Never Going Back
I read your article [Will You Buy An Apple?] in the
April Financial Advisor about using Mac‚s for financial planning and
felt compelled to write you.
After a serious bout and ultimate crash with my
Windows computer, I purchased the brand new G5 from Apple. This was
back in October.
Granted, I was skeptical at first, and I haven‚t
started practicing yet, but so far, all the Web sites I‚ve used have
been user-friendly to the Mac.
Please note, I get virtually no pop-ups, and no
virus alerts, etc. To make matters even better, I think this Mac is
much faster than any Windows machine on the market. And finally, the
support people have been very helpful, knowledgeable and pleasant to
work with. You don‚t feel you‚re bothering them.
I would never go back.
Lynn Bartlett
Bartlett Financial Services Inc.
Davie, Fla.
Amen To Apple Computers
I read your article in the April issue [Will You Buy
An Apple?]. What you may have experienced yourself or have heard from
other Mac users is that there is something about the machine and its
environment you can‚t quite explain. I‚m in no way a computer geek, and
doing the same stuff on a Windows machine that I do on a Mac was always
miserable. It goes far beyond the stability of the operating system and
the lack of viruses, spyware, etc. Everything just works. Everything is
easy. And its done in a, dare I say, elegant manner. It may have to do
with the open source programming or the fact that Apple controls the
customer experience by making all the hardware and some of the software
(kind of like how we as planners, who are concerned about client
experience, control the environment our clients interact with us in),
but for me it has made switching great despite the occasional hassle
from a Windows-controlled world and industry.
A few notes: One client relationship management tool
I like, made just for Macs, is Daylite from Marketcircle. I can use one
of our desktops as a server and don‚t need to own all this
networking/server equipment I see others deal with. It‚s all connected
in-office with wireless cards. I use MoneyGuidePro like you had
mentioned, and it works flawlessly with a Mac. Since Pages (the word
processing program) and Keynote (presentation software) have come out
from Apple, I have used both almost exclusively instead of Word or
Powerpoint; Keynote, especially, is far superior, in my opinion. Pages
is, too, except for the inability to mail merge yet. Built in PDF
printing is great too.
Virtual PC certainly does help, but I mostly use it
for the occasional Web site that only works in IE6 on Windows. It is a
little slower than a dedicated Windows machine, but does the job for
what I need it for.
I even use iTunes in conjunction with an Airport
Express station to stream music from our computers to speakers in the
lobby area to play music. I could go on and on, but you are right about
it being a great tool for marketing. With the built-in, free iLife
software, someone could quite easily, with no training, make lots of
neat promotional items.
Keep up the great work of covering the
Internet-based apps and pushing for greater Internet compatibility with
Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.
Nathan Sorum, President,
Sorum Financial Services Inc.
Lebanon, Ohio
Flexibility Matters Most
While I enjoyed reading Jeff Schlegel‚s piece [Time
& Money, March 2005], and generally agree with the targets
outlined, a few other assumptions should weigh into this mix, I believe.
First of all, I totally believe in earned income
after retirement and think we will see more people with nonaggressive
forms of W-2 wages, and these will offset the need for straight-line
withdrawals, particularly in the early years of retirement. My father,
with an M.B.A. from Northwestern University, is into his fifth year of
substitute teaching in Sedona, Ariz., roughly two days a week. I
believe that a certain amount of work is just good mental and physical
discipline, and more seniors are recognizing that.
Second, it‚s important to categorize assets, as the
number of tools given to us by Congress has increased and is likely
to continue to increase, given a Republican majority. Given a mix
of nonqualified mutual funds, nonqualified annuities, IRAs and Roth
IRAs, there may be reasons to consider withdrawals from some and not
others. Is there good reason to take money from Roth IRAs or
nonqualified annuities outside of need? Conversely, is there reason to
take money from IRAs and 401(k)s ahead of required minimum
distributions, and if the senior is working, does it make sense to
re-invest in Roth accounts as long as that option is available?
Finally, are the general rates of expenditure likely
to remain consistent through retirement, outside of inflation? Is the
cruise at age 81 as much fun as it was at 66 (hopefully so, but not
always), and do we maintain the same activity level following the loss
of a spouse or a medical crisis?
All of us can design the upside-down charts that our
clients want to assure that the last dollar spent is paid to the
funeral home, provided our clients accurately project their own
mortalities. But those roads paved with the best intentions are
guaranteed to have some potholes along the way, as well as some new
destinations which weren‚t on the original map. The plan is important.
The flexibility to call an audible is more important yet.
Steve Dougan
Planned Member Securities
Holt, Mich.
A Broker Is A Broker
Of course it is confusing to investors when they try
to decide who will help them with investments. They know when they sell
or buy a house they use a real estate broker. They also use a broker
when they buy or sell a business, and they call their insurance broker
when coverage is needed. Why is it so difficult to call someone who
sells stocks, bonds or mutual funds a broker?
Someone who puts together a buyer and a seller and
earns a commission for doing so has always been known as a broker. Why
identify them by any other name?
Investment advisors, financial planners, financial
advisors and financial consultants do very different things, and are
trained and licensed to do so. They are all fiduciaries and are
responsible to their clients for acting in their clients‚ best
interests at all times. That goes well beyond recommending an
investment to hold, buy or sell.
Let‚s help the investor make an informed decision by telling the truth about who we are and what we do.
Milton G. Lefton, CFP
Asset Financial Services Inc.
Chicago, Ill.
Please send letters to editor Evan
Simonoff, Financial Advisor magazine, 600 Broad St., 2nd Floor,
Shrewsbury, NJ 07702, e-mail them to [email protected] or fax them
to (732) 450-8877.