Newsletter

Continuing the tradition of offering RFSA members solid financial advice on timely topics, the Finance/Investment Interest Group, ably led by Mildred Joseph and Vic Appel, has offered a series of presentations throughout the year focused on various subjects relevant to investing.

The most recent, "Purchasing Bonds, A Less Volatile Investment." was presented by Vicki Berg, branch manger of the downtown Charles Schwab office and Mike Brannan with Pimco (Pacific Investment Management Company) at the Howson Branch Library on February 18.

Ms. Berg opened her remarks by saying that the past year has certainly taught people what risk really is, adding that her clients who were more interested in protecting their assets rather than growing them didn't lose 40% of their portfolio.  She recommended that people interested in buying bonds, consult the website, www.investinginbonds.com, which gives a wide variety of market data, news, commentary and information about bonds.

Mike Brannan of Pimco, the largest institutional investment management company in the world, gave a very bleak prediction of the near future, expecting that the financial climate would get worse before getting better. He forsaw that the financial structure in the US would never be the same and envisioned a new reality in investment that would see tremendous regulation, less leverage and risk taking.

Other speakers and topics throughout the year included a return visit from Carl Stuart,financial investment advisor and host of KLBJ's Money Talk each Saturday, who spoke in September on "The Current Situation in the Stock Market"

Then in October Matt Stref, investment advisor and analyst for Morgan Stanley, talked about "Investment Decisions To Make When There Is a Rally in a Down Market."

Jeanie Wyatt, CFA and CEO, and Tom Cagle, UT-MBA, CFP. senior investment adviser, 
of South Texas Money Management, LTD spoke on "Strategies for Dealing With a Down Market" in November.

The January speaker was Lin Johnson, manager of the Merrill Lynch Arboretum Office who talked about "Market Volatility: What May We Expect in the Near Term."