Latest from Joan

All You Need to Know Is In This One Little Chart
2/3/2010 @ 11:54 pm

Study this chart carefully. It holds the key to your investment future. Interest rates peaked at 19.1% in January 1981. If you bought thirty year Treasury Bonds then and put them into your safe deposit box, you have earned 18 or 19% a year in interest payments on your original investment and beaten the very best hedge funds. In the meanwhile, your bonds also increased in value. It was a golden scenario and yet most of us were completely averse to buying bonds in 1981. Interest rates had been rising for years and everyone who had owned bonds had lost money. Only 20% of investors were bond bulls then. Most people wouldn’t go near them with a ten foot pole. Does that sound like your approach to stocks today?

Working From Home
1/31/2010 @ 11:52 pm

When I started my investment firm, Gramercy Capital Management Corp. in 1986 the thought of working at home was not something I ever considered.   In the 20 years I had worked on Wall Street I had worked in large companies and small but never at home. My children were young and I wanted to get out of the house to work. But the internet has changed everything and opened new options for service businesses that must be seriously considered. 

Nose Above Water and Not About to Drown
1/31/2010 @ 11:50 pm

This horoscope appeared in the paper the very week my life was upended in April 2009:

Wednesday, April 15th 2009: Life is full of situations that support or challenge you, Scorpio. However, one thing seems to be true for everyone: Your attitude can dictate the way you feel. Even when things feel stagnant in your life, stay positive. A surprise piece of news is headed your way, and whatever it is, it'll give you a lift.

Joan's Blog

They’ve Pulled Back the Curtain on Our Financial Wizards of OZ
4/9/2010 @ 12:00 pm
So here we all sit with our diminished “fortunes” and estates to leave for our children. Congress spent last week grilling the very men we were led to believe were our “Financial Wizards” with solutions to all our problems. There they were before the once complicit Finance Committee investigating the Great Recession trying to discern what went wrong. There was Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Chairman to several presidents of both parties.  This is not the same Mr. Greenspan who for years imbued us with conviction that he had his finger on the pulse of the economy even as he muttered gibberish in his Congressional testimony. This is not the same man CNBC assigned a theme song of “Mr.
The Recession of Fear
3/14/2010 @ 11:45 am
This week marks the one year anniversary of that dreadful day in March 2009 when the Dow hit 6470. The only real difference between then and now is the “Recession of Fear.” It is not clear that things are a lot better now than they were then other than we don’t think the banks are going down for the final count. For most of us, it’s still hard to get credit, a mortgage or a loan. Unemployment seems frightfully high. Consumers are mostly keeping their wallets shut. The big change is that fear has definitely receded. However, fear of stocks remains very high.
More from Joan's Blog

Investing

Investing
All You Need to Know Is In This One Little Chart

Study this chart carefully. It holds the key to your investment future. Interest rates peaked at 19.1% in January 1981. If you bought thirty year Treasury Bonds then and put them...

Stock Market
You Need Stocks, Not Bonds, To Rebuild Your Nest Egg

Of Course Your Retirement Funds Are Dented?
Three years ago stocks were it! The Dow was at an all time high. It was all about E-trading, hanging out in on-line chat rooms,...

Investing
The Mutual Fund Industry: A Mountain of Abuses

If you thought the investment research scandal during the tech bubble was the only corrupt corner of Wall Street, think again. Either through investment plans at work or through funds purchased...

Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs
Working From Home

When I started my investment firm, Gramercy Capital Management Corp. in 1986 the thought of working at home was not something I ever considered.   In the 20 years I had worked on Wall...

Reinvent Yourself
Nose Above Water and Not About to Drown

This horoscope appeared in the paper the very week my life was upended in April 2009:

Wednesday, April 15th 2009: Life is full of situations that support or challenge you...

Reinvent Yourself
You Can Reinvent Yourself

Case 1: The Lawyer

Flashback to 1969, It’s early in my career as a media and entertainment analyst. The Times Mirror Company had recently gone public and I had decided...

Stay Fit

Do You Want to Lose Fat or Lose Weight?

You call it: Heads or tails? Do you want to lose fat or weight? Should you focus your thoughts on losing pounds or losing fat?

What happens when you lose pounds? When you lose weight, you...

America is Suffering from Financial PTSD

When Barack Obama was running for President, he promised change and the end of back room deals. He won in a landslide. Now more than a year since he took office,...

Health is Your Most Valuable Investment

Money is important, but your health is by far your most valuable asset. The benefits of exercise are obvious and well known. If you don’t maintain your body and your health you’ll be...