The volatility of the stock market in the last couple of weeks has put many investors on edge. But Tim Podell, vice president of investments at Wedbush Securities, sees the market correction as a buying opportunity.
Tim Podell is a third-generation money manager, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Embarking on his 23rd year in the business, Podell has gone through the dot-com crash and the Great Recession. He lives in the Malibu area and has served clients from all around Malibu.
“I’ve seen the ups and downs for two decades. It’s nice to have a little history and experience behind you if you’re going to build something as simple as a college portfolio or an IRA you’re rolling over,” Podell explained. “You still want to have a little growth, but you don’t want to just throw it into an index fund and forget about it, because markets do correct. When a market corrects, the index fund corrects.
“For a lot of people, it’s safer to own a nice quality value U.S. stock with a dividend in your IRA as opposed to just throwing it into an index fund or a robo advisor,” Podell continued. “People like to have a dividend in their account and let’s face it—in an IRA, it’s all tax deferred. It’s nicer to know what you own, especially in today’s day and age. I prefer to customize a portfolio for people.”
Podell specializes in municipal bonds that create a tax-free income stream.
“Many people, as they’ve worked their whole lives, don’t want to deal with the ups and downs of the stock market,” the financial advisor said. “They like the more secure, safe, conservative type investment of tax-free municipal bonds. That creates federal and California state tax-free income.”
Podell commented on the recent correction, “Markets don’t just go straight up. We’ve seen the market go up about 45 percent in the last 14 months. So this is very healthy in a bull market. It only fell 10 percent. A correction is usually a 10 or 20 percent level. We’ve retained about two-thirds of that back. We are now back to where we were January 1, give or take a hundred or two points.”
Podell said for most investors, customization is key.
“I want to customize a plan for you. We don’t want to put a round peg in a square hole,” Podell said. “Just a basic index fund is fine if you have a long-term growth strategy, but not everybody in life is the same. I sit down with somebody, go over their entire financial situation and customize a portfolio for them.”
Podell says he’s confident “we’ll end the year higher” and predicts an eight percent gain on the Dow this year. “This is a buying opportunity when we see these corrections.”