Media

Getting Student Loans? Link Borrowing to Your Expected Earnings to Find the Right Amount

May 21, 2017 — “Before you borrow, you need to estimate how much you’ll make from your venture. Only then can you figure out if you can support the debt payments. When most people hear this about college, they say, “I have no idea how much I’ll make.” And therein lies the problem. You’ve got to figure it out.”

Good Company: Fred Taylor, President and Co-Founder, Northstar Investment Advisors

May 11, 2017 — “We have a very unique model in the sense that we don’t manage money to beat the market every quarter or every year. Instead, what we are trying to do is to create a cash flow.”

Should You Jump Into the Stock Market Now?

by April 2, 2017 — “If you’re trying to figure out the “right time” to get in or out of stocks, you’ll usually do yourself more harm than good. It’s essentially impossible to identify the major inflection points in markets.”

The Pros and Cons of Moving Closer to Your Children

April 13, 2017 — Dividends can be a wonderful source of income in retirement. But retired investors, in particular—who don’t have a steady paycheck from a job—need a Plan B, says Charlie Farrell, chief executive officer of Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver. “The key is to really think through how you would react to a big stock-market decline and how you will ‘bridge’ that decline,” he says.

How Much House Can you afford and Still Retire?

March 5, 2017 — “Here’s the problem: Lenders don’t think about how much you need to save for retirement. They look at your income and immediate expenses. Thus, in their lending formulas, money that should go to retirement savings goes to cover a higher mortgage payment.”

Healthy Retirees Face Higher Medicare Costs Over Their Longer Lives

February 12, 2017 — Charlie Farrell, CEO of Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver, said Medicare does cost and needs to be planned for, but it is a manageable expense for most retirees. “To me, the real risks are the costs not covered by Medicare, and this all falls into the area of long-term care, or what you might otherwise consider the cost of assistance with aging,” he said.

Do You Have the Stomach for Stocks?

February 5, 2017 — “At a certain level, successful investing is largely a psychological game. Do you have the guts to watch your stocks decline by 50 percent and stick with them? Famed investors Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch have told investors to ask themselves that question. Yet most people don’t.”

How to Know If You’re Saving Enough for Retirement

January 18, 2017 — “Mr. Farrell wrote a paper back in 2006 that went into much more detail about how much savings (and debt) you should (and should not) have at various stages of your life. He’s also written a detailed book on the subject, called Your Money Ratios.”

Thought Leader: Fred Taylor’s making sense of money matters

January 6, 2017 — I would say nine out of 10 investment advisors today are managers of managers,” Taylor said. “They don’t manage stocks individually; they outsource the money management to other managers. That’s expensive for the client. In our case, I think our competitors’ clients are paying 30 to 50 percent more than what they would pay with us

Northstar Adds Cheryl McDonald as Business Manager

January 3, 2017 — Cheryl manages all aspects of vendor relations. She directs the visitor/client experience, assists with compliance administration, supports marketing and performs event planning. Cheryl also provides oversight for HR work and systems management.

Follow these simple steps to improve your personal finances in 2017

January 1, 2017 — “If you have a mortgage, it’s a good idea to have it paid off before you plan to retire. Figure out how much extra you’d need to pay each month to eliminate your mortgage by the time you plan to retire, and get going.”

How to Live Off Your Money in a Low-Return World

December 22, 2016 — “The reality is that in most years, stock returns are positive and can serve as a source of distributions for retired investors. The problem is you can’t predict which years will be positive and you also have to accept the risk that stocks can fall significantly at any time.”

Colorado Investment Advisors: “Let’s Not Overreact” to the Election

November 9, 2016 — Pollsters predicted a Hillary Clinton win and her defeat Tuesday sent the markets scrambling overnight. Fred Taylor dubbed the surprising presidential results a “Brexit 2.0” — the British vote to leave the European Union in June where polls predicted it would fail. “Nobody anticipated Trump winning — all the pollsters were wrong,” he said. “The one thing the market doesn’t like is uncertainty.”

What to Do About Corporate Taxes

October 25, 2016 — There has been plenty of discussion about how to address America’s burdensome corporate tax policy. Two potential options include taxing profits made overseas by U.S corporations and limiting the tax deduction on corporate bond interest to 65 percent.

Finance Industry: Bullish on Denver

July 26, 2016 — Taylor and three partners, tired of being at the whim of the big firms, started their own firm in 1996, Northstar Investment Advisors. They started a new way of doing business — charging a fee, rather than working on commissions. The firm also built a custom portfolio to help clients to live on stock dividends. “We took an old-fashioned approach and modernized it,” Taylor said.

Northstar President Fred Taylor Appointed to Two Boards

October 13, 2016 — Northstar President and Co-Founder Fred Taylor has been appointed to the Colorado State Land Board’s Public School Investment Fund Board and the board of directors for CollegeInvest, Colorado’s 529 college savings plan provider.

Brexit: Should Britain Stay in the EU – or Should it Go?

June 14, 2016 — “On the surface, the Brexit question is rather simple: maintain the status quo or go it alone. However, the ramifications of leaving the European Union are very complicated and could have long-lasting effects on the British pound and Britain’s economy going forward.”

Northstar Investment Advisors Expands Staff

July 14, 2016 — Northstar Investment Advisors has added Danette Penrod and John Riecke to it staff. Penrod has been appointed Client Services and Operations Manager and Riecke is serving as Operations Administrator.

Is What Happens on “Billions” Myth or Reality?

May 19, 2016 — “Shorting stocks is the single most-risky way to invest, simply because you don’t know what your downside risk is going to be. If you are long in a stock, it can only go to zero and you lose all of your original investment, but at least you know what that amount will be. If you sell a stock short and the stock continues to go up, there is no way to quantify your loss until you finally cover your short position.”

Why Investors Need the Sizzle and the Steak

June 1, 2016 — “If you are an investor, you pay attention to profits. Regardless of the GDP figures, if profits are shrinking, it’s not good news for investors, whose success is based on the profits generated by the companies they own. If they don’t generate profits, then the value of the business is eventually going to decline.”

Investors: How to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em

April 6, 2016 — “This decision is more art than science, but we will generally sell a company if we have determined that there is a high risk of a fundamental change to the economics of the business. This means we believe that the company’s profits, and thus capacity to pay and raise dividends, have been meaningfully diminished for an extended period of time.”

Negative interest rates: A risky new economic tool?

May 3, 2016 — “Negative interest rates discourage banks from hoarding cash and in theory, stimulate lending to businesses and households instead. They also push investors into riskier assets by making bonds a much less attractive option.“

Finding Stable Dividends in a Rough Market

March 10, 2016 — “Very few people can live off of 2%,” says Charles Farrell, chief executive officer at Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver. Most investors need the combination of price appreciation and dividends available in stocks “to make the numbers work in retirement,” he says.

Should Retirees Rent or Own?

March 27, 2016 — “The only time a home is a financial asset is when you’re trading down,” Mr. Farrell says. “Certainly thinking about taking the equity that’s been built in a primary home and buying something else you can own debt free and with low expenses is smart.”

Millennials – How will you be able to retire?

February 11, 2016 — Here’s the good news: if you start saving now, you will more than likely have more money in retirement than the generation right in front of you, Generation X, who are busy playing catch up with their retirement accounts after two brutal bear markets over the last 16 years.

Northstar included in AdvisoryHQ 2016 Rankings

February 25, 2016 — Northstar Investment Advisors LLC was recognized in AdvisoryHQ’s 2016 Ranking of the Top Wealth Advisors in Colorado. The firm was one of 12 included in the listing, which is designed to provide objective, comprehensive research to help the everyday consumer make informed financial decisions.

These Stocks Do Best in Rocky Markets

January 11, 2016 — “Investors get confused by just looking at current yield,” said Charles Farrell, CEO of Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver. “But income streams become less valuable unless they grow.”

Just how low can oil prices go?

February 4, 2016 — Could oil go as low as $20 a barrel? It certainly could, but commodities are a self-correcting mechanism. At some point in time, production gets cut to the bone, the oversupply gets used up, and prices stabilize.

Stocks Should Be a Big Part of Your Portfolio in 2016

December 11, 2015 — “The problem with the 60/40 model is that on 40% of your money, you really can’t build any real wealth. You have to consider inflation and then you have to take into account the taxes you have to pay on the interest you earn on those bonds. It becomes harder to get ahead,” says Charles Farrell, chief executive of Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver.

Chipotle, low oil prices drag down Colorado stocks in 2015

December 31, 2015 — “Most market indexes showed small losses for 2015, but this masked the brutal bear market in many stocks impacted by oil prices below $40 a barrel,” said Fred Taylor, president of Northstar Investment Advisors in Denver.

5 Rules for Financial Freedom

November 1, 2015 — The Rule: At retirement, you should have 10 to 12 times your final salary in savings. The Verdict: Thumbs Up Along with Social Security, this should be enough to generate 70 to 80 percent of preretirement income for most people, says Charlie Farrell, chief executive of Denver-based Northstar Investment Advisors.

Why Income and Patience Matter to Advisors – and Clients

December 1, 2015 — During the correction in late August, Taylor said, he got “very few phone calls” from uneasy clients. Part of that was because Northstar was proactive about reaching out to clients, he said, but “in 20 years, we’ve seen a lot. We’ve seen the Asian crisis, we’ve seen 9/11, we’ve had the tech-Internet blowup, we had the financial crisis, we had the debt ceiling crisis in August 2011. Clients have matured and have gotten more used to the ups and downs of the market.”

Worrying about the Fed is a waste of time

October 16, 2015 — “While there is never just one reason for market movements, we think that the growing involvement of government entities (in the U.S., Europe and Asian markets) has exacerbated the recent sharp and irrational market movements. We expect it will continue as central planners now feel compelled to play out the hands they dealt themselves.”

Should You Tap Your IRA to Buy a House

October 19, 2015 — It’s a good goal to own a home and have a rent-free home to live when you retire. If you don’t, your cost of living is going up every year, but you’re not building equity.”

Denver execs weigh in on fed decision to hold interest rate steady

September 17, 2015 — “If anything this shows that we are a global economy and it is important what is going on in the rest of the world,” said Fred Taylor, president and co-founder of Northstar Investment Advisors, LLC. “Ultimately what happened a month ago with the devaluation of the yuan in China is what triggered the correction, and when the stock market fell August 24, the Fed looked hard at that.”

Lessons from 20 years of investment management

October 7, 2015 — “The number of advisors who perform in-house research and select equities for their clients’ portfolios themselves is rapidly shrinking because of the time involved. Instead, many advisors have shifted towards picking managers and often have no idea what companies are in their clients’ portfolios because these portfolios are based on asset classes, not the underlying businesses themselves.”

Greece has been holding the markets hostage – but not any longer

July 30, 2015 — Why do the markets even care what happens to Greece? The concern stems from the possible domino affect or contagion that could occur if one weak member of the Eurozone leaves, and places the remaining 18 members at risk. If Greece can default on its debt obligations what prevents others who have borrowed a lot of money from doing the exact same thing?

How to play catch up with your retirement savings

August 5, 2015 — “Given your age, you should ideally have a bit more than three-and-a-half times salary, or roughly $400,000, socked away in retirement savings in order to be able to retire at 65 on 80% of your pre-retirement salary, according to the benchmarks in financial planner Charles Farrell’s book, Your Money Ratios.”

A tale of two investment strategies

May 4, 2015 — “For the 20 years that Northstar has been in business, we have advocated earning income from your investments in the form of dividends paid by individual companies. We prefer dividends because their returns are never negative.”

Portfolio Rebalancing

June 9, 2015 — “By rebalancing, the bottom line is we are working the “buy low, sell high” strategy on both the price and the dividend income side of the portfolio.”

Retiring? Why you need less money than you think

April 14, 2015 — “If you have your mortgage paid off, it might take down the income you need by 10% or 15%,” says Denver financial adviser Charles Farrell, author of “Your Money Ratios.”

When it comes to retirement income, dividend stocks beat bonds

June 1, 2015 — “Liability matching with bonds is so terribly expensive that most people just can’t afford to do it,” argues Charles Farrell, author of “Your Money Ratios” and chief executive of Northstar Investment Advisors, based in Denver.

What’s the Best Way for Retirees to Invest Their Nest Egg?

March 16, 2015 — “My position is that income-focused total-return investing has the potential to give you the best of both worlds: a source of cash flow during bad markets and a primary driver of long-term wealth appreciation.”

Debt pressure pushes oil and gas companies to offer stock to raise capital

May 3, 2015 — “When the oil industry experienced barrel prices in the $ 100 range, they expanded their debt, as they didn’t anticipate the downturn in 2014,” said Fred Taylor, president and co-founder of Denver-based Northstar Investment Advisors.

Northstar CEO Charlie Farrell Joins Mountain Area Land Trust Board

March 3, 2015 — Charlie Farrell, CEO of Northstar Investment Advisors, LLC, has joined the board of directors for the Mountain Area Land Trust, a non-profit committed to preserving the natural heritage of the Front Range.

Strength of U.S. Dollar Improving

March 30, 2015 — Fred Taylor discusses the dollar’s rising value and stock market volatility.

10 Days to Total Financial Fitness

February 17, 2015 — Your total debt matters. But the kinds of debts you have and the implications for your future are crucial too, says Charles Farrell, author of Your Money Ratios and CEO of Northstar.

The currency game

March 2, 2015 — “Currency fluctuations are just one factor we examine when we analyze companies to include in our equity income model. Our research also includes evaluating earnings growth, dividend growth, profitability and a company’s margin of safety.”

Outlook on the 2015 Stock Market

January 6, 2015 — Fred Taylor, President and Co-Founder of Northstar Investment Advisors, discusses his outlook for the stock market in 2015 with 9News Business Reporter Gregg Moss.

Financial experts offer look at what’s ahead with the economy

February 13, 2015 — “Investors are realizing they are, in essence, being double-charged — first with an advisory fee and then again when they have to pay their individual mutual fund managers a fee.”- Fred Taylor

6 New Ways to Measure Your Financial Goals

June 20, 2014 — “It’s easy to lull ourselves into complacency as long as we’re making our various loan payments on time each month. But Charles Farrell, a financial adviser in Denver and author of “Your Money Ratios,” thinks that people should do a bit of math before patting themselves on the back.”

How to Pick the Best Retirement City

December 6, 2014 — Northstar Investment Advisors CEO Charlie Farrell discusses what retirees should look for when determining where to spend their golden years.

Federal Reserve Board Retreat

August 20, 2013 — Fred Taylor Talks with 9News Anchor Gregg Moss about the Federal Reserve’s outlook on interest rates.

Investment Advice for the Year Ahead

January 7, 2014 — Northstar President Fred Taylor offers 9News viewers guidance on the markets, investment strategies and expectations for the economy in 2014.

Advice on College Savings Plans

March 7, 2013 — Northstar Investment Advisors CEO Charlie Farrell provides strategies for saving for college.

Investing Your Money

March 14, 2013 — Northstar President Fred Taylor talks with KDVR-FOX31 about the Dow’s rise and what it means for investors.

Sequestration and Stocks

March 5, 2013 — Northstar President Fred Taylor talks with 9News Anchor Gregg Moss about how the markets’ reaction to sequestration.

Taking Advantage of Gains

March 7, 2013 — Charlie Farrell talks with 9News reporter TaRhonda Thomas about how to approach stock market gains.

Retiree Health Care Costs

September 10, 2012 — Northstar CEO Charlie Farrell discusses retiree healthcare expenses and provides tips on how to prepare for these ever-rising costs.

Wall Street Today

November 13, 2012 — Northstar CEO Charlie Farrell advises investors to look for high-quality companies with stronger managers in the slow-growth environment.

Retiree Health Care Costs

September 10, 2012 — Northstar CEO Charlie Farrell discusses retiree healthcare expenses and provides tips on how to prepare for these ever-rising costs.

Future of Stocks

January 1, 2012 — Fred Taylor talks with 9News anchor Gregg Moss about how to manage volatility in the stock market.