FOUR PILLARS OF INVESTING
Cash: Every family needs cash on hand for immediate and emergency needs. The amount in this pillar is dependent on each individual situation. The main purpose of this pillar is to have cash readily available when you need it, with a secondary focus on rate of return.
Foundation: As every home needs a solid foundation to weather the storms, every portfolio needs a good foundation as well. Foundation investments are longer-term holdings designed to build over the course of your lifetime, with less concern about short-term market movements. These often make up the bulk of your retirement savings.
Opportunity: As economies and markets move and react to world conditions, opportunities to take advantage of these movements are constantly presenting themselves. This pillar is where we take advantage of those shorter-term opportunities. This pillar is not limited to any specific area as most investments have the potential at one time or another to fall into this group. Opportunity investments may include any reasonable holding so long as there is a short-term potential for higher-than-normal profits.
Alternatives: I feel it is important to own investments that are not correlated to the traditional stock and bond markets. Alternatives are investments that move in their own cycles and therefore can have a stabilizing effect on the rest of the portfolio. Alternatives may be designed also to help protect against specific risks, such as inflation or currency movements. Alternatives are individualized to each investor’s situation. Investing in alternative investments may not be suitable for all investors and involves special risks such as risk associated with leveraging the investment, potential adverse market forces, regulatory changes, and potential illiquidity. There is no assurance that the investment objective will be attained.