Meet the Street: Rebecca Lobo on Money and Investing

Rebecca Lobo, the 28-year-old center for the WNBA's New York Liberty women's basketball team, is not someone who's used to losing, having won 102 consecutive games at one point in her college and Olympic career. And that experience extends to her investments, where she's been carefully putting her money in a diversified equity portfolio since her senior year at the University of Connecticut in 1995.

Rebecca Lobo, Center, WNBA New York Liberty

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Currently, she hands over the bulk of her estimated six-figure yearly income, which includes endorsements, to her financial planner, Carol Colton of Ronald Blue & Co. in Atlanta. Although Lobo's investments are down about 12% for the year through October (vs. a 26% decline in the Nasdaq ), Lobo says she's confident that her portfolio of diversified mutual funds will serve her well long term.
According to Colton, the strongest portion of Lobo's holdings recently has been real estate, which makes up about 10% of her overall portfolio. Those assets, primarily real estate investment trusts (REITs), are up slightly for the year, while her investments in U.S. and international equities are down 17.5% and 24.1%, respectively, for the year, according to Colton.

Lobo, college player of the year in 1995 when she led the UConn to a 35-0 record and the NCAA championship, here explains her interest in investing for the future, particularly given a knee ligament injury she suffered in 1999 that sidelined her for the season. She is also involved in a number of charities of personal significance to her, including an academic scholarship she has set up at her alma mater. Following her mother's successful battle with breast cancer, Lobo has been engaged in the fight against breast cancer and has donated significant money to breast cancer research.

TSC: What are you doing with your investments right now? Have you been cowed by the markets, as many other investors have been over the past 19 months?

Lobo: I turn over my financial [investments] to Ron Blue & Co., formerly known as Atlantic Capital Management; I pretty much hand over my investments to my financial planner, Carol Colton. To be honest with you, the only thing I look at on my quarterly investment reports is how much I've made or, recently, how much I've lost. I don't look at specific funds, stocks or anything like that.

TSC: Are you happy with what is going on right now? How are your investments doing? And what advice would you give to other investors, most of whom have been hammered all year? ...