News & Articles
Investment clubs are a great way to learn how to value companies, project future growth and build a retirement portfolio. Is your portfolio balanced? Do you have the correct mix of industries? Are you overweight in some stocks? A balanced portfolio will help you weather a storm.The good news is your volunteer Arizona Chapter Board is ready and willing to help. We offer free (yes; no cost, nada, zilch, zip) assistance for BetterInvesting investment clubs. We will come out to your club meeting and do a review of your portfolio, give you invaluable tools to maintain a successful and balanced portfolio. Simply reach out to; Contact@arizona.betterinvesting.net
Not in an investment club? WELL... We cover that too. There are 2 model investment clubs in Arizona. they are both free to visit and join. Here you can learn the BetterInvesting principals, how to implement them and how to grow your investments.
WANTED:
Your Arizona board of volunteers is asking you for help. If you are proficient at Facebook and Instagram, we really need you. We want to get the word out that there is free education available in Arizona on stock investing we are trying to grow the brand. Please consider helping.
Our next annual meeting is on August 14th 2025. Our guest speaker will be Betsy Wills, Director of Rocky Mountain Chapter and founder of an investment club. Her topic will be:
The Size Effect: How Small Stocks Came to be Part of a Well-Diversified Portfolio
Have you considered how small-cap stocks became integral to a diversified portfolio? The Capital Asset Pricing Model (Calm), the first formal asset-pricing model developed in the early 1960s, is extensively utilized in finance to guide investors on expected returns relative to risk. However, a significant breakthrough occurred in 1981 with the discovery of the "Size Effect," which identified a correlation between a company's size and its returns. This discussion will cover CAPM, the "Size Effect," its impact, and how including small-cap stocks in a portfolio can balance risk and potentially enhance returns. Additionally, we may explore the use of predefined Small Company and A-List stock screens in the SSGPlus for a swift visual evaluation of the stocks on these lists..
Registration is free and open to all. Attend our meeting, learn something new, and maybe win a prize. Register through our "local events" page.
Want to volunteer on the board? Have social media experience? We are actively searching for help in this area.
Please email: Contact@arizona.betterinvesting.net
Club Corner:
Here you learn about clubs in Arizona. Want to be featured? reach out to us with the email just above.Filling in the Blank: The Journey of Unified Money Maker$
In the early 90’s a group of co-workers, including this writer, created an investment club
located in the Great Plains. Research was ordinary for our group, as we were
professionals engaging in research and manufacturing for a pharmaceutical company.
The query, the amount of learning, the risk and reward were familiar to us. The
club had a natural affinity for the challenges ahead.
Forming the club was easy from my perspective, although the tools were basic and
often improvised. The club enlisted the guidance of the nonprofit National Association of
Investment Clubs (NAIC®), which had been around for decades. Guidance in the early
years came primarily from emails, phone calls, and attending workshops held in community schools.
A member of our club created an Excel™ workbook that became our stock selection support tool.
The tool organized our accounting data, and provided assistance in reporting. Fast forward several decades
and today the same club, Research Investors, remains as committed partners utilizing
the many tools and educational offerings of the newer National Association of
Investors®, (dba BetterInvesting), MyICLUBcentral©, and Manifest Investing©
. The full array of these learning opportunities and support is instrumental to the Research
Investors club “filling in the blank” with “success”.
This investor unfortunately left the Research Investors club very early and spent many
years in academia. Upon retirement and relocating to the Southwest, I reached out to a
neighbor in 2023 about finding an investment club in Tucson. My first experience taught
me the importance of BetterInvesting principles for investment clubs, so it took little time
to see the club I joined was not a good fit.
By early fall 2023 my friend, a retired physician, was also recruited into this investment
group. Although she had no investment club experience, she understood the need for
structure and compliance. With advice from the Research Investors club and the
BetterInvesting website we explored what we might do to improve our situation. We
found contact information online and reached out to Southern Arizona Model club
(SoAz) in Tucson for help. Help we got.
Our first contact with Southern Arizona Model club was late fall 2023. Immediately we
were under the wing of Robyn Hamilton. Her guidance and willingness to answer our
questions remains remarkable. With help from Robyn and a friend in the Research
Investors Club we brought to the club examples of Stock Selection Guides and
demonstrated the advantages of the tools available for clubs organized within
BetterInvesting. This emphasis on structure and education stressed several members
of the club, who had different goals in mind. It was apparent starting our own club was the better choice.
By February 2024, we had resigned as partners of the club and began the efforts to start a new investment club.
There are criteria that keeps clubs legitimate, productive, and cohesive, but no “one
right way” exists. Since late fall 2023 and through to today, we lean on Southern
Arizona Model Club’s expertise.in becoming a thriving club.
We benefited from several meetings with Robyn to learn and review the tools available
for stock selection and address the questions to manage a club.
Unified Money Makers (UMM) launched during the fall of 2024, with a total of six
partners. We filed our federal documents as a partnership, completed our Partnership
Agreement, drafted the Operational Guidelines, and made agreements with a broker.
Robyn Hamilton and Steve Clauter continued to give us sound guidance. Our club had
regular meetings and pop-up workshops. In December we purchased our first stock.
Four additional stocks are now part of our portfolio.
Recent market volatility proves how much more we need to learn, but we know where to
find the answers to our questions and get excellent support. We believe it was the “right
way” for our club to reach out to BetterInvesting and use the vast array of tools
offered. We are especially grateful for Robyn Hamilton and the Southern Arizona Model Club.
While we may not have the “blank” of our adventure filled in quite yet, we are working
on it!
~Sandi Weber
