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By Dejan Ilijevski, MBA, MS — SCM Investment Services Almost every day, a marketing email crosses my desk promising eye-popping investment returns. One last week pointed me to a firm whose published fact sheets advertised year-to-date model returns as high as +101.8% — in a year when the very indexes those models are measured against […]

By Dejan Ilijevski, MBA, MS — SCM Investment Services Most people think building wealth starts when you finally have money left over at the end of the month. It doesn’t. It starts with a small amount, set to move on its own — and doing a few things in the right order. If money is […]

By Dejan Ilijevski, MBA, MS — SCM Investment Services There’s a guaranteed 21.5% return hiding in your credit card balance. Most people go after it the wrong way — and end up borrowing every dollar right back. You finally scrape together the money and pay the credit card down to zero. It takes months. You […]

By Dejan Ilijevski, MBA, MS — SCM Investment Services Last month, a client asked me whether she should move most of her long-term savings into a bank account — or even a safe at home. Her father lived through the Great Depression. He told her stories about banks shutting their doors, families losing everything, savings […]

By Dejan Ilijevski, MBA, MS — SCM Investment Services When you set out to find a financial advisor, you’re usually told to look for three letters: CFP. It’s reasonable advice — but it answers a narrower question than most people assume. It tells you someone cleared a bar, not necessarily how low that bar was. […]