Raymond James Financial CEO Paul Reilly Sings Equities For The Longterm

Paul Reilly, Raymond James Financial RJF CEO, appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box Thursday morning to talk about his views on investing, tackling fixed-income investments like bonds, and preaching the value of good foresight. Reilly kicked off by saying that it's not a good time to be long at lower credit-fixed income for the average investor who can't take principal losses, suggesting that bonds just aren't worth it. "As rates go up, which they will someday, there's just too much chance of principal loss," said Reilly. He noted that it's difficult to convince some that bonds aren't the right place to be. Reilly said that there's a search for yield, especially in retired people. "They're willing to take more risks because the yields are artificially low because of the Federal government," said Reilly. Reilly did say that you should have part of your investment portfolio in bonds, but that it depends on where you are in life. He said that if you're young, you should have more in equities. If you're more towards retirement, then you more in fixed income. He went on to say that investors have to look at where they think the market will be in a year or two, and then invest in the longterm. He said that his company has had 101 consecutive quarters of profitability just by taking a longterm portfolio view. Reilly also commented on the impact of the Federal Reserve pulling out, saying that they have to come out at sometime and that we have to address the deficit at sometime. "So it's going to impact the markets, but again, I think if you look longterm, I'd look at longterm moderate growth in the U.S. economy, and if you're an investor, not a trader, you have to look just at longterm investment, not what's going to happen this week or next week," said Reilly.