Ulivi Wealth Management

I will explain why inflation is bad with the following analogy: Inflation causes prices to go up an elevator while salaries and pensions go up the stairs.  The longer the inflationary period, the greater the gap between prices and salaries.  In other words, the longer inflation stays around, the poorer most of us become. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems these days you can’t trust anyone anymore.  One of the foundations of finance is trust, so if we can’t trust our business associates and relationships, we are in deep trouble. Am I exaggerating?  Here are a few examples to illustrate why it has become so difficult, if not outright impossible, to trust anyone these days.

For months, the chairman of GE continued to insist the company was sound and would not cut its dividend.  Last week, they cut their dividend.  Is Mr. Immelt a liar or a con man? Read the rest of this entry »

Professor Ricardo Ulivi, Ph.D.

It is not often that we Americans have the opportunity to examine the financial experiences of less developed countries and attempt to learn from them.  Usually they learn—or should learn—from us, but now may be the time to humble ourselves and see if we might benefit from their experiences.
There are a great many parallels between Argentina’s economic depression from 1999 through 2001 and the current situation we are facing in the United States.  Argentina overcame its depression starting in 2002 but it left enormous financial wounds and dramatic losses.  However, some investors had foresight and took certain actions which led them to make money—and lots of it– while others saw their savings and investments dwindle.  I believe we can learn from their examples, the good and the bad ones, and apply the lessons from Argentina so that we can place ourselves among the winners, when we get out of the current mess we are in. Read the rest of this entry »

Research indicates that investment performance is largely determined by asset class allocation; that is, your rate of return will be greatly affected by how you diversify your investments among cash, fixed income, equities, real estate, and newer classes such as inflation linked, absolute returns and private equity.  However, last year, all asset classes with the exception of government bonds got smashed.  So much for research and the value of diversification!

What about timing?  Being in the right place at the right time, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time can surely affect the performance of your investments.  Keep in mind that with investing, as with comedy, timing is everything. So, is this the right time to start investing? Read the rest of this entry »

If the value of the dollar continues to drop, which is most likely, interest rates will need to rise or the dollar will continue to fall even further.  For example, this week the U.S. currency had its biggest weekly decline since May versus the euro, falling 1.9 percent. It dropped 2.5 percent drop versus the yen this week too, its fifth weekly decline in the longest losing streak since December

What are the consequences if the dollar continues to drop in relation to other currencies?  Those of us who are paid in dollars and have our assets in dollars will become poorer relative to our international counterparts.  Also, the price of imported products will increase, and because we import so much, we can expect to see higher inflation rates, which will make us poorer yet. Read the rest of this entry »