How is Your Year Going? MMM 12-13-2010

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HOW’S YOUR YEAR SHAPING UP?

Monday Morning Message, December 13, 2010

After thirty plus years with Merrill Lynch, I am used to discussions that talk about performance on all kinds of time periods.  We even had a measurement that looked at your “minimum daily goal” and if you exceeded it by a certain percentage, you were supposed to go home or go to the golf course as a reward.  After the debacle of 2008, and the horrors that clients face today, there are fewer advisors who look for the chance to sneak out to play golf.  The recovery in the stock market and especially the rally of this year has surprised almost every advisor.  It surely has shocked a lot of clients because never in my memory have I seen so many clients with so much of their capital out of the market and in cash reserves. 

Somewhere however, it is clear that not all clients are so conservative.  Recent statistics reveal that speculation on stocks and securities is close to a historic high based on the amount of borrowed money or margin accounts as they are more traditionally called.  In other words, clients have borrowed $300 billion to buy or hold stocks and bonds.  Perhaps investors are doubling their bets to make up for the returns they lost in the last ten years?  Perhaps this is their way of re-building their savings so they can retire as planned rather than working into their seventies.   That foolishness will also express itself in future policy problems for retirement pensions and healthcare for seniors who end up working into their seventies and perhaps even longer.  If we didn’t learn the importance of too much leverage in our homes, do you suppose we will learn the same thing with our other nest eggs?

Another example of how difficult things are for many in our society is the declining donations not being made to churches and charities.  This problem includes churches that have had to revise their budgets; missionaries who have been called home for lack of support; food and medicines that cannot be purchased to help those in need at free clinics and mission agencies; and of course the food banks and mercy distribution centers providing coats and blankets.  Other ministries such as Crown, FCA, and Youth for Christ, Young Life, and many others are trying to make ends meet after a year of hope that things would change.  My solution, look back at all God has provided for you this year and see if you can double what you have already given before year end!  Chances are, you have had a better year than they have and this is a great time for you to step up and help!  God Bless you as you consider how you can be even more generous than ever! 

Luke 12:15 (RSV) “And he said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 

Don't forget to order copies of Kingdom Gains for your Christmas gifts to all of your family and friends who have an interest in investing: www.kingdomgains.com 

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