Northstar is frequently featured in business and investing articles in Denver’s leading publications.

Charles J. Farrell, J.D., LL.M. Joins Northstar Investment Advisors
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Northstar in the News

Northstar, Farrell create new retirement index
Denver Business Journal; February 26, 2010
"If your objective is just to track the long-term appreciation of the total stock market, the S&P 500 is a good benchmark for that,” Farrell said. “But if you’re interested in actually living off of your money, getting some return that you can spend every year, and having some defense built into your account — that index really isn’t built to do that."
--Charles Farrell

Financial planners keep an eye on Washington
Denver Business Journal; February 12, 2010
"I would say that everything’s off the table at this point. Health care, cap and trade, anything that was on the Obama agenda I don’t think gets done at this point until you see that the Republicans want to work with him. And based on the partisanship in Congress, I just don’t see it now. I think the Republicans are smelling blood and they’re going to take a lot of the elections in November, so it doesn’t behoove them to work with the president if they want to take control of Congress."
--Fred Taylor

New benchmarks for retirement income management
Investment News; January 26, 2010
"With retirement income management becoming the primary objective of many investors, it's time for new investment benchmarks which reflect that. For decades, investors have been using the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average as defaults for investment performance. But constructing portfolios that track those benchmarks is of little value for investors who must live off the returns on their portfolios...We have elected to address this issue by creating the Farrell-Northstar Retirement Income Index (FNRI Index), which is an index that tracks securities that provide opportunities for meaningful current income, growing income, principal stability and long term capital gains."
--Charles Farrell

Colorado stocks enjoyed big rebound in 2009
Denver Post; January 1, 2010
"Everything that didn't work in 2008 worked really well in 2009. In the beginning of 2009, the markets were reflecting a second depression, but once it was taken off the table by the stimulus plan and investors willing to take on risk, there was a rally. As we head into 2010, the biggest worries are about all the debt the government will have to sell in 2010, who's going to buy it and what is it going to do to long-term interest rates. Then there's the question of what's going to happen with commercial real estate and how that will impact regional banks."
--Fred Taylor

Economists issue predictions for 2010
Denver Business Journal; January 1, 2010
"There really is no single indicator to watch to determine whether to invest in the stock market or not. There are several that are important. The most obvious ones are: the Fed Funds interest rate; the unemployment number; the prices of gold, oil, and copper; monthly GDP and CPI reports; the strength of corporate earnings; investor sentiment surveys; the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rate; and the leading economic indicators coming out of China-India-Brazil. On any given day, these various indicators can move the stock and bond markets here and around the globe. We are truly living in a flat world, and events like 9-11 or the recent Dubai debt crisis can roil markets everywhere in a nanosecond."
--Fred Taylor

Can These Retirements Be Saved?
The Wall Street Journal; December 19, 2009
"Mr. Farrell recommends paying off any mortgage before they retire to make it easier to live off their investments later on."
--Charles Farrell

The Best In...
The Wall Street Journal; December 19, 2009
"Charles Farrell, an investment adviser in Denver, has long written about financial planning. In particular, he has developed, in recent years, some of the smartest tools we've seen for gauging the health of your nest egg. Now, he has combined these calculators with additional guidelines in a new book, "Your Money Ratios: Eight Simple Tools for Financial Security." Mr. Farrell uses easy-to-understand ratios to help individuals manage savings, debt, investments and insurance, all with the goal of achieving a secure retirement. In short, one of the best financial books to cross our desks this year."
--Charles Farrell

Get your 401(k) above pre-crash levels
Fortune Magazine; December 9, 2009
"Most investors should keep no more than 40%-50% of their portfolios in stocks at retirement."
--Charles Farrell

Advisers contemplate facing inflation issues
Denver Business Journal; December 4-10, 2009
“The way to play gold is through the exchange-traded funds [that track the price of gold]. The problem with gold stocks is that a lot of gold mining companies hedge their positions, and they're notoriously bad hedgers, so they end up losing a ton of money on the hedge even though the price of the commodity goes up. And they don't pay dividends, typically."
--Fred Taylor

The Question of Measuring Financial Progress
Yahoo! Finance; November 18, 2009
"Farrell says a focus on net worth can distract from the primary goal in personal finance, 'to create a pool of assets from which you can generate income for your retirement years,' he says. 'So whatever supports that goal can go into your net worth, whatever doesn't really should be looked at differently.' . . . Farrell attempts to address those issues in his new book, 'Your Money Ratios: 8 Simple Tools For Financial Security,' which will be published in December by the Penguin Group."
--Laura Rowley, writing for Yahoo! Finance

Do we still need ERISA?
Investment News; October 15, 2009
"With the technological advancements in money management platforms and payroll systems, one has to wonder whether the costs associated with ERISA compliance could be removed from the retirement plan system. If we could safely remove those costs, it's likely we could help employees accumulate between 20% and 30% more money for retirement. So it's worth considering." --Charlie Farrell

Staying the course in rough waters
Fidelity.com; October 8, 2009
"Everybody who panicked and sold before the March 9 low in the market is regretting that mistake today. They locked in their losses...every day the market marches higher is killing them." --Fred Taylor

Put Your Cash to Work: Bonds
SmartMoney.com; August 17, 2009
"Charles Farrell of Northstar Investment Advisors recommends that clients with a sizable allocation to fixed income buy bonds individually and hold them to maturity to shield themselves from fluctuations in prices. He adds that investors relying on their bond portfolio for income would do well to ladder their bonds—staggering the investments so a portion of the bond portfolio matures every year."
--SmartMoney.com

California bonds: What next?
Fidelity.com; July 29, 2009
"For diversification, munis make a lot of sense. In the highest tax brackets, municipal bonds offer higher interest rates on an after-tax basis than U.S. Treasury bonds." --Fred Taylor

Is it too late to sell?
Rocky Mountain News; February 24, 2009
"If your time horizon is shorter that five years and your money is invested in nonretirement accounts, then you need to play it safe. No one knows how bad the economy will get or how low the stock markets will go. One has to remember that the US stock market fell 90 percent during the Depression and the Japanese stock market is still down 80 percent from the highs. If at some point within five years you need money to fund college tuition, meet payroll, refinance a mortgage or buy a home, then you cannot afford to take the risk that the Dow doesn't drop to 5,000." --Fred Taylor

Bleakest economic year in decades
Rocky Mountain News; December 31, 2008
"With the stock market facing tremendous head winds to start 2009, I wouldn't be surprised to see negative returns through the first two quarters of 2009. But if the Obama stimulus plan creates more jobs than expected and investor psychology improves by anticipating a better 2010, we could actually see a rally the last two months of 2009 and end the year positive." --Fred Taylor

Business reacts to the election
Denver Business Journal; November 7, 2008
"Obama has to instill confidence in the markets by being, first and foremost, bipartisan and inspirational. It's critical who he picks to be Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State, because that's going to be key to our economic policy going forward. Certainly the rest of the world is very excited by the Obama win, and I think that's a positive for this country. I think our dollar will strengthen, which will keep interest rates low, which will keep commodity prices low. In the short term, the obvious sectors that are going to get hurt are the big pharmaceuticals, managed healthcare, coal-based utilities, the large energy companies, the integrated oil companies. The winners, I assume, would be nursing homes, biotechnology, natural gas, certainly anything to do with alternative energy. The biggest short-term winner, of course, is the tax-exempt bonds, if Obama follows through on his promise of raising taxes on the people who make more than $250,000 a year. They're still trading at 80 to 120 basis points cheaper than US Treasuries, and they're tax-free." --Fred Taylor

Taking stock of the next president
Denver Post; October 31, 2008
"Tax-exempt municipal bonds, which have fallen sharply in value in recent weeks, could benefit as higher-income households seek to shelter income from higher taxes likely under Obama's plan." --Fred Taylor

Debts due piling up for public companies
Denver Post; October 26, 2008
"If there is any way local companies can self-fund, even if it means eating into their savings, it would be advantageous. Self-funding buys time until markets improve." --Fred Taylor

They said it!
Rocky Mountain News; October 25, 2008
Colorado investment pros were asked to identify what looks cheap "Regardless of a recession, consumers will need to buy soap, medicine, gas, use their cell phones, and will need to heat their homes. The companies that sell these products are off 30 to 40 percent and are paying dividends of 4 to 8 percent. When the markets do recover you will have bought these companies at extremely reasonable levels and been paid extraordinarily high dividends." --Fred Taylor

What they're saying!
Rocky Mountain News; October 23, 2008
Is volatility and this kind of wild day on Wall Street the new normal? "Unfortunately market volatility is here to stay for a while. There is nothing normal about any of the bond or stock markets here or around the world. Even though credit markets have started to ease worries about a global recession, weak corporate earnings guidance going forward have investors too scared to invest or stay invested." --Fred Taylor

The Dow, oh wow!
Rocky Mountain News ;October 14, 2008
What does market rally mean? "All will depend on the credit markets. If the Libor rate doesn't substantially improve and banks begin to lend money to each other, then all bets are off and this is only a bear market rally. We will begin to see how the credit markets respond to the G7 actions over the (past) weekend - tomorrow morning, when the bond markets reopen." --Fred Taylor

Experts still urge caution
Denver Post;October 14, 2008
"We need to see some huge improvement in the credit markets. We'll get an idea (today) whether that's going to happen. The problems in the credit markets and financial stocks are what led us into this problem, and they're going to have to lead us out." --Fred Taylor

Colorado stocks pounded during crisis.
Denver Business Journal; October 10-16, 2008
"The only places where your money has been safe over the past two months are gold, Treasury bills, and cash." --Fred Taylor

Market will bottom when....
Rocky Mountain News;October 9, 2008
"We need banks to lend to each other at reasonable interest rates. GE, AT&T, IBM and other Fortune 500 companies in the Dow need to be able to finance their 30-day commercial paper at reasonable rates. Investment grade corporate bond and high-yield corporate bond rates need to narrow in relation to US Treasury bond yields. Small businesses, hospitals, schools, and airports need to be able to finance their municipal bond debt at spreads lower than US Treasuries. Finally, banks need to start lending money to deserving and credit-worthy customers." " --Fred Taylor

What happened? Wasn't the $700billion rescue plan---supposed to restore confidence?
Rocky Mountain News;October 7, 2008
"Markets rely on confidence and liquidity and right now there is no confidence in our president, Congress or banking system, and consequently no liquidity in the credit markets. Without either of these components stock markets will continue to go down here and around the world." --Fred Taylor

Q3 REPORT: What Colorado experts are saying
Rocky Mountain News;October 1, 2008
The stock markets go up 70 percent of the time, and over any 20-year time period since 1926 investors have made more money investing in stocks than keeping their cash invested in U.S. Treasury bills. However, in the short term, if investors are properly diversified and own good-quality municipal bonds and dividend-paying stocks they should be able to ride out this bear market." --Fred Taylor

Investors advised to take long-term approach
Rocky Mountain News;September 17, 2008
“If you've been telling people to stay invested this year, why should they believe you when you say it to them now?"
“At times like these you need to have a long-term approach to investing in the stock market. If you can do that, then days like (Monday) could, in hindsight, be great buying opportunities, particularly if you have cash and a strong stomach. This would be even better for retirement accounts. However, if you need the money in the short term, then you should have all your money invested in Treasury bills."
--Fred Taylor

Denver Finance Industry Weighs the Candidates
Denver Business Journal;August 15, 2008
“You can look at it two ways--On the surface, McCain looks more positive because he's not going to raise taxes and he's going to cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. But if you go deeper, Obama may be more positive because of the stronger dollar, which would keep interest rates low...Higher interest rates certainly hurt the economy and could choke off corporate growth"
--Fred Taylor

Retirees Overestimate Payout
Investment News—July 14, 2008
“Many investors fail to take inflation into account when they map out how much they will withdraw from their retirement accounts...Investors need to think of it as a range of probable outcomes. It's completely dependent on the historical cycle in which you retire."
--Charlie Farrell

Experts Vary on Bear-Market Stategy
Denver Post—July 3, 2008
“The trick is to find companies that can continue to raise or maintain dividends even if the economy slows. Companies in the consumer staples, healthcare, telecom, and utility sectors should be better able to do that."
--Fred Taylor

Slowing economy, oil prices help send Dow into 358-Point Tailspin
Rocky Mountain News—June 26, 2008
“The CBOE volatility index was up 13 percent today, which shows there was serious fear on Wall Street, but at 23 it is still a long way from the 30s it traded at in January and again in March, which may mean the markets have further to fall in the short term."
--Fred Taylor

Playing the Housing Slump: Is It Time to Make Your Move?
Wall Street Journal—March 12, 2008
“It's like going from a Honda to a Mercedes” says Charles Farrell, a financial advisor with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors. "It's a lifestyle choice. As long as it doesn't cut into your ability to accumulate capital for retirement, this is probably a pretty good time to upgrade."
--Charlie Farrell

Magic Numbers, A Few Simple Ratios by Charlie Farrell
Financial Planning Magazine—February 2008
“Although detailed planning is critical to managing client relationships, communicating those facts may cause many of your clients to tune out. After all, they hired you to handle the nitty-gritty. Due to the complexity associated with financial projections, I supplement such planning with a report breaking down the output to one key ratio. This is the goal on which the client can focus each year—and make steady progress toward retirement. I call this financial ratio the client's Capital-to-Income ratio (C/I Ratio).”
--Charlie Farrell

Is the sky really falling?
Denver Business Journal—February 8-14, 2008
"Investors need to be cautious right now; there are a lot of problems facing the country right now. There are credit issues, housing writedowns from the banks, and consumers might stop spending money. In fact, that has already started happening at higher-end retail stores."
--Fred Taylor

Bear Market stirs after brief pause
Denver Post—February 6, 2008
"If you have money invested in the stock market, it would be great to get dividends from your investments to weather the storm".
--Fred Taylor

Rogue trader lit panic
Denver Post—January 27, 2008
“It doesn’t take a whole lot to panic people at this point”. In this environment the actions of just one rogue trader can be “like adding gasoline to the fire”.
--Fred Taylor

Searching for Stimulus
Rocky Mountain News—January 21, 2008
"What one stimulus would be best for the nation and/or Colorado?" "Cut the Fed Funds rate by 75 basis points before the January meeting. This sudden and decisive course of action would send a message to Wall Street and the world that the Fed is serious about averting a recession and is willing to forgo inflation concerns in the short term for the sake of preventing the stock market malaise from spreading from Wall Street to Main Street. This dramatic move would signal to ECB and other foreign banks to cut interest rates as soon as possible as well."
--Fred Taylor

The Winner's Circle: Colorado's Top 20 Advisors from 2007
The Denver Business Journal—December 21, 2007
Fred Taylor is featured as one of the Top 20 Wealth Advisors of 2007.

A Nervous Investor's Guide To Overcoming Market Jitters
Wall Street Journal—November 21, 2007
Even as investors grow more restless, the big money continues to be made by those who stay the course…Charles Farrell, an adviser with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors, used data from Morningstar's Ibbotson Associates to analyze 52 rolling 30-year periods, starting with 1926 to 1955 and ending with 1977 to 2006...But here's what's interesting: The majority of your wealth would almost always have come in the last 10 years. Mr. Farrell calculates that, on average, you would have notched 8% of your final wealth after the first decade and 32% after the second. In other words, 68% of the total sum accumulated was amassed in the last 10 years. Clearly, tenacity pays off. "Once you get to a certain portfolio size, the dollar gains are just huge," Mr. Farrell says.
-- Charlie Farrell

Dump This House: Unloading Your Property in a Slow Market
Wall Street Journal—November 7, 2007
The monthly cost of carrying a vacant home could equal 1% of a home's value, figures Charles Farrell, an adviser with Denver's Northstar Investment Advisors. After all, you still have to pay utilities, insurance, property taxes, maintenance and, of course, the mortgage. To make matters worse, "prices could be lower a year from now," Mr. Farrell warns. "There's also the risk of owning a physical asset. I'm thinking about things like fire, broken pipes, theft."
-- Charlie Farrell

Small Loss? Okay. Large One? No Way.
The Wall Street Journal—October 7, 2007
Suppose you have half your nest egg in stocks and half in bonds. "If you're 50-50 and the stock market falls 20%, you might be down 10%," Mr. Farrell notes. He continues: "In fact, with the interest you get from your bonds, you might be down just 7% or 8% for the year. I'm a big advocate, especially in the later years, of being more balanced."
-- Charlie Farrell

'Goldilocks' Retirement: Is your distribution rate just about right?
Investment News—October 2, 2007
Retirement distribution planning is one of the most challenging areas facing financial advisers. Regardless of the difficulty, clients want to know how much income they can expect each year. Telling clients that “it depends” probably means they will be looking to another adviser for more clarity.
-- Charlie Farrell

"Santa Claus" rally may not satisfy volatile U.S. market
The Denver Post—September 29, 2007
"The Fed made the right move by cutting. They will follow it up with another rate cut,"
-- Fred Taylor

Live Debt Free
Smart Money—September, 2007
"The people who have the most trouble are the people who carry the most debt into their retirement years. Those fixed obligations can bury you."
-- Charlie Farrell

Metro experts give the straight scoop on what you should do in this market
Rocky Mountain News—August 18, 2007
I am telling investors not to panic, first and foremost. We have finally had a 10 percent correction in the S&P 500 from the peak a month ago. We haven't had a correction of this magnitude in years, so investors have become complacent and may have forgotten that investing in the stock market is risky in the short term but more profitable than bonds in the long haul."
-- Fred Taylor

Farrell -- maker of 'personal financial ratios' -- joins Northstar
The Denver Business Journal - May 25, 2007
Saving for retirement is a bit like losing weight, said Charles Farrell, a new financial adviser at Northstar Investment Advisors. "There are a million diet plans on TV, right?" Farrell said. "But you know the formula: You have to decrease your input and increase your output. It's the same as building wealth. There's really no easy path to doing it. You have to increase your savings rate, decrease your debt, be prudent and get time on your side."
-- Charlie Farrell

A $1 Million Retirement: How to Get There From Here
Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2007
“People wonder how they will ever accumulate enough money. But what many investors fail to understand is that once they reach a certain level of assets most of the savings should come from investment growth.”.
-- Charlie Farrell

A warming world or a rising tide
Denver Post, May 9, 2007
Climate change could hit the global economy hard, but that also means savvy investors can win big… Taylor pointed to three alternative energy related funds - PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy, PowerShares Cleantech, PowerShares Water Resources - which each have matched or outperformed the broader market so far this year. "It's like the dotcom era: You just don't know if it's safe to make bets on just one or two companies," he said.
-- Fred Taylor

S&P tops 1,500, nears a high
Dow sets third straight record as inflation slows
Rocky Mountain News, May 4, 2007
For investment advisers and mutual fund managers, the S&P 500 making an all-time (high) is more meaningful for two reasons. First, the Dow Jones Industrial Index measures the stock performance of only 30 large capitalization companies in that particular benchmark, whereas the S&P 500 measures the performance of 500 companies. Therefore, the S&P is a broader snapshot of how the economy is doing. Secondly, most if not all investment advisers and mutual fund managers are judged how they perform against the S&P 500 Index, not the Dow Jones Industrial Index. In fact, I have never seen performance reports that include the Dow as a measurement benchmark.
-- Fred Taylor

Consulting the crystal ball
Metro-area experts share predictions on 14,000, sectors poised for movement
Rocky Mountain News, April 26, 2007
“If the markets stay strong, I would keep an eye on the Nasdaq and technology sector because that index and group of companies have not really participated in the market rally since 2003 and on a PE basis are cheaper than quite a few value stocks. I would also watch the weakening U.S. dollar and have some money invested in the international markets as a hedge to the U.S. dollar falling any further.”
-- Fred Taylor

Markets spring back with the crocus
Rocky Mountain News, April 19, 2007
“The markets have rebounded since the end of February because the sell-off in China was short-lived and the sub-prime loans scare has been priced into the markets. Investors are now focused on the next move from the Fed and corporate earnings. With inflation under control, full employment and the decent housing numbers today, the Fed won't be lowering interest rates soon, but at least there is still that hope by year-end. Thus far, corporate earnings are proving to be better than the reduced expectations, which has also helped the Dow push higher." – Fred Taylor

"Sit tight," expert tells small-time investors
Denver Post, February 28, 2007
“In the big picture, this is a well-needed correction. The fundamentals haven't changed in the last two days. This may be a buying opportunity when it all settles out. ” – Fred Taylor

What the experts think
Rocky Mountain News, February 28, 2007
“I wouldn't be buying or selling anything (today) based on what happened(Tuesday). I would rather wait to evaluate whether this is a one-to-two day phenomenon or the start of a more serious correction or even a bear market. The rest of the week will be important to see if there is a bounceback in the Chinese markets first, then what damage has been done to the hedge funds around the world, and third if investors use this as a buying opportunity to pick up stocks unfairly punished in this sell-off. ” – Fred Taylor

Looking forward
Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation, October 3, 2006
“...the Dow has potential to surpass the current record close if energy and interest rates stay low, corporate profits exceed analysts expectations, and company executives are optimistic about their fourth quarter performance. ” – Fred Taylor

The Experts weigh in
Rocky Mountain News, September 30, 2006
“Ben Bernanke has been very clear about his concerns regarding the economy, the housing market, inflation, and the direction of short-term interests rates. In short, I think he has filled some very big shoes extremely well in just two months on the job. His professional qualifications, relative youth and Federal Reserve experience give Wall Street a great deal of confidence.

“Despite all the negative headlines regarding the housing bubble bursting, the war in Iraq, and weak durable goods orders, the S&P made a new 52-week high because of the 20% fall in oil prices, gas at the pump selling well under the $3 level, and too much cash on the sidelines expecting the market to fall in September. The stock market has also been encouraged by the Fed leaving rates unchanged.” – Fred Taylor

Formula foretells security level
Chicago Tribune, August 6, 2006
Charles Farrell devised three ratios: debt to income, savings to income and savings rate to income, to give snapshots to plan for a financially secure retirement. “We have ratios, like a price-earnings ratio on stocks that we use to make a quick assessment of a company. These [ratios] certainly don't tell the whole story of a company, but they are widely used because they are so easy.” – Charlie Farrell

INFLATION: Increases spread beyond energy
Denver Post, May 18, 2006
“Wall Street's rally to start 2006 was fueled in part by investor speculation in energy, gold, and industrial stocks, a scenario that made a market correction almost inevitable. He advised homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages to convert their loans to fixed-rate mortgages in anticipation of more rate hikes. He also suggested that investors funnel cash into tax-sheltered investments such as IRA's or work-sponsored 401(k) plans and money-market funds until stocks appear poised to rally.” – Fred Taylor