SWS gets pointers on smart investing

Finance Smart Woman Securities | Oct 15, 2013 | Nicole Gesualdo

by Christianna Wymbs (GSB ’16)

If you came to the October 2 Smart Woman Securities seminar, you learned how to discover your net worth. Now, how do you increase it at a more rapid pace?

Last week, SWS invited Llnon Slossberg, a private wealth advisor at Ameriprise, to offer some guidance in a talk titled “Finding and Researching Investment Ideas.”

The stock market is like a heart, Slossberg said: It expands and contracts. Studying these movements can help to form an investing strategy. When considering which stocks to purchase, Slossberg reminded her audience, take personal emotions out of trading and follow the trends and research.

One method she uses with her clients is Modern Portfolio Theory, which was created by Harry Markowitz and received a Nobel Prize. This technique maximizes portfolio expected return for the set amount of risk an individual is willing to take by carefully selecting proportions of various assets. This promotes the idea that assets should not be individually selected. Instead, it is important to consider how each asset changes relative to the other assets in the portfolio. Modern Portfolio Theory allows individuals to diversify their investments, which inevitably reduces risk.

As a private wealth advisor, Slossberg said she never tells her clients how to spend their money. Rather, she highlights the opportunity cost of different purchasing decisions. For example, instead of buying a pair of Christian Louboutin heels, a customer could invest the same $1,000 for greater return in a 401k or a Roth IRA retirement account.

Advice from Slossberg:

• Live within your means by never spending more than you have.
• When you get your first job, put as much money as you can into your 401k account, at least 10 percent of your salary.
• Start adding money to a Roth IRA account as soon as possible.
• Create a budget for yourself.
• Always have at least three months of your salary in a savings account for emergencies.
• Consider both disability insurance and life insurance, which are extremely important protection plans.
• Invest as aggressively as possible while you’re young.

Interested in what Smart Woman Securities members are learning? The next SWS seminar will be held tomorrow, October 16, at 7:30 p.m.