Family Safety First

DEAR ANNIE » We were in the same situation as Divided Family, anticipating an eight-hour drive to New Orleans for a family wedding we really wanted to attend. We decided not to go because of the pandemic but sent not only the usual wedding gift but also the money that we would have spent on the trip there.

That clearly showed the bride and groom how much we wanted to be with them, and everybody ended up as happy as they could be under

the circumstances. — Marriage More Important Than Wedding

DEAR MARRIAGE MORE IMPORTANT THAN WEDDING » There are no truer words. While a beautiful wedding is always very nice to celebrate the love between two people, it is the marriage that really counts. I love your generosity and wisdom! Thanks for sharing it.

DEAR ANNIE » My in-laws are planning on taking care of our two young children when I go into labor. However, my mother-in-law has recently tossed caution to the wind and resumed her normal social routines, including hosting multiple parties over the holiday weekend.

My biggest fear is that my children will be exposed to the coronavirus, become asymptomatic and risk infecting our newborn, after my husband and I worked so hard to keep the family healthy. We need the assistance from his parents, but I also don’t feel it is my place to dictate how my mother-in-law lives during this unprecedented time. — Nervous and Pregnant

DEAR NERVOUS ANDPREGNANT

» Your fear is very understandable. It’s time to have an intervention with your mother-in-law. Bring your husband and father-in-law into the conversation. Explain your concerns; remind her that it is only temporary; and let her know you would really like her to take COVID seriously, for your sake and the sake of her unborn grandchild.

DEAR ANNIE » My son is 52 years old. He is a good person but an alcoholic. He followed me to Florida nine years ago. I spent thousands of dollars to get him on his feet. I ended up broke trying to help him. He has since been fired from three jobs.

I kicked him out five years ago. He managed to get his own place and survive, but recently, he was fired again. He started another job and was fired after only three weeks. He has been in and out of rehab and the hospital frequently.

My question is: Am I wrong to not let him move back in with me? I have told him no, that I can’t afford to help him.

DEARMOTHER OFAN ALCOHOLIC » You are not wrong. In fact, you are giving him the greatest gift you can give him, independence. Even if you could afford to help him, he needs to help himself and come to that conclusion on his own.

Remember you can lead a horse to water but you can’t force it to drink. He has to want it for himself.

Continue suggesting Alcoholics Anonymous or other alcohol treatment programs to get him into something that works.

“Ask Me Anything: A Year of Advice From Dear Annie” is out now! Annie Lane’s debut book — featuring favorite columns on love, friendship, family and etiquette — is available as a paperback and ebook. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com.

It is not often that an individual comes along that can profoundly impact an industry as did Jack Bogle, who passed away a year ago January at the age of eighty-nine.

Bogle was born in 1929 and grew up in a household that lost all of its wealth as a result of the Great Depression during the 1930s. What Jack Bogle is best known for is the founding of The Vanguard Group, a mutual fund family with over $5 trillion in assets under management and its flagship Vanguard Index 500 Fund.

Given all of the recent turmoil in the financial markets that may be having an impact on your faith in long term investing, we thought it a good idea to seek some past advice from one of the greatest investors or all-time.

Bogle believed when he founded Vanguard in 1975 that the best way to achieve investment returns on par with the broader stock market was to invest in a basket of stocks that tracked the overall market. In so doing, the investor would obviously be highly correlated to the vast majority of the capitalization of the stock market, all the while limiting management expenses and taxable capital gains.

Over time many would argue that he was proved correct in this theory and as a result hundreds of other passively management index funds have emerged.

We have embraced much of what Bogle espoused regarding correlating investment portfolios to the underlying asset classes as well as minimizing fees and in focusing on the long-term when it comes to allocating assets.

Bogle provided the following. “My advice to investors is to ignore the short-term noise of the emotions reflected in our financial markets and focus on the productive longterm economics of our corporate businesses. Shakespeare could have been describing the inexplicable hourly and daily – sometimes even yearly or longer – fluctuations in the stock market when he wrote, ‘it is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.’ The way to investment success is to get out of the expectations market of stock prices and cast your lot with the real market of business.” So true.

Quite often do investors fall victim to the shortterm noise in the market resulting in an emotional response which ultimately compromises the longterm health of that individual.

Bogle further observes. “As the financial markets swing back and forth, do your best to ignore the momentary cacophony, and to separate the transitory from the durable. This discipline is best summed up by the most important principle of all investment wisdom: stay the course!” How often are investors looking for the silver bullet, a way to time the market?

Bogle’s comment of “stay the course” appears almost too simple to be effective. However, time has again proved that assumption wrong as equity returns have far outpaced those of other asset classes by a wide margin over any meaningful period.

Finally and perhaps the primary reason we at Fagan Associates have operated on a fee basis when providing financial advice and investment planning to our clients can be illustrated by the following quote from Mr. Bogle. “The way to wealth for those in the (investment) business is to persuade their clients, ‘Don’t just stand there.

Do something.’ But the way to wealth for their clients in the aggregate is to follow the opposite maxim: ‘Don’t do something. Just stand there.’” Quite often it is best to let the storm pass and then reassess.

Please note that all data is for general information purposes only and not meant as specific recommendations. The opinions of the authors are not a recommendation to buy or sell the stock, bond market or any security contained therein. Securities contain risks and fluctuations in principal will occur. Please research any investment thoroughly prior to committing money or consult with your financial advisor. Please note that Fagan Associates, Inc. or related persons buy or sell for itself securities that it also recommends to clients. Consult with your financial advisor prior to making any changes to your portfolio. To contact Fagan Associates, Please call (518) 279-1044.