Insights

Fourth Quarter 2005|Jim Williams| Identity theft continues to be a significant threat to financial peace of mind. High tech schemes continue to proliferate. Reduce these risks by the following:

Third Quarter 2005|Jim Williams| Energy prices will never again be what they were a year or so ago, so go ahead and reserve your Prius. While as individuals we feel the pain of high energy prices, we will also see that conservation, alternative energy sources, more production from marginal oil & gas properties, and increased exploration will clearly result.

Second Quarter 2005|Jim Williams| One of the most persistent “sky is falling” stories threatening investor’s confidence in the capital markets is the notion that when baby boomers retire, they will liquidate their investments in the equities markets producing a downward spiral of declining prices and increasing redemptions leaving us boomers in a market meltdown with greatly diminished retirement resources.

First Quarter 2005|Jim Williams| Last quarter I aired some of my misgivings about the personal accounts proposal for Social Security system. My greatest concerns center around the potential for poor decisions, mischief and abuse. I expressed concern about the potential for government intrusion into the fundamental capital market decisions. These concerns remain, but I think they are outweighed by the potential benefits of private accounts.

Fourth Quarter 2004|Jim Williams| You are likely aware that there are changes coming to the Social Security system. In addition to the much discussed personal accounts, it is likely that benefits for future retirees (probably not current retirees) will be reduced a bit and deferred a bit. I guess that since I have been predicting this for several years, maybe I should take more credit for my abilities at prognostication. Hmmm.

Third Quarter 2004|Jim Williams| I’m sure that most readers of this newsletter know who (what) the SEC is (the Securities and Exchange Commission). I doubt that many know what (who) the FPA is (the Financial Planning Association), much less, why a three-letter association has filed suit against a three-letter government agency.