Dear Investors,
You spend many saving money for retirement. We believe you should
invest this money carefully. Your retirement investments should, first
and foremost, be safe. Secondly, they should also provide you with
competitive rates of return.
We take risk control seriously at Secure Retirement. Most investors
are told large losses are unavoidable during times of financial crisis.
However, at Secure Retirement we strive to protect the money under our
care no matter what happens in the economy or markets. Thus far, our
history has shown that our risk control methods work.
For example, the stock market went down 37% in 2008, and by the end
of the first quarter in 2010 it was still down 25.3% from its high set
on October 9, 2007. In sharp contrast, our average account was down –
but only by a few percent when the stock market had still lost over one
quarter of its value. And many of our more conservative clients had
gains during this historically difficult time period. Again, we take
risk control very seriously, and our methods work. We have included an
article that describes how we calculate and control risk, which you can
access by clicking on Risk Control.
So protecting our clients’ money is, and always will be,
our first principle. Our next job is to make our clients more money
than they would earn elsewhere. Our track record is just as strong on
the profit side as it is on the safety side. Most of our investments
are in no-load mutual funds. We also own one individual stock –
Berkshire Hathaway – in nearly all accounts. Our core stock-based
mutual fund has outperformed the stock market by a wide margin over the
last 1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 years, while Berkshire Hathaway stock has more
than doubled the stock market’s returns over the last 45 years (from
1965-2009 Berkshire Hathaway stock made 20.3% a year, versus 9.3% a
year for the S&P 500 stock market index).
Of course, we also have substantial investments in
fixed-income mutual funds that primarily own different types of bonds.
These funds are safe, pay competitive interest, and historically have
given our clients excellent additional profits from price
increases.
At this time we remain quite concerned about the
upcoming fate of the stock market this year. Despite the rosy optimism
we hear each day from stock market analysts on television, at Secure
Retirement we see that unusually large economic and market risks still
exist. The risks may or may not strike the markets, but we will remain
on “high alert” until they are clearly in our rear-view mirror. On a
personal note, it concerns me a great deal when I speak with retired
investors who have financial advisors who are discounting or ignoring
the risks our economy and markets still face. To me, this is very
clearly not a time to relax and ignore potential risks.
Since beginning Secure Retirement seven years ago,
approximately 200 families have entrusted their retirement money to our
care. I am pleased to share that our careful approach has led to a
wonderful group of satisfied clients. Should you wish to meet to
discuss your particular financial needs, please call us at (925)
855-4300 to schedule a complementary meeting.
Sincerely,
Richard Morey
President, Secure Retirement
