Well, it’s official. Third quarter has ended in bear market territory across multiple markets. To place that news in meaningful context, we pose two questions: In better times, had you boldly “pre-decided” what you would and would not do during the next bear market? “Great investment experiences treat most portfolio decisions as non-decisions. They’ve been […]
Even though we know it was just dumb luck, can we get a round of applause for seeming to forecast last month’s surprisingly strong market returns? It’s almost (but not really) as if the market were reading our mind when three broad U.S. stock indexes ended July 2022 with their best returns since 2020—up 9.1%, […]
Is rising inflation souring your financial plans? As we covered in our report, “Interest Rates, Inflation, and Investment Strategy,” protecting the bulk of your wealth is mostly about building and maintaining a well-structured investment portfolio with a few anti-inflation elements. Outside of your core portfolio, there is also a potentially sweet deal for turning some […]
After taking a closer look at interest rates in part 1 and inflation in part 2, we come to the heart of the matter: When interest rates, inflation, or both are on the rise, what’s an investor to do? Big picture, we are continuing to deploy the same core principles we use to help people […]
And just like that, two years have passed since spring 2020. Two years since none of us had a clue how long COVID would linger … or how quickly today would arrive. Time can confound us that way, magically managing to crawl and fly at the same time. Capital markets are often as confounding, as […]
Has rising inflation got you down? In our last piece, “Understanding Interest Rates” we explored how rising and falling interest rates can impact a healthy economy. Today, let’s add inflation to the conversation. How Do We Measure Inflation? Inflation is the rate at which money loses its purchasing power over time. As you might guess, […]
At its March 15–16 Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its federal target funds rate by a quarter point. It was the first increase since December 2018, but it wasn’t a huge surprise. Fed Chair Jerome Powell had already said we should expect as much, with the potential for additional […]
Have you been reading the daily headlines—watching markets stall, recover, and dip once again? If so, you may be wondering whether there’s anything you can do to avoid motion sickness. If you already have a well-structured, globally diversified portfolio tailored for your goals and risk tolerances, our answer remains the same as ever: Your best […]
Today, in a whole new year, let’s talk about parts versus wholes. The theme is hardly new, but it bears repeating, lest we forget how essential they both are—to each other, to us, and to our financial well-being. There’s never a lack of noise coming from the moving parts that make up your whole portfolio, […]
Have you ever noticed, when people speak about meaning or direction, they usually talk about finding it, discovering it, or adding it to their life? What if that’s not how it works? Rather than casting about for meaning, maybe it’s already there, happening all the time: “The greatest things in the world are brought about […]