October 2008 - Forecasts & Trends

This week, Mike Posey will complete his series of Retirement Focus E-Letters discussing the various ways to invest for income during retirement. Before doing that, however, he provides some very good advice for those who are in retirement and concerned about the health of their portfolio during the market's recent nosedive. After that, he uses my discussion from last week about active management strategies as a springboard to how these strategies can be effective for retirees. He then wraps up the series by talking about a number of alternative investment strategies that may be of interest to some retirees....

People are constantly asking me how we got into this financial crisis and how it became so very messy, thus requiring massive government bailouts around the world. This SPECIAL ISSUE of Forecasts & Trends E-Letter features a very good analysis of the current financial crisis - in layman's terms - from the good folks at BaselineScenario.com. Hopefully, it will help you to better understand how the housing/mortgage crisis led us to where we are today. If it helps, feel free to share with others as you see fit....

This week we take an inside look at the massive government bailout bill that was hastily signed into law by President Bush late last Friday. As taxpayers who are ultimately on the hook for the now $850 billion bailout package, we need to understand how this program is expected to work (or not work). So I will give you the latest details as we understand them. I also ponder whether the bailout is, or is not, the right thing to do. Following that, we will take a look at the latest Electoral Map which has shifted significantly in Barack Obama's favor, unfortunately. Finally, we will revisit Scotia Partners and update you on their performance in the latest stock market meltdown....