It covers:

• Tips on where to find the deferred income amount
• Where to report the income to the IRS
• Cautionary advice

We hope you find this as a helpful reminder.

As you’ll see in this chart, making emotional decisions and immediate reactions can hinder growth within a portfolio. Going from 1991 to 2010, all the areas in the chart fared better than the average investor. Please note these areas are for illustrative purposes only and not investment recommendations.

To learn more about the background on this graph, hear about major headwinds and tailwinds that are affecting the economy and more, don’t delay in registering! Sign up today!

Now that we are officially over the holiday season and into working on 2012, I had a few moments to think about the mindset of Richmond Brothers. I thought it would be important to share with you how its leaders look at the world, and in particular Richmond Brothers, at this time in history.

We believe fundamentally there are two ways to look at where you are and where you want to go. You can be satisfied and content with what you have. Your chief concern is keeping what you have and protecting what you have “earned.” We think this is a very dangerous mindset. If you are constantly trying to protect what you have you interpret everything that comes at you as a threat. You are not moving forward into the world and all it offers but are reacting to the world as it comes at you. Inevitably it is a negative mindset, tiresome, and ultimately frustrating. Richmond Brothers lives an attitude of gratitude. We are so blessed and have been given so much in the form of gifts, talents, and abilities. We have blessings in the form of our clients and our team members. This attitude of gratitude attracts others to us as clients and those that want to work in an environment such as ours. This is not to say we are perfect, rather I would say we are perfectly imperfect. But I would say we have the ability to choose our attitude every day and each day we come to work we have the opportunity to make a difference in the life of someone else. That is a special gift and one we give thanks for.

Borrowing the famous tag line from Lexus, I agree we have the relentless pursuit of perfection but I would alter it to say we have a relentless pursuit of progress. We want to be better tomorrow than we are today and we want to move towards our objectives (goals) always striving for measurable progress. Having this mindset allows us to be progressive, not reactive; we effect change so that change doesn’t just happen to us. We have a big vision of the future – we are committed to creating a bigger version of ourselves individually as well as a bigger version of the company. This will help us continue to serve clients in the world-class manner they have come to expect from us and that we use as our standard. We are as excited and committed to this vision now as we ever have been. We believe in a bold and bright future where opportunities are limitless. We are committed to establishing habits on a daily basis that will take our grand vision and allow us to achieve it by executing in bite size pieces.

I give thanks for each and every one of you, no matter your affiliation with Richmond Brothers. You have contributed to our growth and our foundation. The next decade is going to be the best decade in our company’s history. There will be hiccups along the way but we’ll learn from them just as we do our successes (and truth be told probably more so). So we celebrate the good and the bad experiences and give thanks for them. I know in the deepest recesses of my heart that I have never been more excited about what is in front of us and the opportunities that lie ahead. I am so glad you are along for the journey; it’s going to be one great ride. I wouldn’t want any other group of people to share the next decade of my life with than you. Welcome aboard and let’s move onward!  -Dave