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Sunday, March 11, 2018

Investment Strategy: Diversify, Diversify, Diversify!


A recent article in The Wall Street Journal, featured an investment profile of Sallie Krawcheck, Chief Executive and co-founder of Ellevest, a digital financial investment firm for women.  She was also Citigroup’s chief financial officer and also lead Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. 

She characterized the purchase of a house on the East end as her best investment and the purchase of the bank stock of the firm she worked for as her worst investment.  The home she bought in 2004 in Quogue, with money from stock at Citigroup, is almost double the value today.  The Bank of America stock she bought in 2009 and sold in 2011, returned her only half the value. 

“ ‘The real takeaway, of course is diversity, diversity, diversity,’ she says. ‘I diversified away from Citigroup stock and into real estate.’  Her portfolio at the time was not nearly as diversified as it should have been, she says. Her financial adviser at the time said she could survive a hit to her Citi stock, but so much of her other assets were tied up in equities, too, leaving her far too exposed.”* Diversity is an investment strategy we should all be mindful of, especially in recent weeks with the volatility of the stock market.

The other important investment strategy is timing and “timing is everything!”.  A wise saying, attributed to William Shakespeare, coined in 1599, in his play Julius Caesar.  Buying and selling investments profitably, is a function of timing but none of us have crystal balls to tell when it’s optimum to buy or sell a particular investment. All the more reason to diversify to balance the mix of investments to protect from extreme losses in any one investment category.

If you have most of your investments in the stock market, perhaps it’s time to diversify into real estate?  Perhaps it’s time to explore and diversify?  We can help you with the real estate side of your exploration, just call us!  At Beninati Associates, we’re looking out for you!  Our office is conveniently located at the corner of Main Road and Hortons Lane in Southold; telephone to         631 765 5333; email to marie@beninatiassociates.com.  Talk to you soon!!!


*Source: The Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2018, A House Was Better Than Her BofA Stock, page R8.

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