Guiding Principles

Too many investors are fooled into thinking the most important number in investing is the one at the top of their account statement. But this “paper” number fluctuates so dramatically. Unless you’re saving or investing for a single, large lump sum purchase, this value is meaningless.

The number that really matters is the actual spendable income, or cash flow, your portfolio can produce. Cash flow is the key to viability. Your portfolio must generate enough income to pace inflation, pay your taxes, and support a reasonable standard of living.  Learn More

Unfortunately, human nature can interfere with a person’s ability to make sound financial decisions. In many ways, investing boils down to a struggle between logic and emotion. That’s why to be a successful investor you need a strong financial education and a lot of discipline.

You will never be able to control the stock market. Market chaos and media frenzy will always exist – and your brain will always want to react. Until you are able to quiet the emotions that easily dictate the outcomes of your investment, you will never be a truly successful investor.

The best way to avoid paying the high cost of following your emotions is to stick to a rule-based system like the Snider Investment Method that addresses the human condition and allows you to manage your fear and greed.

The primary difference between investing and saving is your time horizon. When you have a short-term goal, you should focus on preserving the value of an asset and ensuring its liquidity. Money needed to fund a one-time, defined-spending event should be kept in a low-risk, easy-to-access vehicle like a money market fund, savings account, US Treasury Bill, or certificate of deposit.

However, the goal of investing in stocks is to fund long-term needs that may have less defined spending requirements, like retirement. Because you are focused on the long run, you cannot be overly concerned with short-term fluctuations in the market.

In the Snider Method, we screen for stocks from fundamentally sound companies that we would be willing to own for long periods of time, even if the price declines. Additionally, the Snider Method helps you manage your emotions, enabling you to keep short-term price fluctuations in perspective.

There are two approaches to risk. One is to ignore it completely and HOPE everything turns out okay. The second is to manage risk and performance as two interrelated pieces of an equation. But to effectively manage risk, you must first understand it.

The problem is that investors tend to be myopic when it comes to risk. They worry about the inherent volatility of the stock market and think, “I just can’t bear the thought of losing money.” But market risk isn’t the only, or perhaps even the most significant, risk you face.

What would happen to you and your family if you lost your source of income and the safety net it provides? How do you hedge or insure against that risk? We believe you build an investment portfolio that generates a steady and consistent source of cash flow. The goal has to be to generate enough inflation-indexed income to replace your W-2 income at a moment’s notice.

There is a belief among investors that financial advisors are in business to make money for clients – instead of themselves. This belief is as naive as it is false. When it comes to your money, the only person with no conflict of interest is you!

The bottom line is that no one cares more about your money than you do. Sure, it’s easy to point fingers, but it isn’t your broker, your CPA, the government, your parents, or even your spouse that is responsible for your current or future financial situation. It is you and you alone. Learn More

Investors must learn a fundamental truth; you don’t win by doing what everyone else is doing. For many years, “everyone else” has been more or less following the exact same strategy of buy and hold. But even the staunchest buy-and-hold defenders are finally singing a different tune.

Unfortunately, too many people are peddling concepts as bad as (and oftentimes worse) than buy and hold. Among these is the idea of market timing. This concept of market timing is not only being hawked as a supposed cure for the buy-and-hold blues, but as a panacea for all investment woes.

Both logic and evidence tell us it’s impossible to time the market over long periods with any consistency. So why do so many financial advisors claim they can do the impossible, especially in light of the fact that the data proves trying to time the market actually does more harm than good?

The answer is simple and obvious. Salespeople have very different objectives than academicians. Academicians analyze facts in an effort to reveal the truth – and salespeople, well let’s just say that too many are less concerned with the truth than with their own financial bottom line.

There are only two reasons someone would try to convince you that you can make money by timing the market. They are either delusional and have convinced themselves they can do what no one else can – or they’re willing to sacrifice your security for their own greed. Admittedly, this is a strong statement, but the data doesn’t lie.