Help at the End of the Road - It seems that every other week or so, I hear someone talking about the challenges of caring for a family member or friend who is suffering from declining ability due to age. Declining ability could mean mental, physical, or both conditions being affected. As I recently obtained my credentials as a licensed professional fiduciary with […]
Why Investing is Not Simple - Investing considerations should be based on measurable metrics, history, the economy, risk, and timeline. Feelings and emotions are not included in this criteria.
Suffering from Sudden Wealth Issues… - “The call” comes in…and news is broken that your long-loved relative has passed away. Over the next several weeks, you and your family go through the 5-stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining or guilt, depression, and acceptance. At the end of the family gatherings, internment, celebrations of life, and even some alone time, you discover […]
Getting your Ducks Lined Up. - The average American consumer has 5.3 accounts across all types of financial institutions. Some have more than 20, and some might only have 2-accounts. But with each successive account, how does one go about tracking them all? Do you know the exact balance of your checking, savings, mortgage, credit cards, and car loan off the […]
Exciting Times for Boring Stuff - Exciting Times for Boring Stuff Talk about an oxymoronic headline! Why is it that cash, bonds, treasury bills, and CD’s are getting more attention today than they’ve garnered over the past 15-years? It’s because those fixed income investments, or instruments, are now paying upwards of 5% interest! The last time banks were paying this much […]
10 Year-end Planning Ideas - With all the uncertainty in the markets, a negative political environment, a sour international outlook, and the ever present attack of inflation eroding your purchasing power, I thought it would be a good time to focus on the things we can control. Being proactive almost always has its advantages and I wanted to offer a […]
Inclement Weather and Finance - Dark clouds, brutal gusts of wind, white caps, flash floods, and pelting rain…it’s all in a day on the lake. This particular year however, it’s been occurring a lot more frequently on the Colorado River that runs right through the Mojave Desert. And our little escape to the lake, is right in the middle of […]
Percentage vs. Dollars vs. Points…How do you measure up? - Is there something that frustrates you to no end every time you hear it? There is for me. I get frustrated when radio and media commentators report on stock market indexes. You know the three favorites: The Dow, The S&P 500, and the NASDAQ. What do they report? They tell you how many points up […]
One Day Up, Next Day Down…Trying to Find a Direction - Today was a bad day in the market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,164 points, which is 3.6%. The Nasdaq Composite index dropped 4.7%. These are some of the biggest daily drops since June of 2020. By contrast, the Dow surged 2.8%, while the Nasdaq rose 3.2% only 14-days ago, on May 4th. To […]
Inverted Yield Curve + Inflation = Stay the Course - Recently the yield curve inverted for the first time since August 2019 (which means that long-term interest rates have dropped below short-term rates). Why do we pay attention to this? Because this inversion suggests that investors believe the near-term economy and markets to be riskier than the long-term. This recent inversion in the yield curve […]