The Portfolio Doctors

"It is not true that I had nothing on, I had the radio on." - Marilyn Monroe

"It's so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio." - Bono

Today is a very special day in the life of Steve Bick in that today is the day that my radio show, The Portfolio Doctors, airs for the very first time.  Together with a good friend and trusted advisor, Dan Osgood, our show will air weekly on Friday on ESPN 1700 radio at 2pm.  Now the reason I am telling you this is not only to broadcast the new show but because I could not help myself, I had to tell the world to wake up!

In my wanderings and dealings with people across the globe there is a common complacency regarding retirement and investments.  In general investing is seen as a gamble, a crap shoot or a number of other derogatory words, so you may as well just lump your hard earned money in with everyone else and earn what everyone else is earning.  This is short sighted and irresponsible for the simple reason that protecting and ensuring your financial future is your responsibility and ignoring this fact is to jeopardize your well being in your retirement years.

If you truly think that anyone will take the care required to nurture your retirement portfolio as well as you think again.  Your inflation rate is different from everyone else, your goals are different from everyone else, your risk tolerance is different from everyone else, yet in the main you invest in the same portfolios as everyone else.  Why?  For the simple reason that it is easy and convenient and you do not have to take responsibility for any losses.  If it goes down, well so did everyone else.  This is a cop out and will not serve you well going forward because the markets are setting you up for failure.  Interest rates are at historic lows and the market is at historic highs all on the back of a weak economy.  Blindly allocating money to a basket of stocks and bonds will not provide you the retirement that you need.

It is time to take the bull by the horns and face the reality that you need to become highly skilled and educated in managing your investment portfolio.  Now I am not saying that you need to become a skilled trader, but you do need to start studying your options outside of the norm and understand how the macro economic environment will affect your portfolio.  Beyond that, you need to know where to look to find safety and how to protect your fragile basket of investments and turn them into an anti-fragile basket of investments.  This is the aim of the show, to educate you and to show you a path to success or at worst to help your sidestep some common mistakes enabling you to proper and retire not only in comfort but in the knowledge that you have the understanding and ability to weather the storms ahead.

I encourage you not only to listen to the show but to let your friends and family know about the show as it may benefit them as well.  For those of your that work during those hours we will be posting a podcast on our website at www.theportfoliodoctors.com weekly.  Finally if any of you would like to advertise or be on the show to share your experiences and wisdom let me know and we can discuss how you can get involved.  Let's spread the word and make sure that our future is prosperous.