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Is the Market the Economy and Why Does My Coffee Taste Bad?
There have been a lot of confusing things about the past year: Will my kids ever go back to school? Have they been scarred psychologically? And WHY, even 4 months after my COVID diagnosis, does some coffee still taste like cough syrup mixed with aluminum foil? These are the questions that keep me up at…
Read More2020…A Decade to Remember
Living through 2020 felt like living through an entire decade. I’ll leave it to you to decide which decade you’d like to relive, but I’m going for the 1960s – though maybe skimming a few years from the late 60s and adding them to the late 50s.
Read MoreThe Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021…In Under 5500 Pages!
Does the excitement of the new Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 keep you awake at night? If so, you can find all 5,593 pages here on Congress’s website and I’m confident your insomnia will be cured by page 3. Like most of you, I skipped most of the tiny print of the bill in favor…
Read MoreEnd of Year Action Items – 2020 Edition
The past 12 months have brought significant tax changes including the CARES, Disaster, and SECURE acts, each with implications for retirement and tax planning. In addition to providing action items to potentially help reduce your 2020 tax burden, the purpose of this post is to recap the financial planning implications of – and opportunities created by these acts.
Read More3Q2020 – When in Doubt, Rebalance!
Skip Jake’s Take and Download Q3 Market Slides ________________________________ Jake’s Take – 3Q2020 With deep concern surrounding the pending elections, and elevated volatility (read: market swings) priced into January 2021, stocks continued to climb the wall of worry, finishing the 3rd quarter up over 9%. For those keeping track at home, where most readers are…
Read More2Q2020 Newsletter – Why Are Markets So High?
The markets will continue to be choppy in the coming months, due to the Coronavirus and upcoming elections. Don’t let that derail your long-term investment goals.
Read More1Q2020 Newsletter – Where Do We Go From Here?
Investors purchasing stocks/stock funds at these levels should expect a higher return over a long-term investment horizon than those who purchased in January, after 10 years of compounding double-digit growth. Likewise if the market continues to fall, that increases the investors’ expected returns.
Read MoreVolatility 2.0
An investor’s inclination to sell or buy is strongly inversely correlated to the proper time to do so. If your investment objectives and time horizon have not changed (other than being one day older), studies have consistently shown that your best course of action, difficult as it may be, is to remain invested.
Read MoreA Note On Market Volatility
Surprise! Stock markets can be volatile. Ask your fee-only financial advisor to help you remain disciplined.
Read More5 SECURE Act Changes…and How You May be Affected
In December of 2019, under the cover of darkness and impeachment hearings, some of the most significant tax legislation of the past 20 years passed in unusual bipartisan fashion: the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, or SECURE act. The name- which undoubtedly took weeks of debate to come up with and agree upon, speaks to the purpose, though not the entirety or sweeping nature of the act; a rare legislative accomplishment for an otherwise gridlocked Washington. While the act addresses a number of retirement chads left hanging after the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, it also makes changes to 529 plans, medical expense deductions, kiddie taxes and more. The focus of the plan is clear, however, in its attempt to modernize and streamline retirement savings for Americans.
Read More10 End of Year Action Steps to Potentially Reduce Your Tax Burden
It’s the most wonderful time of the year…to take advantage of tax savings opportunities.
As we begin the final weeks of the year, consider the following action items to potentially reduce your tax bill and improve your financial footing in 2020 and beyond.
When Batting .700 Isn’t Good Enough…
You’re smarter than the average investor, right? You’ve done the research and despite hearing how difficult it is to predict the market’s direction over a specified period of time, you’re confident you know better than the CFAs, Ph.Ds and Quant’s building the algorithms on Wall Street. You even understand that, by definition, if the stock market…
Read MoreUsing Covered Calls to Generate Income and Hedge Concentrated Stock Positions
Deciding to sell a stock you’ve inherited or held on to for 25 or more years can be difficult and even emotional, and increasingly I find myself suggesting alternative strategies than an outright sale for the purposes of diversification.
Read MoreZoom Out
“Why should I invest money in the market when it’s near all-time highs?” – Investors, c. 2015, 2005, 1997, etc
Read MoreRead This Before Investing: The Investment Policy Statement
Enter the Investment Policy Statement or IPS. The IPS is not a contract and makes no guarantees. Rather, it articulate the types of investments (ingredients) and range of outcomes an investor should expect given their risk tolerance.
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