a Generation I’s sum assets but I see what you’re getting at. And yes, Gen I earns about $20,000 less in annual income, at $76,000 a year, than those who began investing before 2020. And here’s another interesting number, half of Generation I says they live paycheck to paycheck.

Sandy Block: Okay. That sounds worrisome.

David Muhlbaum: Yeah, but here’s the thing. Some of the so-called Generation I are people who downloaded Robinhood and are watching a handful of stocks for big moves, short term trading. And if they’re doing that while missing payments on their car note, okay, that’s bad. But at least according to the study, they say they’re learning that investing is more about longer-term gains versus shorter-term wins. About learning to do research, diversification, capital market gains, taxes, risk tolerance, all that—the knowledge if you will.

Sandy Block: I’m hearing echoes of what Kyle Woodley was talking about when he joined us for the GameStop discussion about how it’s possible for people who came in for this excitement might be convinced to stay around for the long term, grow your wealth, not double your money, kids.

David Muhlbaum: Yeah, I totally agree. However, the big factor here is that the sum of Generation I’s market experience is this strong bull market. Will they stick around when things go south, which someday, sometime we’ll have a bear market. Markets go up, markets go down.

Sandy Block: That’s right, and I’m constantly reminded what our editor Anne Smith reminds us all the time, is that we’ve been here before, maybe not at these numbers. But in the 90s, when tech stocks were taking off, all kinds of people got in the market for the first time. And while you couldn’t make trades for nothing on an app, it was cheaper to buy and sell stocks than it had been in the past. And a lot of these people piled in because they had heard that tech stocks would never go down and they didn’t think they would ever lose money and they learned the hard way that they could.

David Muhlbaum: When we return for our main segment, we’ll talk with a financial advisor with some insights about the estate planning for stuff. Not just the money, the stuff.

David Muhlbaum: Welcome back to Your Money’s Worth. Joining us today is T. Eric Reich, the president and founder of Reich Asset Management in Southern New Jersey. Eric has a whole slew of professional certification acronyms after his name, including CFP. And the way we found him is that he’s a contributor to Kiplinger’s Wealth Creation Channel. That is an area of our website that has content from a range of financial professionals, CFPs, CPAs, tax lawyers and more. They’re qualified and they’re good writers. Plus, since they’re dealing directly with clients, I’d venture to say that they often have a closer sense of what personal finance guidance people actually need than personal finance writers. So Eric wrote a piece for us called, Time to Face Reality, Your Kids Don’t Want Your Stuff. And well, it was a hit. Welcome, Eric. We will get into what stuff and why, but since we’ve brought up how you professionals get to hear it directly from the clients, why don’t you tell us a little bit about the reaction you’ve been getting? Because, I understand from your assistant that you’ve gotten a lot of feedback.

T. Eric Reich: We have. We got probably a few dozen emails across the country from different readers of Kiplinger’s that saw it and then of course our own clients, of course, were calling us. They were writing or calling and letting us know their thoughts on it. And it’s funny, I wrote it because it’s such a recurring theme with a lot of people. They’re always convinced that people want all of your stuff and they just don’t. So I wanted to touch on why, but I knew it was going to get a strong reaction because I hear the same thing all the time from people. So if I hear locally on the ground, then I’m sure to a bigger audience, we were going to even get more opinion on that.

Sandy Block: Well, Eric, I immediately latched onto your piece because I am in the process of… My father passed away a couple of months ago and I’m in the process of distributing and cleaning out his house and it’s a mammoth job. So many of the things that you talked about really resonated with me. Obviously, we’re going to link to your piece so that people can follow up and read it in its entirety but we’re going to hit on some highlights and my question is, what’s the number one item people planning their estate think their kids want but the kids don’t actually want?

T. Eric Reich: By far the biggest one is the house. And it’s not that the kids don’t want the house, it’s that logistically it just doesn’t work. My example: I have three children, I have a nice house and I have three young kids. Let’s say my kids were in their twenties and something happened to me. My kids might want the house, but how’s that going to work? None of them can afford it because they’re just starting out in their careers. There’s three of them, they’re certainly not going to share it. And then one of them invariably wants to buy it, but they think they’re entitled to a discount because they’re my kid. But then the other two would be offended if they got a discount because they’re my kids, so why should they get shortchanged in favor of another one? So everybody thinks that their kids want the house, but the reality is most often that the biggest misconception is that your kids just really don’t want your house.

Sandy Block: So a follow-up question, Eric, if you aren’t going to leave the kids your house, how should you plan your estate so that doesn’t happen?

T. Eric Reich: So if you’re not going to leave the house to the kids, I mean, you can leave it to them, but you can reference in there, “Hey, these are the parameters in which someone’s going to keep it.” So if you want to keep it, it has to be appraised by two different independent people or three different and you take the average of the three it’s bought at fair market value. You have to specify the rules to which someone can keep it because if not, that’s where all the fights start, is the more ambiguity you leave in it the bigger the fight. So all of those things should be spelled out ahead of time. If you want it to be sold, say you want it to be sold. If somebody wants to keep it, fine, but here are the rules under which someone gets to keep it.

David Muhlbaum: What about setting up a trust? Couldn’t that help establish the rules you’re talking about?

T. Eric Reich: It can, I mean, I think a trust in general can help with a lot of things. Again, this is for an estate planning attorney more but to me, I like using trusts in general. Simply because it’s a way to control things and I hate to use this phrase, control from the grave, but that’s exactly what it is. And sometimes that comes off as sounding like a control freak or overbearing, but sometimes it’s for, honestly, just the protection of the beneficiaries themselves. If one’s a spendthrift, if one’s in a bad marriage, if one has a lot of creditors, you could be doing them a disservice by giving it to them outright instead of via trust.

Sandy Block: So, Eric, isn’t the other advantage of putting your house and other items in a trust that it keeps it out of probate?

T. Eric Reich: It keeps it out of probate and the biggest part of that too, is, that’s public record. I mean, I remember when a client had a family member pass away, they got a phone call a few months later from a guy wanting to buy the antique car that they just inherited. To which their response was, “Wait, who are you again?” Well, here they looked up in public records that one of the assets was this old antique Chevy and the guy wanted to buy it off him. And I always say, you see it in real life, you know,. Princess Diana’s will was published in a magazine. Whereas I always say, “Well, what about, Frank Sinatra?” And they go, “Well, I never heard anything about that.” Exactly, because everything was in a trust. So privacy is a big component of that as well. So avoiding probate and also what goes along with that is the privacy factor.

David Muhlbaum: The main family house is one thing but a vacation house can be even more emotionally loaded, no? I imagine someone working on their will thinking, wouldn’t be great for everyone to get together at the lake house every summer, roast marshmallows and remember grandma and grandpa for having found this place. And actually the kids are like, “Eh, we like going to Europe.”

T. Eric Reich: You’re absolutely right. It’s definitely bigger for the creator of the estate. It’s not that the beneficiaries don’t love the idea of the vacation home and everything else. The problem is, and again, I always go back to my example, I have three kids. Who gets to use it when? It’s only fit to be used in the summer months. I live at the Jersey shore, so, super-popular here June through the end of August. So, who gets to use it during that time period and what weeks and what holidays? And as I get older and my kids get older, their kids get older,

If one family has five kids and the other has one, are they getting more usage out of it? How are the expenses being paid? Is everyone sharing in that equally? So it really starts to create a problem. One of the ways around that maybe is that if that were in a trust, then I could also put money into that trust for the maintenance of the house, to pay the taxes, it’s going to pay everything it needs at least for the next decade. And then after 10 years, you guys have to come up with a solution based on x, y, and z of how we should deal with it going forward.

Sandy Block: Yeah. Eric, my experience with people who have inherited vacation homes, it sounds like a great idea at the time but very often they/ve moved and live many, many miles away. They don’t live near the Jersey Shore, they live in California, so it becomes a huge hassle. And I think that’s something probably you mentioned that people also need to think about, how close are your heirs to the actual vacation home that they could use it.

T. Eric Reich: Yeah, we actually just had a situation not too long ago. We had someone who owned a house on the beach, a very valuable house. They were kind of house poor; they had a phenomenal house, but not tons of money other than that. But the client really wanted to preserve that asset for a grandchild, the only grandchild, who lived hours and hours away. And I actually suggested, we call the grandchild and ask point blank, “Do you want this house?” The client was floored, like, “Well, of course they want the house, who doesn’t want a house on the beach in Ocean City in New Jersey.” Well, we called and it turned out the kid said, “That’s wonderful but I’m in my 20s, I work 80 hours a week. It’s three and a half hours away. I will absolutely never use that house. I’d much rather you sold it and got to use the money and enjoyed it. And if there’s something left over, wonderful, leave it to me but otherwise, I really don’t care.”

David Muhlbaum: Well, sounds like conversations really come down to the core of doing estate planning, especially around stuff. But those could be pretty fraught conversations. It sounds like this one went okay, but I assume they don’t always.

T. Eric Reich: Well, yeah, that’s true. I mean, the reason we had to make that phone call was because they were adamant that, of course, they would want this. Who wouldn’t want it? And the reality is there’s a lot of people that wouldn’t want it. The beauty of that is in the eye of the beholder, not so much somebody on the other end, but these are real world scenarios that people have to deal with. And of course the house being the biggest, but it’s not always just the house.

Sandy Block: Now that leads me to my next question, Eric, because you also talk in the slideshow about your stuff, your collectibles. They may have great sentimental value to you but maybe not to your children. Should you start getting rid of them while you’re still around?

T. Eric Reich: We do suggest that sometimes or at least explore it. Or, if not, educate the children on the value of it. A lot of times what we’ll see is someone has a collection of stuff, whatever it might be, the owner, of course, knows how valuable it is. They’ve been collecting it for 20, 30, 40 years, but an heir doesn’t necessarily have an idea of what that would be worth. And we ran into a scenario like that: We had someone that was going to basically just sell a bunch of stuff. And I think it was for like $1,000. And then we actually brought a specialist in to review it and turns out it was worth $45 to $50,000. So this poor guy was going to get ripped off because he didn’t understand the value of what it was, and that’s not uncommon at all.

Sandy Block: That’s my Antiques Road Show nightmare, Eric, is that I will give something to Goodwill and be watching Antiques Road Show and it’ll show up being worth $50,000 and I’ll realize that I gave it away. So I think you’re suggesting that you get that stuff valued and appraised while you’re still around to help your kids is a really good one.

T. Eric Reich: If you’re not a collector, you don’t know. Either sell it and let it go ahead of time, or at least communicate that value—and an actual value, because sometimes we also think collectibles are worth a lot more than they really are. We think it’s worth $50,000 and it’s worth $1, that’s more often the case. But nonetheless, an appraisal from an independent person will help.

David Muhlbaum: I’m glad you brought up the point about actual valuation, because my cats eat from some pretty fancy china bowls that someone thought had a lot more value than they did. And I think that sometimes these items that people have had for a long time or inherited from their predecessors, they really don’t fetch that much today.

T. Eric Reich: No, because unfortunately some of the things and it’s just a generational thing and I use china, actually as the example a lot of times. Because 50 years ago, 75 years ago, china was prized. I mean, for everybody, fine china was a real hallmark of things. Today, I probably have six or seven sets of fine china. Some of them apparently, extremely old, from great-great-great-grandmothers. But the reality is the generation today doesn’t use it at all. If they do, they can’t use five, six, seven sets of it. But the reality is that value from a long time ago doesn’t necessarily translate today for those reasons. So a lot of times things you think are very valuable maybe aren’t.

Sandy Block: Yeah. David Muhlbaum: and I have discussed this, and both of us are awash in china. And, I also have at least two sets of silver that again have been handed down from generations. As you said, young people—and this goes for even furniture—young people just don’t use that stuff. So I guess, the best thing you can do is either get rid of it or have some instructions for what you’d like to have done with it.

T. Eric Reich: Yeah. And valuation is key for that as long as you have a good value placed on it and you have a sense of what it might be worth? My wife’s family, they have a much, much larger family than I do. They’ll go to everybody in the family, two and three removed and say, “Hey, does anybody want this piece?” Because it is a family piece. But if not, then what do they ultimately do with it? It sounds sad to have to part with it, if really nobody wants it, and you know you mentioned yourself and you’re going through it personally, it’s only adding to the problem, we’ll call it, of settling an estate. And the less planning involved, the bigger the problem becomes.

David Muhlbaum: I imagine that in your line of work, Eric, you refer people out for valuations pretty often. How can our listeners get good qualified valuations for their stuff?

T. Eric Reich: So there are evaluation organizations. So you basically would want to find certified valuation type of people for that.

David Muhlbaum: Do they have acronyms like CFP?

T. Eric Reich: They probably do. I think I’ve seen one or two out there, definitely not an expert on it, but it is funny because from the article, I did have two different companies reach out to me and say, “Hey, this is what we do for a living. Feel free to pass our information along.” So these companies are out there, they do understand what things are worth. I got lucky in the one example of the $1000 offer for $50,000 worth of stuff. I happened to know a person who had some expertise in that area. But we frequently do refer out to an appraiser, to an estate-planning attorney, to a CPA. And all of them can have pretty good contacts in that world as well.

Sandy Block: Eric, this wasn’t in your slideshow, but you mentioned cars. Do you want to talk about cars?

T. Eric Reich: Cars are a big issue for a lot of people. My example: I have an old classic Corvette. I have a 1963 split-window coupe. So among the rarest of the rare. I have one of them and I have three kids. They all are convinced they’re getting the, “Vette.” Or the yellow car, as I like to call it, when I’m gone someday. Well, they can’t all get it. They also probably have no idea what it’s really worth. So for that reason just like the house or anything else, get a valuation. Get an appraisal of what is this thing really worth. And then again, if somebody wants to buy it at fair market value, that’s fine.

T. Eric Reich: But if not, it has to be sold. So otherwise it’s going to be unfair. Now, you can swap assets. You might say, if that car was worth $150,000, okay, well then if you’re getting that, then you have to give up a $100,000 of something else. And so that 50 and 50 go to the other two siblings. That’s fine you’re welcome to do that but my trust would stipulate that. Would lay out the terms at which someone could buy something.

David Muhlbaum: Could people set up a corporation to manage it for them?

T. Eric Reich: They could, that’s more of an estate lawyer question from that perspective. But you could, or you could probably do it all through a trust. It might just be too onerous to set up a corporation for that purpose. The logistics and maintenance of it might be a little too much.

David Muhlbaum: One interesting word you used in your article, Eric is “fun.” It’s a little surprising. Where’s the fun?

T. Eric Reich: Well, that’s just it, estate planning is never fun. Settling an estate is flat-out awful but the estate planning process and planning for your demise is never something that’s fun. But If you don’t deal with it, it is going to be a nightmare for the people behind you. So, why not deal with it today, when you’re of sound mind and body, as the phrase goes, to make those decisions. And again, try to make it fun, try to involve the kids from day one. It’s not like they’re fighting over your stuff. If everything’s out in the open and it’s shared freely, you really can have fun with… You know, I have one kid who’s clearly closest to my old Corvette than the other two.

T. Eric Reich: So the other two say, “We want it.” But as soon as they leave the room, he says, “Well, of course you know I’m getting it.” You can joke around with it that way but sometimes in those conversations, you will find that there are things of greater value to different family members. And it doesn’t have to be monetary value, they just really want something special to them. And if that’s what they really want, then maybe they get that and somebody else gets the car or the whatever, to be even.

David Muhlbaum: I see an opportunity for the younger generations to help here. As documentarians of a sort. They can take pictures, record, video, ask questions, discuss the things. What are the stories associated with the thing? And then you can decide, okay, we have a record of everything, now, these we’re going to keep and these we’re going to want to let go.

T. Eric Reich: That’s a really good point. I mean, recording it that way. Someone had reached out to me after reading the article and said, what they did, was they took pictures and many, many pictures of all the different things that they had collection wise. Wrote about them and then sold them. So they still have the pictures, they still have the story, they still have the context and everything else. They just don’t have the asset by itself, but they still have all the memories of it. They have the pictures, they have everything. So you did keep that meaning alive behind it, without actually worrying about who’s going to maintain this asset.

Sandy Block: Eric, it sounds like bottom-line here, a lot of people might be very conscientious about having their beneficiary designations correct for all of their finances, but they really don’t think about the solid items that they’re going to leave behind. And I suspect this often comes with people—and this is the case in my situation—people who have been in the same home for many years. If you move into a retirement community, you are forced to downsize but a lot of people die in the homes that they lived in. And I can tell you from personal experience, that clean-out can be a real job, especially if you don’t know what was the intention for some of these things.

T. Eric Reich: Yeah, it’s really the case. You live in the same house, 40, 50, 60 years, you accumulate a lot of stuff. Some of that stuff probably is fairly valuable. And really it is key because, the longer you’ve been in that house, your reference point is also of that house, and you have special memories of things in that house, because you’ve been going even yourself to that same place all that time. And that’s where a lot of that interest from heirs comes in, is there is a special piece or a special thing that reminds me of mom and dad or grandparents or whoever. And that sentimental value to that item is worth more than the financial value, and that’s why that honest, open communication is really key. Have this conversation while you’re alive and you’re healthy. When you’re in more advanced decline is where we see problems come in—or I promised that Corvette to all three kids at some point, because I forgot I promised it to the other two.

T. Eric Reich: Because I might be starting to slip a little bit or I’ve let things go or I let people take things out of the house over the years, things like that. So it really is important to not just focus on the, “yes, I’ve done estate planning, I set up a will or I set up a power of attorney.” That’s the bare minimum but even just writing out things like an ethical will, here’s the things I want to happen. This is what I want to see you do with stuff. Or here’s what I would love to see happen to the car, if you can’t, fine, then do this. A lot of times heirs will try to honor those wishes, if you really put it down in paper. It’s not something that would necessarily be part of a will. That’s more just the direct transfer of the property but more what I would like to see happen with something.

David Muhlbaum: Write it down on paper, tell people what you want to happen, have honest open conversation, always good advice. And I think we’ve had a good conversation here today ourselves. Thank you so much for joining us, Eric. We’re going to link up to your piece for people who want to dig a little bit deeper into what to do and not to do with your stuff. Thanks again.

T. Eric Reich: Thanks so much for having me.

David Muhlbaum: And that will just about do it for this episode of Your Money’s Worth. If you like what you heard, please sign up for more at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your content. When you do, please give us a rating and a review. If you’ve already subscribed, thanks. Please, go back and add a rating or a review if you haven’t already, it matters. To see the links we’ve mentioned in our show, along with other great Kiplinger content on the topics we’ve discussed, go to kiplinger.com/podcast. The episodes, transcripts and links are all in there by date. And if you’re still here, because you wanted to give us a piece of your mind, you can stay connected with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or by emailing us directly at podcast@kiplinger.com. Thanks for listening.

Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. Reich Asset Management, LLC is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS. 

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Source: kiplinger.com

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Understanding Pivot Points for New Investors

Pivot points are a tool that traders use to determine price levels of technical significance on intraday charts. A pivot point can help to identify a potential price reversal, which traders can then use (often in tandem with other technical indicators) as a cue to buy or sell.

When used alongside other common technical indicators, identifying pivot points can be part of an effective trading strategy. Pivot points are regarded as being important indicators for day traders.

What is a Pivot Point?

Pivot points are predictive indicators that average the high, low, and closing price from the previous period to define future support levels. These pivot points can help inform a decision to buy or sell.

The main pivot point is considered to be of the utmost importance. This point indicates the price at which bullish and bearish forces tend to flip to one side or the other (i.e., the price where sentiment tends to pivot from). When prices rise above the pivot point, this could be considered bullish, while prices falling beneath the pivot point could be considered bearish.

Brief History of Pivot Points

Pivot points got their start back when traders gathered on the floor of stock exchanges. Calculating a pivot point using yesterday’s data gave these traders a price level to watch for throughout the day. Pivot point calculations are considered leading indicators.

Today, pivot points are used by traders around the world, particularly in the forex and equity markets.

Different Types of Pivot Points

There are several different kinds of pivot points in addition to the standard ones. The variations make some changes or additions to the basic pivot point calculations to bring additional insight to the price action.

Standard Pivot Points

These are the most basic pivot points. They begin with a base pivot point, which is the average of the high, low, and closing prices from a previous trading period.

Fibonacci Pivot Points

Fibonacci projections, named after a mathematical sequence found in nature, connect any two points a trader might see as important. The percentage levels that follow are potential areas of a trend change. Most commonly, these percentage levels are 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, and 78.6%. It’s thought that when an asset falls to one of these levels, the price might stall or reverse.

Many traders love using Fibonacci projection levels in some form or another. These work well in conjunction with pivot points because both aim to identify levels of support and resistance.

Woodie’s Pivot Point

The Woodie’s pivot point places a greater emphasis on the closing price of a security. The calculation only varies slightly from the standard formula for pivot points.

Demark Pivot Points

Demark points create a different relationship between the open and close price points, using the number X to calculate support and resistance, and also emphasizes recent price action. This pivot point was introduced by a trader named Tom Demark.

How Do I Read Pivot Points?

A trader might read a pivot point as they would any other level of support or resistance. Traders generally believe that when prices break out beyond a support or resistance level, there’s a good chance that the trend will continue for some length of time.

•  When prices fall beneath support, this could indicate bearish sentiment, and the decline could continue.
•  When prices rise above resistance, this could indicate bullish sentiment, and the rise could continue.
•  Pivot points can also be used to draw trend lines in attempts to recognize bigger technical patterns.

What Are the Resistance and Support Levels in Pivot Points?

The numbers R1, R2, R3 and S1, S2, S3 refer to the resistance (R) and support (S) levels used to calculate pivot points. These six numbers combined with the basic pivot point level (PP) provide the seven metrics needed to determine pivot points.

Resistance 1 (R1): The first pivot level above the PP.
Resistance 2 (R2): The first pivot level above R1, or the second pivot level above the PP.
Resistance 3 (R3): The first pivot level above R2, or the third pivot level above the PP.
Support 1 (S1): The first pivot level below the PP.
Support 2 (S2): The first pivot level below the PP, or the second below S1.
Support 3 (S3): The first pivot level below the PP, or the third below S2.

Which Pivot Points Are Best for Intraday?

Because technical analysis has a large subjective component to it, traders will likely have their own interpretations of which pivot points are most important for intraday trading.

While some traders are fond of Fibonacci pivot points, others may prefer different points.

There are communities online, like TradingView, where traders gather to discuss ideas like these.

Pivot Points Calculations

The PP is vital for the pivot point formula as a whole. It’s important to exercise caution when calculating the PP level, because if this calculation is done incorrectly, the other levels will not be accurate.
The formula for calculating the PP is:

Pivot Point (PP) = (Daily high + daily low + close) divided by 3

To make the calculations for pivot points, a chart from the previous trading day will be needed. This is where the values for the daily low, daily high, and closing prices are obtained. The resulting calculations are only relevant for the current day.

All the formulas for R1-R3 and S1-S3 include the basic pivot level (PP) value. Once the PP has been calculated, you can move on to calculating R1, R2, S1 and S2:

R1 = (PP x 2) – daily low
R2 = PP + (daily high – daily low)
S1 = (PP x 2) – daily high
S2 = PP – (daily high – daily low)

At this point, there are only two more levels to calculate, those of R3 and S3.

R3 = Daily high + 2x (PP – daily low)
S3 = Daily low – 2x (daily high – PP)

How Are Weekly Pivot Points Calculated?

While pivot points are most commonly used for intraday charts, the same thing could be accomplished for a weekly time frame by instead using a weekly chart from the previous week as the basis for calculations that would apply to the current week.

The Takeaway

The pivot point indicator is best used with other indicators on short, intraday time frames. This indicator is thought to provide a good guess as to where prices could “pivot” in one direction or another.

Different types of pivot points are preferred by different traders, and they all can potentially be incorporated into a successful trading plan.

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