Life Keepers End of January Update

Costs waste wealth.  Life Keepers fixes that problem for life.

Life Keepers shows how you can

• take control of your investments, 
• cut costs permanently, 
• keep that money in your accounts, 
• and do something you can measure in actual dollars:

Build extra thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars that you keep instead of paying it out to the mutual fund industry, brokers, bankers, planners, Wall Street and Washington.

Who should control your investments?

As you read the except below, think about your investments.

You can take control of your investments, simplify what you own, and save a bundle on costs for the rest of your investing life ... or, rely on banks, brokers, planners, Wall Street and Washington.

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From the NYTimes.com website:

"A Bank Crisis Whodunit, With Laughs and Tears"

By Gretchen Morgenson


"... so little has changed as a result of the debacle, in both banking and in its regulation.... many of these institutions are even bigger than they were before. With too-big-to-fail institutions now larger than ever, we are almost certain to go through another episode like 2008 in the not-too-distant future...

The report shows how the Fed refused to exert its authority on predatory lending. On Page 94, we learn that from 2000 to 2006, it referred a grand total of three institutions to prosecutors for possible fair-lending violations in mortgages.

The Fed “succumbed to the climate of the times,” its general counsel, Scott G. Alvarez, told commission investigators. It is hard for a supervisor to challenge banks when they are highly profitable, other officials said...

For those of you who’ve wondered why there have been so few prosecutions of mortgage fraud during this epidemic, your answer is on Page 164. “The terrible thing that happened,” said William K. Black, a former fraud investigator in the savings-and-loan crisis who is a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, “was that the F.B.I. got virtually no assistance from the regulators, the banking regulators and the thrift regulators.”

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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/business/30gret.html

Why not own the Dow Jones Industrial Average as an ETF you can buy and keep for life?

Why not?

Here is an example of what we mean when we say own the lowest cost ETFs as "Life Keepers," which are investments you buy, then keep for life.

Take a look at ticker symbol: DIA. 

It is an ETF that represents the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of 30 stocks that has the longest history of any index: over 100 years.

What's not to like?  Look up the stocks in that average: you probably know every name.  You can own them all with one ETF.  Put in ten grand, one hundred grand, or a million dollars.  Then keep it for life!

We just did a check on Morningstar online and looked up the top stock mutual funds.  One of the top 5 in size of assets is Growth Fund of America, a broker sold mutual fund from a well regarded fund family.

Over the last ten years, through 1-26-2011, $10,000 in the DIA returned $1,000 more in performance, $14,047, versus the Growth Fund of America's $13,023.

DIA is the market!  When you hear or read what the stock market did today, you learn what the Dow Jones Industrial Average did.  So buy the market!  And pay only 0.17% in costs when you own it.  The Growth Fund of America (you will be told) has low cost, reasonable fees of 0.69%.

Sounds reasonable, right?  But that is 4 times the amount of the DIA ETF 0.17%.

Why does that matter?  Think about this.  Say over the next ten and twenty years that the market only returns 5% annually.  Will the costs matter?  Yes they do.

Assuming the same return, the difference in costs over ten years means the DIA would return $16,013 versus $14,328.   Why the difference?  Internal costs.

After twenty years, same return, DIA would grow to $25,646 versus $21,784.

Costs matter.  Add a zero to those numbers.  $100,000 would grow to $256,460 versus $217,840.  What do you think?

What do you think if you cut your costs deeply and permanently across all of your investments: stocks, income, bonds, international, etc.?

We have twenty five years experience with over one thousand investors.  We can help investors of all ages, assets, experience, and goals.

But we are no longer in the investment business.  We teach instead.

Find out why we want to revolutionize investing and make you wealthier from lifelong cost savings.  We offer a clear, compelling, easy to follow message.  We give talks, seminars, and workshops. to any size group.

We teach.  You invest.  You keep the savings.

Freeze Spending?

Freezing spending might make ok politics, but cutting costs is what investors need.

The problem for investors is that high costs are frozen in their mutual funds, other investment products and managed accounts. That's not good for you.

Cut your costs and then lock in - freeze - the lowest costs in your accounts. That is not the way of Washington or Wall Street, but it will work for you very well.


Our lesson: never pay more than 0.2% in total annual costs.

Percentages rule in the investment world, but you need to know how seemingly small percentages of costs translate into actual dollars you lose. We teach how to convert your costs into dollars and personalize it.

Life Keepers says put a ceiling on costs - not a floor.

0.2% - nothing more. That's total annual costs. No one who advises you will want you to limit your total annual costs to 0.2% or less. That confirms why you should get it done.

"SEC Study Lifts Bar for Brokers"

From the WSJ:  

"Last year's Dodd-Frank financial law says the SEC can hold brokers to a higher "fiduciary duty" standard, compelling them to put the interests of clients before their own. Investment advisers already are held to that standard, while brokers need to ensure only that the products they sell are "suitable" for their clients."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704624504576097974250404318.html 

"To put the interests of clients before their own." Sounds downright revolutionary.

Why even worry about this?  Life Keepers teaches how advice is overrated and overpriced.  Most costs are hidden, accepted as normal, and ignored.  A better way to invest is where you, the investor, keep most of your costs.

Our modest proposal: simply bypass Wall Street and Washington:

• Take control over what you own.  Own ETFs you can keep for life.

• Use the lowest cost ETFs from asset managers like Vanguard.

• Never pay more than 0.2% in annual costs.  Keep the difference.

Pay them more!

Did you read the great news for Morgan Stanley brokers?

"Smith Barney Deal Boosts Average Pay at Morgan Stanley"
From today's Wall Street Journal:

"Morgan Stanley's wealth-management unit paid out $7.8 billion in compensation last year, up from $6.1 billion the prior year, reflecting a full year of pay for the more than 18,000 brokers of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

Compensation in the brokerage business was 62% of net revenues, versus 65% in 2009."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704881304576093681617387352.html


How about that?  You know how they get that money: your wealth gets shaved and that allows them to do well.  Good for them.  Life Keepers suggests doing something that is good for you: change the way you do business.

If you are a client at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, how is that working out for you?

Do you know in actual dollars the amount you lose to costs every year?   Find out.  That is an important number - more important for you than any other.

But I am sure your broker won't tell you.  We can figure it out: that's one of the most important principles we teach.  We then show you a simple way to use the lowest cost ETFs to repeat everything they do - only better, and much cheaper.

We teach you how to keep that money, instead of giving it away.  ETFLifekeepers@gmail.com  

We don't invest your money.  We teach you how to use the lowest cost ETFs to stop giving away thousands and tens of thousands of dollars EACH YEAR and keep that money instead.

Use Your Power!

Do you know how much power you have?

You vote.  You spend money.  You don't spend money.
You compliment, complain, suggest, withhold. 

What's even more powerful?  Change how you invest.  Take advantage of the power of choice in the investments you own.  Take advantage of how long you own your investments to give you the maximum benefit.

Life Keepers is starting an investment revolution: stop wasting your wealth on costs.  Keep that money instead.

Own the lowest cost ETFs and keep them for life.  We teach how to do this simply and effectively while you remain in complete control of your money.

If millions of investors use their power this way, a great shift in wealth back to individual investors will be felt far and wide.  Align your independence, power, integrity and wealth with an approach that will serve you well for the rest of your life.

Life Keepers teaches through seminars, speaking, and publishing custom material.

Put downward pressure on costs. Keep the savings. Stay independent.

We say keep things simple and keep more of your own money.

Put downward pressure on your investment costs.  Cut your costs permanently.  Keep the savings for as long as you invest. 

Investors have more control and power than they realize.  We teach investors how to take control and use the power they have to create large, serious costs savings.  

We want to revolutionize investing.  Discover how much you can save today and over the rest of your life.  We show you how to figure out your savings in actual dollars.  
 
Stop wasting your wealth on costs you probably don't realize you are paying and keep that money instead.   Today is a good day to start.

Invest with the freedom that ETFs give

Invest with the freedom that ETFs give.  Buy them anywhere.  Take them anywhere. 

Investment costs are like taxes that siphon your money.  You have the freedom to change the costs you pay. 

Expose the high costs that are hiding in the investment packages you own.  Nearly every mutual fund, annuity, variable annuity, managed account, and a variety of other investment produces overcharge investors.

Consider throwing them overboard and replacing them.   

Better substitutes already exist: the lowest cost ETFs. 

We say turn over your investments to a handful of ETFs you can buy and keep for life.  That's why we call them Life Keepers.