Resolve to Invest Wisely in 2009

/PRNewswire/ -- As the struggling economy heads into the New Year, investors continue to be unsure of what their financial future may hold. Despite the stock market's tumultuous rise and fall, there remain basic investment truths for making sound investment resolutions no matter what 2009 has in store.

New Year's Investment Resolutions

1. Make sure your investment advisor does not have disbursement authority or other access to your funds beyond trading or fee deduction.

2. Find out exactly how your investment professional is paid; insist on a percent-of-assets fee or a flat fee arrangement only.

3. Don't look at your statements or holdings more than once a month; investing is a long-term game. Find a professional and a long-term strategy you're comfortable with and let time work its magic.

4. Ensure your investment professional holds the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation -- the worldwide gold-standard for investment analysis and investment portfolio management.

5. Review your portfolio for high-load funds or other expensive investment products; there is usually very little reason to hold high-load investment products. They are almost never in your best interest.

6. Insist on annualized performance results prepared in accordance with GIPS (Global Investment Performance Standards). If your investment professional can't provide annualized percent returns for your portfolio(s), net of fees, you won't know how you're doing.

7. Don't allow the negative psychology of the current market to trick you into selling your stocks at exactly the wrong time. Current valuations may represent the greatest buying opportunity in a long time, although risks clearly remain.

8. Have faith in the U.S. economy. The world is not ending and the country is not going to collapse. We will recover.

9. Recall that you must outpace inflation in the long-run. Stocks are the single best investment vehicle for potentially beating inflation over long periods of time.

10. Assess your spending and saving habits. Eliminate and trim spending where feasible. Spend less on unnecessary items. And always ask yourself if the purchase you are about to make is necessary or impulse.

Eads & Heald Investment Counsel has a 21-year history of managing customized investment portfolios through periods of economic euphoria and despair. See http://www.eadsheald.com/ .

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