TV interview talking about the Fed's decision to raise interest rates. (Time to watch - 3:22)

(to view the 3:22 video, click the image or link below)

Yesterday Ben VerWys, Action Point CEO & Senior Financial Advisor stopped by the studio to chat with anchor Brian Sterling about the Federal Reserve's decision to raise the interest rate by a quarter percent.  The important takeaways of note are:

1) Borrower costs will rise.  Many of the major banks have already announced increases to their prime lending rates.

2) Investors need to take a hard look at their investment portfolios, including 401(k)s and IRAs to determine what the impact of the Fed's announcement may be.  As Ben mentions in the video, it is important to recognize that the impact of this isolated rate increase may be minimal today, however poorly positioned portfolios may be impacted for years to come as the Federal Reserve pursues their long term agenda. 

If you have questions about how the interest rate increase may affect you or whether your investments are well positioned going forward, please CONTACT US today.

Original video link: http://woodtv.com/2015/12/16/fed-hikes-rates-for-first-time-in-7-years/

Every Day is Veteran's Day

Each year, on November 11th, I attend a Veteran's Day assembly at my daughter's school that honors veterans of all generations. It's a point of pride for the kids to be connected with a relative or family friend that participates in the assembly so I make it a point each year to attend. And honestly, the feeling that I get when I can see that my daughter is truly proud of me is not something I want to miss.

Action Point is a veteran owned business and I've often thought that we have unique advantages and perspective because of this. It's interesting though because the hiring world seems to be very polarized when it comes to hiring veterans. I personally can credit much of my career success thus far to the opportunities that were opened up to me because of my military service. However for every one of me, I can find an article or research evidence that shows when push comes to shove, many companies do not look to ex-military members for high level expertise.

We are proud to be veteran owned and our desire would be that our clients and potential clients are more inclined to hire us because of this than less.  Being former military in no way undermines our ability to provide helpful financial planning techniques or hinders our ability to identify compelling investment opportunities.

Here's a quote for you to ponder:  

"Heroism in battle is first and foremost the acceptance of fear and the decision to act appropriately in spite of it."

At first read, that may seem like it's talking about former war heroes or veterans and it certainly is applicable in a military way.  However you may be surprised to learn that is a direct quote from financial educator Nick Murray, addressing the task at hand for my firm; to help people navigate to and achieve financial success. As CEO of Action Point, I became a Financial Advisor to help people like you become a hero to yourself and your family. Together, we can help each other be heroes, starting by getting laser focused on achieving your long-term financial success.  To have a conversation about, contact me via our Contact Us page.  And remember, veterans are veterans every day.

Lastly, for my military friends, check out The Veteran Mafia, a great perspective post from Patriot Boot Camp addressing why each of us veterans has a unique opportunity post service.

Warm regards,

Ben VerWys - Senior Financial Advisor

Action Point Co-Founder and Advisor admitted to prestigious national registry of Financial Advisors

When you hear us talk about truly putting our client's best interests first and advising clients the right way, we want you to know it's not just cheap talk.  Aside from believing in completely transparent relationships, aside from being anti-commissions, aside from dropping the licenses that allow us to charge commissions, one of Action Point's Founding Partners and Senior Financial Advisor, Ben VerWys has been admitted to the Paladin Registry.  According to Jack Waymire, Founder of The Paladin Registry and author of Who's Watching Your Money?, Paladin, is "the only online service that vets and rates the quality of financial planners and advisors. We ask the right questions so investors don't have to. And we know the critical differences between good answers (benefit investors) and bad ones (damage investors)."

Paladin uses an objective research process to determine who is profiled in the Registry. Advisors must be willing to practice full transparency. They cannot withhold information that may cause investors to reject them. Next, they must complete Paladin’s rigorous due diligence process that focuses on their expertise and ethics. And lastly, they must also score in the 90th percentile or higher when Paladin’s proprietary algorithm rates the quality of their credentials, ethics, business practices, and services.

A (picture) Post That Proves Capitalism Is Alive & Well

A couple years ago Grand Rapids, Michigan was named "Beer City USA."  With numerous mid-major distributors in/nearby including Founder's, Perrin, Brewery Vivant, New Holland, and Bell's, the nickname is well deserved.  

This photo was taken on a regular Thursday evening in a part of town away from where most of the nightlife is. 

In case you weren't sure, what you are seeing is a converted (old) miniature school bus painted white and modified to accommodate 10-12 brewery hopping patrons at a time.  The yellow box in the below image highlights the somewhat difficult to see rental rate for this transportation... $800/day. 

So here's the point.  This is not the first time I have seen this "Runner" around. Not only is this a decent sign that that economy is alive and well, that regular bar patrons can afford $800 to hire this for their Thursday night out, but it is one of many proof positives that we all see every day that Capitalism is alive and well. 

Why do we care about that at Action Point and why do we want you to care?

For those of you who don't know what we do, one of our primary jobs is to prudently manage investments for our clients and ourselves.  To do this well requires a good understanding of economics and what makes a successful company (i.e. investment for us).  Capitalism is rooted in ideas like innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit.  Those are definitely qualities that the proprietor of "Beer City Runner" can claim.  On a larger scale, we continually seek to find and make investments in management teams, companies, and Money Managers that we believe, given time, will prove that their creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit will be the most important thing to consider when making an investment.  Over time, these qualities are far more important than government policy, warring nations, or other things that keep people from investing.  

We believe in Capitalism and invest accordingly.  We know there will be ups and downs along the way as policy gets discussed or new scary news comes out but in the long run, we'll side with the capitalists and entrepreneurs every time.

If you would like to discuss your investments, email us to schedule a brief phone consultation that is free to you and will take less than 5 minutes of your time. 

P.s. To give you an idea of how good of capitalists the "Beer City Runner" team is, here's how much it costs to get into the game:

It's The Little Things...

Research shows that the happiest people take the time to appreciate the little things in life.

Stop and think about what your future will look like… if you work harder, save more, take more investment risk, defer other lifestyle goals, there’s no doubt you’ll have a more comfortable future.

But at what cost to you?  To your family?

We would like to suggest an alternative . . .

This alternative offers enough (but not too much) comfort and confidence in the future that you can still enjoy a great life today. And every day along your journey. You see it’s not uncommon for us to be introduced to someone – maybe like you – that has their head down working hard every day, and when they look up, it’s only to make sure they’re still headed toward their vision of retirement, even if it’s still years away.

We believe an alternative approach is to take an exploratory perspective of your life with the goal of finding your personal balance between being prepared for an uncertain future and living your best life every day along the way. This approach allows you to make the most of each day. You can still work hard, but with the knowledge of what more work and savings will practically mean for you in terms of being able to take less investment risk or be able to retire sooner.

Oh, and just so we’re clear, this isn’t a “set and forget” solution.  You’ll need to continuously review your plan, make adjustments, and accommodate new information as you get it.

This can provide the opportunity to establish other balance within your life as well. Balance between work and personal time. Balance between saving and spending. Balance between investment risk and a good night’s sleep.

We believe that prudent retirement planning today will give you more time to stop and smell the roses and maybe enjoy some of the other little things life has to offer.

Want to begin your prudent retirement planning today?  Send us an e-mail toconnect@apfpteam.com and let’s have a real conversation about the little things you’d like to make more time for.