Dan Caplinger on Investor Behavior

Dan Caplinger, estate-planning attorney, CFP, and writer for the Motley Fool, spoke at the Chelmsford library's Financial Fitness seminar series, and offered tips on staying clam and focused during these turbulent times. He also recapped the estate-planning series with some practical insights on different types of trusts.

Click here to view Dan's latest presentation.

The next presentation will be by Sham Gad, managing partner of Gad Capital Management. He runs the Gad Partners Fund, an investment partnership modeled after the 1950's Buffett Partnerships.

More details on his presentation to follow.

Warren Buffett's answers emails

Download the full transcript of Warren Buffett's Q&A session on CNBC's Squawk Box show.
Click here for the transcript.

March 13 Financial Fitness seminar

Back by popular demand!

As you may remember, we had a tremendous turnout for the November 2007 session with Dan Caplinger, estate-planning attorney, CFP, and writer for The Motley Fool. Several of you requested that we invite him for an encore presentation. So, it is my pleasure to announce that Dan will be back next week for a review of estate-planning basics and talk about investor behavior. More details, along with an agenda for the talk, will be listed on the library website soon.


Venue: Chelmsford Public Library, MA
When: March 13 (Thursday), 2008 at 7 PM
Title: Trusts & Estate Planning Part II, and Tips on Staying Calm In Turbulent Markets

See you there!

Retirement Planning Seminar

Here is a link to my last seminar at the Chelmsford Public Library titled "Retirement Planning".
http://rishisondhi.googlepages.com/RetirementplanningseminarCPL1-10-08.pdf

Note that a DVD of the presentation is also available at the library - search for personal finance or retirement planning or Financial Fitness in the library catalog.

I will posting details of the March 13 seminar soon.

Rishi

Retirement Time Bomb?

In 2006, the oldest of the baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, turned 60 years old. About 80 million Americans, or over one-quarter of the U.S. population, fall in this age group. On the one hand, this group of people has participated in a remarkable period of growth and prosperity. Unlike previous generations, the baby boomers are known to have an active lifestyle and are unwilling to "downsize" their living and entertainment options.

On the other hand, due to advances in medical science and healthcare, people are expected to have a longer life expectancy. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there will be about 60 million baby boomers living in 2030. This means that future retirees will need their nest egg to last through a longer retirement.

Additionally, it is predicted that the national healthcare expenditure will increase significantly in the next decade. One estimate puts the nationwide annual medical costs at $4 trillion by 2016 – double the current level.

The increasing population size and the longer life expectancy will strain the Social Security system and threaten the plan’s solvency. Already the system requires seniors to retire at age 66 or 67 to get their full benefits. Also, traditional pension plans are being increasingly revoked or reconfigured, so they cannot be relied upon as before. As people retire, they will need to plan for a longer retirement and take care of their loved ones at a time when traditional pension plans and Social Security benefits are diminishing.

Please join me in discussing these retirement issues and in finding ways to address them.

Venue: Chelmsford Public Library, MA
When: January 10 (Thursday), 2008 at 7 PM

Agenda

• Retirement concerns
• Different retirement plans
• Investment options
• Asset Allocation
• Preserving your nest egg

Please note that these sessions are free and open to the public.
Click here for the Financial Fitness seminars web site.

Munger on Human Misjudgements

Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, often does not get the recognition that his investing partner, Warren Buffett, receives. However, Munger is an investing legend in his own way. I have always admired Munger for his critical and rational thinking and it was a privilege to hear him speak at the 2006 Berkshire shareholder meeting.

Recently, I came across an article on the Reflections on Value Investing blog (I highly recommend this blog to all value investors) which talks about the Man-with-the-hammer syndrome.

The article has a link to Munger's speech titled PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN MISJUDGMENT. In the undated speech at Harvard Law School, Munger talks about the extreme irrationality and biases that are prevalent in the world. Click here for a link to the article.

Munger also makes several references to Robert Cialdini and his work on influence and compliance. I recently re-read Cialdini's book Influence - a must read for anybody trying to understand the different techniques compliance professionals use to manipulate our minds!

I found Munger's talk very enlightening and it reinforced my belief that Munger is one of top thinkers of our time.

The Intelligent Investor

Charlie Munger oftens says that all inteligent investing is value investing.

Sham Gad, Managing Partner, Gad Partners Funds, will be talking about value investing in a talk titled "THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR: THE PRACTICAL APPROACH TO INVESTING".

Click here for Sham's blog.

Venue: Chelmsford Public Library, MA (click here for the library's web site)
When: December 13, 2007 at 7 PM

Agenda
–Understand why a value oriented investment operation offers the most sensible and practical approach to managing money.
–The ideas and philosophies developed by Ben Graham in the 1930’s and extended by Warren Buffett today.
–Six characteristics that define an intelligent investment approach.
–A simple value based investment case study.

Please note that this a free seminar and open to the public.