Are You an Investor or a Collector?

Our friend Carl Richards of BehaviorGap.com and the NYTimes.com Bucks blog has done a great job of illustrating how the ‘over diversification’ of portfolios can simply be ‘buying more’ instead of ‘buying different.’

Over- or under-diversifying your investments remains one of the classic behavioral mistakes.

Over-diversification happens when we become collectors of investments instead of simply being investors. Think of the people who buy the mutual funds they read about in Smart Money magazine. Next year they buy the Top 10 Funds recommended by Money magazine. A year later they buy two or three new international funds because that’s what’s on the home page of Forbes.

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2011 IRS Contributions Limits for Your 401k/403b

Last week, the IRS released the contribution limits for 401k/403b investors, and the amounts remain unchanged for 2011. Here are the numbers:

Elective Deferral (traditional limits) – $16,500
Catch-up Contribution for Investors 50 yrs and Older – $5,500
The reality is, your contributions to your 401k/403b is the #1 reason for your success as an investor. Here are some strategies for increasing your contributions:

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Market Forecasts, a.k.a. Market Guesses

Soothsayer. Prognosticator. The illusory crystal ball. The market forecasts that are lauded by the media…whose goal is to sell advertising…are simply speculation. We have told investors since day one that no one truly knows what the market is going to do by the end of the week, month or year. If you meet someone that claims they do…run…in the oppositive direction. Fast.

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It’s Official – We Are Finally BeManaged.com

Here’s a suggestion to businesses…get your business name correct from the get go. Just sayin’. Rebranding is a big job, even for small businesses such as us. That being said, the transition is complete as we have finished the migration to BeManaged.com (we think, anyway). Any links you have bookmarked should still come to our site or the appropriate file. We apologize if you have experienced any confusion or issues over the past few weeks.

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5 Reasons NOT to Tap Into Your 401(k)

Times are tough. People are over-extended. Sometimes desperation can lead us to consider our 401(k) as a savings account that could save the day. Our 401(k) should be the LAST option for cash. Here are five reasons reinforcing why this is a really bad idea, straight from CBS MoneyWatch’s “Evil HR Lady”, Suzanne Luc

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