Thursday November 15th

Cornell O.C. Business Luncheon at the Center Club:

“Your 401(k): Deep-Sixed or a Secure Future?”

We are privileged to have as our guest speaker Cornellian and Investment Expert:

Tom Jacobs
Portfolio Manager and Advisor,
Motley Fool Special Ops,
Principal, The Marfa Group, Inc.,
Marfa, Texas

Date: Thusday, November 15th, 2012
Time: 11:30 am to 1:30 pm
Location: The Center Club
650 Town Center Drive – Garden Level,
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tel. (714) 662-3414

11:30 AM Luncheon will begin promptly
12:00 PM Presentation/Q&A
 1:30 PM Luncheon will end promptly

Cost: $40/person Members 
$45 for Non-members
includes valet parking at Center Club

Event Contact: Gaye Tomlinson, MBA ’05, CAAOC Business Lunches and Breakfasts, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , 714-742-2948.

Event Highlights:

  1. The 401(k) is the dominant form of retirement savings today.
  2. The average retiree’s 401(k) balance is insufficient to support retirement.  
  3. With any job move, most employees roll over their 401(k) plans into self-directed accounts.
  4. Rollovers offer the chance to switch from a company’s mutual fund options to individual stocks.
  5. Most people are unprepared to invest in individual stocks, let alone manage them in a portfolio.
  6. They are exposed to substantial risk of loss, worsening their situation.
  7. Sticking with the market averages doesn’t help when one large losing period can set you back dramatically in returns necessary to meet financial goals. What to do?
  8. Adopt a risk management mindset: Think not how to pick the winners but rather how to avoid the severe losers.  
  9. To do that, follow the revenue, cash flow, inventory, margins, and footnotes (everything that is publicly disclosed) to determine where unsustainable sources of earnings exist. Tom will give examples of the top four indicators and show how to apply these indicators to the following stocks: salesforce.com (CRM), Hewlett-Packard (HP), Crocs (CROX), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), Coach (COH)
  10. After reducing blowup risk, buy on sale: Valuation matters! Determine what a company would pay to buy the company you want to invest in, and then pay less than that. This is your margin of safety.  

Speaker Bio:
Tom Jacobs, co-author of What’s Behind the Numbers? A Guide to Exposing Financial Chicanery and Avoiding Huge Losses in Your Portfolio (McGraw-Hill, Oct. 2012), is a seasoned investment expert, whose career includes serving as Portfolio Manager and Advisor for Motley Fool Special Opportunities, as well as managing his own investment firm, The Marfa Group, Inc.

Mr. Jacobs began his career as a high school teacher at several locations in the U.S., Venezuela and Kenya.  After receiving his Law Degree, he worked as an Attorney at the prestigious Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom firm in Chicago, then became Assistant Regional Counsel for the US Government.  Between 2000-2004, Jacobs worked as a Senior Analyst for Motley Fool, a highly respected multimedia financial services company.  In this role, he acted as co-portfolio manager for certain high growth and biotech portfolios.  He also appeared on numerous TV and radio shows, and wrote articles as a columnist to better educate the public regarding investment strategies.

The experience of the 2000 crash turned Jacobs to value investing, which he has practiced ever since. After working at a variety of investment-related companies, in 2011 he started his own financial consulting firm, The Marfa Group, Inc.

In 2010, he also returned to Motley Fool Special Ops as a Portfolio Manager and Advisor.

Mr. Jacobs holds B.A. and M.A.T degrees from Cornell University (1977 and 1978), and a Law Degree from the University of Chicago (1987).