November 15, 2022

While my life may not be as varied as others, I’ve still been fortunate to have enjoyed a lot of interesting experiences. But even during my college fraternity days – when my judgment may have been occasionally impaired due to weekend merriment – I never recall thinking that I should try farming.

November 15, 2022

This article speaks to concerns that some investors have due to the performance of both the stock and bond markets in 2022. As noted by Vanguard¹, “…market, economic, and geopolitical conditions all appear fraught. Inflation is hitting 40-year highs, the Federal Reserve is sharply reversing monetary policy, the pandemic hasn’t gone away, and supply chain woes have been exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns in China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…Not surprisingly, this perfect storm of negative market drivers has pushed stock and bond prices south in lockstep, impairing the normal diversification of risks in a balanced portfolio.”

November 15, 2022

Thanks to the AARP Bulletin for their article¹ on how all of us can better use our smartphones. For purposes of brevity, we’ve only included examples for iPhones. If you have an Android device, you can likely accomplish the same tasks though you may want to Google instructions on how to do so.  Also note these uses will likely only function if you’re using the latest iPhone software version.

September 30, 2022

You may wonder whether or not John and I recycle paragraphs from old memos when we write to clients every time there’s a stock market downturn. We don’t, but we understand the perception. If you’ve been a client through a few downturns, you may have observed that many of our communications repeat the same themes: try to stay calm; stay the course; market cycles repeat; and getting in and out of the market (a.k.a., market-timing) to try to avoid losses doesn’t work. Frankly, there aren’t a lot of ways to say the same things, hence the repetition. 

September 30, 2022

There used to be a time when people would think about buying long-term care insurance when they retired. There used to also be a time when insurance companies wrote policies for sixty-somethings. Then a funny thing happened: people started to live longer. Worse, at least from the perspective of an insurance carrier, the people who lived longer were people who were long-term care policyholders.

September 30, 2022

A recent paper by Vanguard¹ visually depicts why an increase in interest rates is so important to long-term bond returns and why more recent price volatility is not as much a concern as many investors fear.

August 15, 2022

Our business relates to money, specifically your money, so our interest is always piqued when we hear about scams seeking to separate our clients from their hard-earned assets. And if you think we focus on this topic too much, you’re correct. In fact, we’d like to send out even more reminders. 

August 15, 2022

A rapid rise in inflation roiled the stock and bond markets this year, resulting in the worst first half ever for U.S. corporate investment grade bonds. As we’ve previously noted, that’s atypical, as bonds often increase in value when the equities markets drop. As bonds play such a critical role in client portfolios, the next two articles, utilizing analysis by Vanguard^1,2, help to put recent volatility into a long-term perspective.

June 30, 2022

As we move into summer, thoughts naturally turn to vacations. Living on the East Coast, one may think about a trip to the shore (if you’re in New Jersey) or the beach (the term for “sand” used by everyone else on the planet).

June 30, 2022

It would be logical to assume that financial planners want clients to spend less than more each year. While logical, that assumption is not absolute. Rather, there are occasions where we encourage clients to spend money as/if necessary, to include paying life insurance premiums to safeguard against loss of income, premiums for long-term care insurance, paying fees to an attorney to draft updated wills and related documents, et al. Last, but far from least, is paying fees to an accountant to prepare tax returns and do tax planning.