Five Portfolio “Housekeeping” Ideas

RONALD S. PHILLIPS Author of two books, teacher & trusted columnist

(and get emotionally attached to an investment) the market can take increases away very quickly.

It may not be Spring Cleaning time yet but the New Year is a great occasion to maintain and cleanup your portfolio. There’re many ways to do this.

1. SELL YOUR GAINS

Yes, it’s been a tough past year but you could have gains from things like oil, commodities, or even individual stocks. It’s important to sell these gains to rebalance your money *and* keep gains from evaporating. If you don’t sell gains

As a general rule, if your investment has gone up 10 percent or more, I say sell the gain. For example, you put $10,000 into ABC Oil fund. It’s now $12,300. Sell the $2,300 and decide if you should keep the original investment. Either way, you’ve taken your gains “off of the table.”

2. LOOK AT LOSSES (OR LOSERS)

I don’t say “losers” in a mean way. But the reality is that not all investments pan out. We have to clean those positions up. It’s like clearing-out your gutters. After years of build-up (hopefully not again after you read this article) things get messy. Look with fresh eyes at all of those investment positions. Sell the weaker positions and consider adding to the bargains or other positive opportunities.

Some will need to be sold because the environment changed and the idea just won’t work out too soon. For ex-

Treasury bond fund but then Fed rates moved up pretty aggressively. Poof! There goes that idea. We have to sell, move on, and reposition to something that's better.

3. ASSESS YOUR STRATEGY AND ALLOCATION

Are you supposed to be in a 60/40 (bonds/growth) portfolio and now you’re in a 65/35 portfolio instead, due to price changes? Is your allocation still right for your age, your risk attitude, and your goals?

Do you have a portfolio income strategy? What’s the gross yield on your total portfolio, including bank money, insurance, real estate, and paper

The investing landscape is constantly changing. Are you ready for rates to come back down? Are your bonds (in maturity)? Are they short enough? Are you ready for a bear market? Have you adjusted your value-to-growth mix? And your international and real-asset exposure?

4. ARE YOU POSITIONED FOR your favorite bond fund. Do you have the cash to buy more? Or the bear market produced some extreme bargains in quality assets—have you found any?

Hopefully your portfolio is producing very high income (if not, go back to idea #3). This income can either be automatically reinvested, in many cases, or go to your cash fund attached to most investment accounts. I like income to go to cash. Now you can look around for those bargains and opportunities with a growing money pile.

5. SIT DOWN WITH YOUR ADVISOR

All of these questions, ideas, and possible moves are things to consider *with* your investment advisor. Of course, tax time is coming up, too, and there may be several tax angles to figure out with your tax pro. Put that next on your list.

Please take all of these professional opinions with a grain of salt and check-in with your respective experts. Happy and Prosperous New Year and happy opportunity hunting.

Rescuing Treasures Of Darkness

Rescuing

Treasures Of Darkness

Broken Promises - Renewed Hope - New Beginnings

Broken Promises - Renewed Hope - New Beginnings

You will find spell binding testimonies of prisoners’ broken lives and behind-bars encounters with the living Christ. Renew your own faith by reading these amazing stories of prisoners’ transformed by the touch of Christ through caring volunteers.

You will find spell binding testimonies of prisoners’ broken lives and behind- bars encounters with the living Christ. Renew your own faith by reading these amazing stories of prisoners’ transformed by the touch of Christ through caring volunteers.

Find out how you can make an eternal difference in the life of an incarcerated man or woman across the country or on other shores.

Find out how you can make an eternal difference in the life of an incarcerated man or woman across the country or on other sh ores.

Jan McLaughlin’s book will touch your heart and motivate you to reach out to the lost and broken men and women. God is inviting you to pray for them. Perhaps He is inviting you to help Rescue Treasures of Darkness!

Proceeds help fund Prayer For Prisoners Int’l, a non-profit ministry based on the power of prayer which was founded in 1987 by Jan. McLaughlin

This article is for illustrative purposes only. Ron is not recommending any investment security for you but just trying to educate the community. INVESTMENTS CAN AND DO DROP IN VALUE; THEY HAVE NO BANK OR OTHER GUARANTEE. He is licensed and regulated by the great State of Colorado.

Jan McLaughlin’s book will touch your heart and motivate you to reach out to the lost and broken men and women. God is inviting you to pray for them. Perhaps He is inviting you to help Rescue Treasures of Darkness!

Proceeds help fund Prayer For Prisoners Int’l, a non- profit ministry based on the power of prayer which was founded in 1987 by Jan. McLaughlin

$10.00 plus shipping.

719-275-6971 or Jansmail@ reagan.com Or by mail: PFPI - P.O. Box 1574 - Cañon City, CO 81215-1574

$10.00 plus shipping 719-275-6971 or Jansmail@reagan.com

Or by mail: PFPI - P.O. Box 1574 - Cañon C ity, CO 81215-1574

Checks payable to PFPI or Prayer For Prisoners International

Checks payable to PFPI or Prayer For Prisoners International

The New Year is also a good time to scout-out opportunities. For example, some individual stocks may still have solid growth prospects but the horrendous market of last year “oversold” that stock price. Is this the time to buy? Or maybe those rising rates clobbered

LIGHT FOR THE JOURNEY

A Great Gift for any Occasion

You will laugh and cry as you walk with Jan through memories that point to an incredible God who orders our

Ron Phillips is The Investment INCOME Advisor, a Pueblo, CO native, and an independent business owner. Order a free copy of his book Investing To Win by leaving a message at (719) 220-3005. Visit RetireIQ.com or email RonPhillipsAdvisor@gmail.com

Observations From The Cave

JAMES R. GRASSO

Former Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

first loves, slips of the tongues, great business moves, no more!! I'm going to make today the focus of my life; and also the near future. We all know that we are going to pass away, but thinking about the past is counter-productive. It ruins the present if you are thinking about past mistakes, conquest, etc. It gets in the way. From now on "Living in the moment" is my motto. What do you think?

life. I don't care which week you use to calm your conscience. There is no more life. It is gone, period.

Here we go!

Another year is upon us. Wow, 2023. Who da thunk it? Thought it or not, here we are. What makes one year different from the rest?

The older you get the more we think about the past. I'm guilty of it. It's almost an obsession. I've never in my life made a New Year's Resolution but I'm going out on that crazy custom this one time. I'm going to try not to think about my personal past. What happened in your upbringing,

Abortion blows my mind and makes me sad. Ms. Jane Roe, the lady the cause was named after, realized later in life that she made a mistake championing the cause. I'm told, "Well, it empowers the woman." Does that same woman feel empowered if she robs a bank, burns her child with a cigarette, takes heroin? All those things are under her control but against the law. So, a woman becomes empowered by breaking the law. Come on. Take a deep look at yourselves. I'm told women are better at living in the moment, so maybe breaking the law can be easily forgotten. That explains so much, but you have to know that having the starring role in an abortion isn't easily forgotten. I have spoken to a few women who had abortions, and they are heartbroken by their decisions. Now that's not a majority of the women who have had abortions, not by any stretch of the imagination, but a feeling human being knows that a fetus is a tiny human being wee one! It isn't a snake, kangaroo or any other animal. It's a human being. If you have an abortion you are snuffing out a human

I'll never forget when everybody's beloved President BHO was asked a question about what should be done about a "fetus" that survives an abortion. His answer was to have a nurse put the baby in an adjacent room and let nature take its course so to speak (cry itself to death, I guess). That horrifying answer was met with crickets. Just like his answer when a lady from the audience asked him: "My mother is 99 and she could have an operation that would extend her life another 10 years if Medicare would pay for it. What should Medicare do." I guess he wanted to save money for the program but his answer was, and I'm paraphrasing here, "I'm sorry and give her an aspirin." That was also met with crickets by the Literare!

I'm prattling on here and a bit out of my depth with the numbers but the answers were spot on! My point is Pueblo will now play host to oodles of abortions and I suppose will profit by the largess of the patients, doctors, motels, eateries, etc. that comes with it. So, it sure looks like a money grab for destroying fetuses (innocent babies). I'm sorry, this is really wrong.

How did the voters of this state get to this point? Have the babies on the government's dime and immediately put them up for adoption. I'm thinking that childless couples would be lining up for these children. There are many thousands of adoptions of babies or younger kids made by Americans who want them. They go overseas to get kids and they pay a pretty penny for them.

I'm sorry Colorado and Pueblo in particular, but abortion is just wrong. These are my opinions everyone. Not Senior Beacon. Don't send me hate mail or use social media to degrade me. It's just an opinion by an old man sitting on the front porch yelling, "Don't make Pueblo known as the abortion capital of the world."

Finally, you want a way to make heaven. See what Jesus told St. Faustina for us to do so. I'll send you a pamphlet named Divine Mercy Novena and Chaplet and you're on your way. Send your request for your free pamphlet to SRbeacon@gmail.com. Join the folks who have already gotten their free copies. Just send your name and address and the pamphlet is yours. No other questions asked. Simple. I would urge you to Google St. Faustina and her life's story and how Jesus chose her to get the word out. It is an incredible story about His visits to her and how the messages were smuggled out of Nazi Poland at the beginning of WWII. Godspeed to you and yours!

Remember: contact me at SRbeacon@ gmail.com for that great Chaplet prayer directly from Christ to Maria Faustina Kowalska at the beginning of Nazi invasion of Poland....... it's wonderful folks. Contact me and I'll send the pamphlet, no charge. It's a game changer!

Menu substitutions may occur without notice. Clients are advised to keep a 3-day supply of non-perishable foods and bottled water in their home in the event of inclement weather or other emergencies that may cause a temporary suspension of service.

Menu substitutions may occur without notice. Clients are advised to keep a 3-day supply of non-perishable foods and bottled water in the event ofinclement weather or other emergencies that may cause a temporary suspension of service.

MENUS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

December 2022

Please remember SRDA in your planned giving. Your legacy lives on, our mission continues at Meals on Wheels.

In order to prevent waste, we are on a Reservation System . To Cancel your meal for the day, Please call the day before or the morning of, before 9:00 A.M. YOU MUST BE HOME TO RECEIVE YOUR MEAL!!! 719-543-0100

For Important Nutrition Information, Please Turn Menu Over

Please remember SRDA in your planned giving. Your legacy lives on, our mission continues at Meals on Wheels.

* In order to prevent waste, we are on a Reservation System.

* Please call the day before or the morning of, before 9:00 A.M, to CANCEL your Meal * IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Numbers in parentheses next to each meal item indicate the number of carbohydrates in grams for that item.

* YOU MUST BE HOME TO RECEIVE YOUR MEAL!!!

Consumers attending the congregate meal sites shall be advised and informed to keep a three-day supply of non-perishable foods and bottled water in case of inclement weather or other emergency that causes a temporary suspension of services. If feasible and determined by the Area Agency on Aging in their area plan, emergency meal packages may be provided.