Years ago, when I was thinking about retiring from banking and starting my own investment advisory business, a good friend and client suggested I spend some time at her cabin high in the mountains of Wintergreen.  Unfortunately, the weather was not great.  There was a low ceiling, and we found ourselves inside the cloud, literally.  I could not see the other side of the 8 foot deck!

I thought that must be the view of the average investor . . . thick, impenetrable, and scary.  With only a fuzzy concept of their objectives, a minimal understanding of economics, and little experience with the stock market, their investment view could easily be cloudy.  I even toyed with the name of “CloudVest” for my new firm, but that idea was quickly dismissed by my wife.

Since then, the Cloud has taken a far different meaning.  It means I am able to access the Internet from almost everywhere and need very little that is on the hard drive of my own computer.  (To my surprise, I was able to access everything I needed, on a secured basis, even from China last year.)

Today, as Hurricane Irene approaches and rain pelts the windows, I watch the news reports of electricity outages.  With two laptops each with 3 hour batteries, a netbook with a 6 hour battery, and a fire station with generator across the street, complete with a battery/phone charging station, it amazes me that we could still access the Cloud and manage portfolios for a considerable length of time, even if Hurricane Irene was a Category Five.

Many people are resentful of the technological progress, but I love it!