FEBRUARY 2010
We hope you are enjoying this winter season!
Robin combined business with pleasure while out in
Colorado in January. After meeting with our two
clients in that area, she ventured to Beaver Creek with
her husband Phil and some friends to tackle the Talon
Challenge (thirteen double black diamond mogul
trails in a day). She came home with a black eye and
a new appreciation for Hannah Kearney!
In our continued effort to stay involved with the thought
leaders in the industry, Robin will be traveling to the
Financial Planning Association Retreat in San
Antonio, TX in April where she will collaborate with
other business leaders for ideas and strategies that
benefit Northstar and its clients.
Mike joined The National Association of Personal
Financial Advisors (NAPFA) as a representative of
Northstar. It is the nation's leading organization
dedicated to the advancement of Fee-Only
comprehensive financial planning. They believe as we
do that Fee-Only compensation and a fiduciary
relationship are vital to providing unbiased financial
advice.
We will be posting a new exciting webinar on our
website on how to use Northstar's Portfolio Center. In
the 10 minute webinar, Mike takes you through the
various real time portfolio reports that you can access
at any time. As always, your comments and feedback
are welcome.
After a ten month hiatus, Alexa's study group of a
dozen female financial planners across the country
was rekindled last month. They have a renewed spirit
to share ideas and discuss timely topics, including
ways to better serve women clients and software that
improves efficiency and client understanding.
Alexa had the amazing experience of attending her
brother's wedding 23 hours away in Cordoba,
Argentina. She met her new sister-in-law's entire
family, toured the 2nd largest city in Argentina and
practiced her rusty Spanish. Her biggest
accomplishment on the trip was staying awake for the
entire wedding reception which lasted until 6:30 in the
morning including breakfast at 5 a.m.
Tina's been consumed this winter with weekly
wrestling tournaments. Both of her boys are enjoying
the strangleholds as she sits nervously on the
sidelines!
We have attached timely and relevant articles for your
information and enjoyment. As always, please let us
know how we can help further enrich your financial life.
Robin and Your Northstar Team
| The Lost Decade |
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The Lost Decade
Has this been the lost decade of stock investing?
If you watch or listen to the financial media, especially
over the past six months, you may have heard that
stock investors just experienced the worst 10 years of
investment performance. It's often been termed the
lost decade of stock investing. This has been the
worst decade of investing for some, but not for all.
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| The Progress Perspective |
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The Progress Perspective
The world is still emerging from a financial panic and
an economic seizure which has few parallels in
history, and none in our lifetimes. A global debt
bubble metastasized in the single-family home
market, and manifested as a whole new generation of
mind bogglingly complex mortgage derivatives, which
turned out to be, in Warren Buffett's memorable
phrase, "financial weapons of mass destruction." In
response to the functional insolvency of the banking
system and the total cessation of the credit function,
Western governments plunged into deficits of historic
proportions.
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| You Can Always Tell A Harvard Man |
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You Can Always Tell A Harvard Man
an article by Sam Hull!
I sometimes wonder if we don't trip ourselves up with
our supposed intelligence and constant search for a
way to make our future more secure. Did you ever
wonder if maybe the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)
principle is the right way to plan for the future? By
definition (think of your own experience) the future is
unknowable to any of us. I suggest we too often add to
the confusion and noise by being too smart for our
own good and coming up with really complex ways to
try to beat the odds.
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| Long Term Care |
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Helping Older Relatives Articulate Their Long
Term Care Wishes
In the best of all situations, helping an older relative or
a parent plan for long-term care and other end-of-life
issues happens when they're healthy and various
options can be considered with adequate time to do
so. Unfortunately, events can sometimes intervene
and make an elder's need for assistance an
emergency.
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