NEW YORK (Reuters) – Don’t look now, but your retirement savings plan may not be as ironclad as you think. It may even include some magical thinking.

That’s because every retirement calculator features an “annual rate of return” that savers typically are asked to plug in for themselves. And the hard truth is, no one really knows how well their investments will perform in the future — and that makes all our detailed retirement calculations seem kind of futile.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you are invested in a target-date retirement fund, wealth manager Leonard Raskin has a little message for you: It’s time to reconsider.

As far as he’s concerned, target-date funds are just a marketing gimmick. “You could buy the S&P 500, or even a bond fund, and do way better – and you’re paying far more in fees,” said Raskin, a financial planner with Raskin Global in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) – If you are invested in a
target-date retirement fund, wealth manager Leonard Raskin has a
little message for you: It’s time to reconsider.

As far as he’s concerned, target-date funds are just a
marketing gimmick. “You could buy the S&P 500, or even a bond
fund, and do way better – and you’re paying far more in fees,”
said Raskin, a financial planner with Raskin Global in Hunt
Valley, Maryland.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Derek Capo was living the high life. He was in his early 20s, an analyst at hedge fund Everest Capital monitoring international equities, and soaking up the weather and nightlife of his hometown of Miami.

But looking ahead, as he’d been trained to do, Capo didn’t like what he saw. The housing bust was starting to strangle the Florida economy, the stock market was looking increasingly erratic and he didn’t want to pursue a pricey MBA in the middle of an economic crisis.

By Chris Taylor

(Reuters) – By all accounts, investors have enjoyed a terrific start to 2012. Stocks had their best January in 15 years, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average raced to multi-year highs, topping 13,000 at the end of February.

So what do mom-and-pop investors think of the equity rally? They’re not buying it. Literally.

March 13 (Reuters) – By all accounts, investors have
enjoyed a terrific start to 2012. Stocks had their best January
in 15 years, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average raced to
multi-year highs, topping 13,000 at the end of February.

So what do mom-and-pop investors think of the equity rally?
They’re not buying it. Literally.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – It’s a debate as old as iconic investor Ben Graham himself: Are you a value investor, attracted to stocks that have been unfairly overlooked and are selling at a bargain? Or are you a growth investor, willing to pay a healthy price to ride the momentum of a hot business?

Here’s a little secret, according to Lipper’s winning fund shops: Growth versus value isn’t always an either/or proposition.

NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) – It’s a debate as old as
iconic investor Ben Graham himself: Are you a value investor,
attracted to stocks that have been unfairly overlooked and are
selling at a bargain? Or are you a growth investor, willing to
pay a healthy price to ride the momentum of a hot business?

Here’s a little secret, according to Lipper’s winning fund
shops: Growth versus value isn’t always an either/or
proposition.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – It would be natural for a small-firm portfolio manager like George Davis to feel a little intimidated by the likes of the Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments.

To those industry titans the $16 billion under management at his Los Angeles-based firm, Hotchkis & Wiley, is spare change they might find in their couch cushions.

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) – It would be natural for
a small-firm portfolio manager like George Davis to feel a
little intimidated by the likes of the Vanguard Group and
Fidelity Investments.

To those industry titans the $16 billion under management at
his Los Angeles-based firm, Hotchkis & Wiley, is spare change
they might find in their couch cushions.