Peace and Prosperity in the New Year

New Year, New Opportunity

From a financial perspective, no one is sad to see 2008 close! The market volatility, bad news of the day and institutional failures may have left you frozen in your tracks.

With all this change, what are the smart financial moves now?

Join us for one or more of our four part, Peace and Prosperity in the New Year series. Over the next two months, we will inform (and make it fun along the way) you with the financial news you need to move forward with confidence in 2009!

Here are the details:

Peace and Prosperity in the New Year
Putting market volatility into perspective or How to open my account statements without having a heart attack!
When: Jan 16, 2009 1PM EST

Prosperity Planning
The best process out there for building confidence in your financial future ... come take a peek inside
When: Jan 30, 2009 NOON EST

Stocks and Bonds
What do I really need to know and how can it help?
When: Jan 30, 2009 NOON EST

Asset Allocation
The simple secret to building wealth that no one talks about
When: Jan 30, 2009 NOON EST

What you will learn:
• The best media sources to trust for truthful, empowering information
• How the financial crisis/recession will affect your investments
• How to bulletproof your portfolio and outlive your money (if you want to!)

If you are on our e mail list, watch for this announcement. If you are not on our list, e mail me at Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com and I will send you a personal invitation.

May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com
859-331-7755
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com

Does Madoff make you mad?

The Madoff case it being described as the largest Ponzi scheme ever. All events, whether we perceive them as good or bad create opportunities for learning. So what can we learn from Madoff?

Andy Pulsfort, Investment Advisor at Mackey Advisors recently wrote a letter to our clients briefly describing the events and recounting lessons we all can garner from this tragic event.

Here is what Andy has to say:

Just when we were beginning to believe Wall Street couldn’t become more tarnished, the news of Bernard Madoff was unwelcomed into our homes and offices this week. The investment advisor and former NASDAQ chairman was charged with securities fraud and led away in handcuffs for it.

While the collapse of Wall Street has had dramatic effect on our country’s and our personal finances, it was driven by drifting from the financial basics:
1) Living within your means
2) Using debt wisely
3) Avoiding get rich quick schemes
4) Cash is king

Madoff’s case was illegal and deceptive. His firm accumulated a $50 billion loss for investors by collecting money from clients, investing them in counterfeit investment plans (with bogus statement to boot), and using new investor money to pay out any interest and withdrawals to existing clients.

What Madoff was thinking, we may never know; however it seems pretty obvious that eventually even this phony pot of gold would run dry. His investors, many of which would be considered super-affluent, should have seen this coming by using some basic precautions. So how do you safeguard yourself against this type of fraud?

Too Good to Be True

Have you ever been to a holiday party or family get together, when in the process of discussing investments someone shared with you “the investment of a lifetime”? It happens all the time, and is usually followed by something along the lines of “Oh, I have no idea what it is, but it got me a 20% return last year.” Buyer beware! Know where your money is going. If the name of the investment does not come up number one in a Google search, watch out. Your investments should be able to be checked in the newspaper and on the internet daily, if not instantaneously. Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds may sound boring, but it’s just the kind of boring Madoff’s clients wish they had.

Use an Independent Custodian

I have gotten a number of inquiries during the economic storm in regard to “Who has our money?” There is no lockbox in our office containing millions and we do not value any of the investments we offer. By using an independent custodian we eliminate a number of conflicts of interest. That third party is either Schwab Institutional or National Financial Services (Fidelity). These companies price the investments and provide statements to our clients. We have no input on the pricing or statements and that is the way it should be.

Understand Account Insurance

We all generally use life insurance, disability insurance, homeowners insurance, and even travel insurance. In fact the law requires that we have auto insurance. Why not investment insurance? I am not talking about guaranteeing the value of your investments, not that it wouldn’t be nice. I am referring to fraud insurance that most investors have free of charge to protect their accounts from just the type of activities Madoff was engaging in. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) insures each of our client accounts against fraud for up to $500,000 per account. If your account is greater than this, Schwab Institutional provides an additional $150 million per account through Lloyds of London.

This insurance will not protect your account from market declines, but it will make you whole again should your account be subject to securities theft or fraudulent transactions. We are proud that clients can select us based on our merit and expertise and not be troubled by unnecessary worry.

Since we were children we have been warned to watch out when something seems like too good of a deal to pass up. Sometimes it takes years to find out, and like Madoff’s clients, the consequences can be dearly. Whether large or small, take pride in the wealth and prosperity you have accumulated, invest wisely, and ask questions. Your heirs will thank you in the future and your psyche will thank you tonight.

Here’s to you and yours this holiday season!
Andy Pulsfort, IAR

Once again, we are called to practice prudent, practical cash management and to invest within the context of our own personal Prosperity Plan.™

Click here to read the New York Times on Madoff

May your investments always support your personal dreams and goals,
May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com
859-331-7755
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com

Why Don’t People Under 30 Save Anymore?

I recently did an interview with Craig Clough a staff writer for the web site LifeWhile. The article paints a grim picture for young adults today.

click here to read the article

And get help at www.FeedThePig.org

There is no time like the present to change a habit.

May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com

Bob Veres offers great perspective

I haven't posted since December 3. Topics have swirled in my head these last two weeks, but I failed to find the time to put fingers to the key board.

Bob Veres writes a subscription based newsletter for advisors, summarizing financial news from a variety of sources. I read his posts regularly and find it one of the best ways to keep up with all the changes in my profession. As a student of the profession, Bob has a unique perspective on the current financial crisis, which he articulates well in this recent column in Financial Planning.

It is an excellent read to bring calm, perspective and relevance to today's stock and bond markets.


click here to read the article

As always, your feedback is appreciated

May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com

Letter to the President elect

Up early this morning, I found myself on the President Elect's web site, http://www.change.gov/ On the home page were these words, "Your story and ideas can help change the future of the country."

I decided to take that as an invitation and hit the contact us section. Here is the letter I posted to the transition team:

I am a CPA and financial advisor. My company, Mackey Advisors, primarily serves baby boomers in the middle market. The financial turmoil created by excessive leverage and lax or no regulation is being felt exceptionally hard on the middle class. Unlike the poor, they do not qualify (and do not want) government assistance. Unlike the ultra wealthy, this kind of market volatility impacts their day to day pocketbook.

Over the last few months our primary job has been to create calm and keep our clients from making moves in this market that seriously impact their future.

In contrast to the evening news, what is needed now are positive stories. Tell us how people are managing. What they are doing to survive and thrive in the recession. Find ordinary, everyday people who
are managing their life in fiscally responsible ways, and capture their
stories.

We need to use this time as a call to financial literacy. If people understood how to use credit, how to save, how to invest, we would not be in this mess. Wall Street certainly played their part. Personally I am sickened by greedy executive walking away with millions after praying on those who do not understand basic finance.

How do we solve this dilemma?

Do we continue to regulate Wall Street? Or do we empower Main
Street? I vote for some of both, but focus on the latter. It is like
the old adage, teach a person to fish and feed them for life. Let's teach people to understand money and finance, so that when they are offered these high commission, trash investments and loans, they say no.

Turn your thinking upside down. Focus on empowerment, personal responsibility and personal choice. This is your answer.

I welcome the opportunity to serve in this effort.

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS
President and CEO, Mackey Advisors
Member, AICPA Financial Literacy Task Force

Think about it, what better way to insure the future of our country and our citizens than thru empowering them to make good choices?

If you agree with me, I encourage you to post your own comment on the Obama transition site. Feel free to copy and paste any part of my comments into your post.

Click here to go to the Obama team's transition site

The AICPA has an advertising free web site, www.360financialliteracy.org full of great information and ideas on gaining control and empowering yourself for a more prosperous today and tomorrow.

At Mackey Advisors, we are playing our part every day with our clients. New for 2009, we will be offering on line classes and webinars on basic finance, along with our award winning course, Joy and Money 101. Sign up for our newsletter at www.CultivatingProsperity.com to stay in the loop of upcoming events.

Today and everyday, may prosperity be yours,

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS, IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com
859-331-7755
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com

Layaway: Everything old is new again

The summer I was 15 I decided to use a portion of my paycheck to make my first big purchase, a $30 birthstone ring from a local jewelry store. That was the equivalent of a week’s pay, so it was indeed a large purchase.

Since I did not have $30, I went to the store and put the ring on layaway. Every week, I took $3 out of my check to the jewelry store and after 10 weeks, just in time for the first day of school, I had my new ring. Of all the things I have purchased for myself, that ring still stands out in my mind as one of the most memorable and satisfying.

In speeches over the years I have told that story. Many young people have never heard of layaway. I talked about how layaway is an empowering process. Unlike using a credit card to make a purchase, when you use layaway, it is really yours. There aren’t any monthly payments at exorbitant interest rates that haunt you for years to come. And best of all, you can really enjoy your item, knowing it is yours!

I was listening to NPR the other day, and it turns our layaway is making a comeback. It turns out one of the blessings of the recession is people are getting clear that credit cards are not in their best interest. Halleluiah! Click here to see the whole NPR story

Turns out that layaway is also on the internet in e shopping format. Clothes, toys, electronics, security and the list goes on are all available. Check it out at http://www.elayaway.com/

May prosperity be yours,

Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
www.CultivatingProsperity.com
859-331-7755
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com