Previous Meetings

Guest Speaker: Kit MacNee

Merrill Lynch – Financial Advisor

Presentation Summary
Kit MacNee: conservative by nature

Best news source: NPR radio. Not conservative.

• Covers more than the headlines

Real Estate today:

• Realtors: hurting, cannot get the money from Banks
• No money = no activity
• Construction business: down. People cannot afford repairs.
• All this means it’ll be hard for us to land a job

Real estate: huge

• Will touch each of our lives
• San Bernardino and Riverside = down over 50% in both counties
• Kit: has not been able to refinance her home for 3 years

What is it like working as a financial advisor?

• Kit loves it
• Makes a difference in people’s live
• Helps people manage their money
• Exciting to work with people who want to make their dreams come true
• Gets to use all the knowledge from college, state planning field, community service,
• Takes a lot of time
• 3-5 year time: busy building the business and cash flow isn’t there yet (scary)
• Important: if you want to be a financial advisor – you make it happen. No one else. People rotate between firms all the time.
• You want to be with people who stick
• Every financial group has a different style
• We’re all different: diff knowledge, personality
• Financial advisors pick and choose their clients (Kit picks friends)
• Expect to work 60-70 hrs a week

What products does Merrill Lynch offer?

• if someone came and wanted to bring a business public – Kit can make it happen
• help parents save for their kids
• Kit’s main client focus: working with women so that they may be financially independent
  • women (young and old): don’t like to deal with money but they have to because of their longevity
• managing non-profit org. cash flow
• client annual income range: 40k, 15k, some have 250k assets to give,
• Kit philosophy: help all, you never know where your client will take you (network)
• Strategy is big
• The more money you have, the cheaper it is to invest
• More money = more options open to you
• Feed based account = agreed upon fee (generally 1%) Why? Better customer service.

E-trade: Kit cannot beat their prices

• No less quality than Merrill Lynch
• Yahoo finance: ton of info
• If you don’t understand go to Investopedia.com
• Buying individual security
• If you want to set aside a little bit of money: try Mutual Fund (fidelity, American funds, franklin fund) -> they do a little bit of everything but very very well.
• C-shares: no cost up front
  • After one year: sell it and move on at no cost
• A:
• B shares – need to stay in it for a long time. Not flexible.
• ING – you can register online at ~5%
  • Best rates for very small dollar amount start
  • Helps you save because it takes a while to get at it
• Long term savings: makes sure where you work has a 41K plan
  • Big at our age
  • Goal: retire at 75 (kit)
  • For seniors: expenses go up not down
  • People assume expenses remain the same when we retire
  • 23 year old: putting aside $100/month
    • You would be able to save $24 million
    • Gives 320-400,000 to expense a year
  • Wait until you’re 30 to put aside $100/ month
    • Be able to save $3.5 mill
  • Wait until you’re 47 year old
    • Cannot even make 2.5 mill (maybe 2 mill)
  • You don’t want to have to withdraw 5% (50K if it’s 1 mill) => not a lot
  • Recommended Book: the Automatic Millionaire
    • Talks about how:
      • You need to make saving automatic: pay yourself first
      • The Latte effect: we all have something that we buy a lot of that we don’t necessarily need
  • Thought for the day: Richard Bernstein
    • ML economists is a bit more pessimistic
    • However, good at predicting the economy
  • Kit: a fiduciary for people
  • Warren Buffett:
    • Investment genius
    • Selling everything he owns in China
    • Better to sell near the top than near the bottom
  • Be careful with the middle market (Bubbles- a poor way to build wealth)
  • Buy large cap stocks- Cisco, Kellogs, Johnson & Johnson: all large multi-national organizations that already pay dividends
  • Long term investing: take a LT time horizon.
    • Watch news, listen to the world, develop good tactics
    • Staples good: why? People still need to eat, buy insurance, gas, etc
  • First baby boomer applied for soc. Sec (48 million baby boomer)
    • Everything the BB has touched, they have changed
    • Caused rock n’ Roll, hippies, tech boom, philanthropy
    • Now, they need health care
    • Yuppies are the new BB
  • Big Sector: Info. System
    • Since the late 90s: IS hasn’t changed too much

What can college students do to improve their finance?

• Don’t get into credit card debt
• Buy real estate: land, condo, house
• In 84’: 11 ¾%
• Buy cars used: try not to get a car loan. Aim: no car payments
• The only resource we are given that we cannot get more of is time.
• Cars never go up in value
• Start Individual retirement account ( even if it’s $1 a month)
• Live within your means
  • Greatest example: look up to the people who survived the Great Depression
  • You can have it all, but not all at the same time
  • Don’t try to live beyond your means – it won’t bring you long term happiness

Which class did you find most helpful?

1) A poli-sci course about energy

• 7 sisters
• OPEC countries
• Global economics
• Colonialism

2) Finance Class

• focused on case studies
• studied real businesses (i.e.: Bene Hana)

3) Accounting

– Kit can look at a financial statement and can find problems quickly

– You will eventually need to make or oversee someone’s budget no matter where you work
Words of Wisdom

The truly wealthy and successful made their own businesses

-innovative

-people who are really wealthy are self employed

Enjoy life!

• Kit, “Best decision I ever made was to stay at home for 13 years”
  • Learned how to play, be a person
  • All valuable lessons that can be carried forward

2^nd General Meeting (10/17/07)

Officers Present: Tai, Laura, Ling, Annie, Jenny,

Officers Absent: Tommy, Tigist

Members Present: 44 Members present (See attendance sheet)

Old News:

1. Stalla Representative Position
   1. Position is still open
   2. Please see Laura for more information

1. Village Wok Fundraiser
   1. Proceeds are still being calculated

New News:

1. What’s in the News?
   1. Current events given by Jenny Ngov

1. Merrill Lynch
   1. Guest speaker: Mary “Kit” MacNee (Financial Advisor)
   2. Summary of presentation will be posted on the IC website and emailed

 

1^st General Meeting (10/10/07)

Officers Present: Tai, Laura, Ling, Annie, Jenny, Tommy, Tigist

Members Present: 31 Members present (See attendance sheet)

New News:
1. Stalla Representative Position Open

• This position is open to all members
• Position is highly recommended for those who plan on taking the CFA exam

2. What’s in the News?

• IC will be implementing this new program starting next week
• At the beginning of each meeting, someone will be presenting current events that effect all investors

3. SEO Internship Opportunity

• Rep: Rory Meyers
• 10-week summer program
• For more information email Rory at rory.meyers@yahoo.com
• SEO will have a booth open at Meet the Firms (10/11/07 at UCR extension center)

4. Global Business Brigades

• International internship/ volunteer opportunity
• A chance to provide business solutions to micro-enterprises in rural villages
• Current focus: Honduras
• Program is established in UCLA, Stanford, and Harvard
• If interested, contact Chi Nkwenti at chinkwenti1@yahoo.com or at 310-256-9255

5. Merrill Lynch

• We will have a guest speaker from Merrill Lynch next week
• Please come prepared with questions, resume, and business attire if you wish to pursue a career with Merrill Lynch

6. Fundraiser

• Village Wok
• Sunday, Oct 14, 2007
• 4:00-8:00 p.m.
• 10% discount (15% of proceeds will go to IC)