Important Facts For Investors

May 7, 2009
Interview with Steve Wiseman, author of The Truth About Protecting Your IRAs and 401(k)s

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Mike Carruthers:

You're probably at least a little concerned about the economy, your money and the stock market.

Steve Wiseman:
There are people now that are overly concerned about the fact that the market will never come back - it will. We're in a difficult period but it's not unprecedented.
 

 Attorney Steve Wiseman, author of the book The Truth About Protecting Your IRAs and 401(k)s

I think we should take our investment advice from Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca when they talk about... "as time goes by, the fundamental things apply."

And one of the fundamentals of stock market investing, says Steve, is -  it's virtually impossible to time the market.

There was a study done that showed between 1926 and 2004, 95% of the total dollar returns in the stock market were earned in just 5% of the months in that time frame. And so what happens is that the people that time to get out usually time to get out a little bit too late and when they time to get back in, they time to get in too late as well.

And investors really need to pay attention to commissions and fees.

Because with any investment, it's not what you make it's what you get to keep. Let's say you had a 401(k) and you had an additional one percent fee (which is easy to get). That can reduce the value of your account by 28%or more over your working career.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.