Cash Management

I just returned from an industry conference in Omaha, Nebraska.  The major themes during the 4 days of meetings, breakout sessions, and keynote speeches were perseverance, optimism, and opportunities.  With all the turmoil and transition in the banking and financial industry over the past year and a half, there are lots of people looking for financial advice and possibly a new advisor. Also, while the stock markets have recovered some of the losses, the easy money has been made and people need to be more tactical in their approach in their portfolios.  One of the last sessions I attended was called Cash Management Strategies in a Low Interest Environment.  Basically they said that more people are sitting on cash nowadays because they are still fearful of market uncertainty and have short and midterm cash needs that cannot be at risk in the stock market.  The challenge is to find higher yielding investments that are safe.  CD rates are very low right now and most people looking for income need more than the 1 to 3% that they are finding in CD's.  Money Market rates are even worse and some folks have discovered that these investments are not as safe as previously thought.  Opportunities seem to be in the investment grade corporate bond market and with newer investment products known as Structured Notes that can give a person access to the stock market with principal protection.  The main thing is to know that there are viable solutions for everyone, but people need sound advice.  Tiger Woods did not get to where he is in the golf world by reading how to books and golf digest magazine; he has coaches help him improve his game!

Recession update

Well, if you were following me on Twitter yesterday, you knew that I was sitting in on a speech by David Joy, the chief market strategist and chairman of the Riversource Investments Capital Markets Committee. He shared his thoughts on where they see the economic recovery in the US. He said that they feel that economic recovery could begin in the second half of this year, but that the next economic expansion period will be much shorter than the past, perhaps in the 3 to 4 year range. The best areas to be in going forward are the infrastructure plays, primarily industrials, materials, energy and technology. Problem areas ahead of us are inflation, health care, and debt. He said that investors should structure their portfolios to participate in the recovery, but they should be prepared to be more tactical, adjusting portfolios more frequently than in the past. Good stuff!

Conference

I am currently attending a conference in Omaha, Nebraska. I will be hearing speeches and sitting in on many different breakout sessions on topics such as asset management, wealth management, practice management, and business growth. I will post some updates via Twitter and will write about some of the better ideas I hear later. We have not seen Warren Buffet, but I did drive by his home yesterday! Stay tuned...

The case against Twitter

As I discussed yesterday, while Twitter is gaining membership, it still lags Facebook by a long shot.  Most of the hype seems to be coming from Hollywood and perhaps a very clever ad agency that promotes any celebrity that opens up a new Twitter account.  If you scroll through the list of Suggested Users on the Twitter "Find People" page, most are celebrities.  Adding to the problem of not having an effective income model, this could indeed spell doom for Twitter.  Not surprisingly, an article out today lays out The Case Against Twitter, By The Numbers.  I think these guys might want to strike a deal with Facebook or Google while the iron is hot.  Otherwise, they could end up a statistic in the annuls of web lore.  They might want to try to book another appearance on Oprah!

Do you Twitter?

Time out for Twitter

Today's post is going to take a brief look at Twitter.  I see Twitter as becoming polarized.  People either lover or hate Twitter, there is really no middle ground.  While Facebook has become THE social networking website with the largest following, Twitter is lagging behind along with Linked-In.  The difference is Twitter and Linked-In are more focused in their appeal.  I think people are still trying to figure out if Twitter has value, and Linked-In seems to be more appealing for business users.  I'm not sure anyone cares too much that Ashton Kutcher has now surpassed the 2 million follower mark.  It seems Oprah can't catch him.  More interesting to me is that 10% of Twitter users account for 90% of Twitter activity!  I think people still like to joke about Twitter.  Will Farrell joked on Conan O'Brien the other night that he didn't Twitter, he still uses a CB!  Remember, he's Old School.  So I think Twitter needs to develop more practical uses to gather the masses who feel that Facebook is all they need.  And it would be helpful for them to be able to show that they can make money, otherwise they could find themselves to be a fad and end up as a answer to a trivia question someday in the not to distant future!  Do you Twitter?

Haute Couture

OK, so while the US economy continues to make strides to get out of our current recession and financial crisis, highlighted yesterday by the bankruptcy filing by GM, it seems our European friends in France must have things in high gear.  A new report out shows that new cars are the latest thing in haute couture, unlike here in America where it has now become trendy to own a vehicle that is 3 years of age or older!  Are the French ahead of the curve or are they foolish in their ways?  Another mystery making news today is the announcement that GM has supposedly sold Hummer to an undisclosed buyer and will continue making Hummers until the new owners take over, sometime in 2010.  Well, if I were to make a guess, I would suspect that the new owner is not French!

GM raising more questions than answers

As expected, GM will be filing for bankruptcy protection today.  They join Chrysler in becoming another Big 3 automaker taking a road no one could have predicted even 5 years ago.  With today's filing comes a lot more questions than answers as to the future of this American icon.  What will happen to all of the GM bondholders?  How will the "new" GM compete in the future?  Who will buy Hummer and what will happen to Saturn?  Who will replace GM in the Dow 30?  How will the closing of 2600 or so dealerships nationwide affect the national economy?  What has Al Koch been up to since he helped Kmart emerge out of bankruptcy?  It will be interesting to see how this all places out over the next several months and most likely years.  You know what song I haven't heard on the air in a while?  Bob Seger singing, "Like a rock"!