Independent Investment Management and Financial Planning
Often a new economic boom begins when things couldn’t get much worse. High unemployment, high inflation, low / negative growth, and stagnant / declining asset prices all contribute to a feeling of misery, which is usually the prevalent emotion at the bottom of a bear market or economic cycle.
Continue reading “Then vs. Now. The Beginning of A Long-Term Cycle vs. The End of One”
This note was first published to my email subscribers on 1/10/2018.
Early this morning, at 4:26 AM CST to be exact, Bloomberg broke a story that senior officials in the Chinese government are considering reducing or halting purchases of U.S. Treasury Bonds. This caused stock futures to drop, USD to drop, and bond yields to spike (i.e. bond prices to fall) before the open.
So what is this all about and why is it such a big deal? Continue reading “China and U.S. Treasuries…What was this morning’s news all about?”
On many fronts, 2017 was a year for the ages and will likely go down as significant in history. There were several records set by the markets in terms of returns, volatility and valuations.
Because this is an annual review it’s much longer than my typical commentaries. So, if you’re short on time and just want the highlights from 2017 check out the outline and table on pages 3-5. Link to the PDF is provided below.
We’re almost nine years into this bull market. This means many of us own investments with significant unrealized gains, and we’d like to protect those profits.
One way to protect our profits is to sell the investment. Simple enough. But selling forces us to realize and pay taxes on all those gains. Besides, maybe we still like the stock for a variety of reasons and want to continue owning it. So selling may not be a great solution, but there is a strategy that can accomplish all our goals. Continue reading “A Strategy to Protect Gains, Defer Taxes, Participate In Market Upside and Collect Dividends”
After seeing a previous video, one of my clients recently commented that many people don’t even know the right questions to ask or what to listen for when hiring a financial advisor. They suggested it might be a good video topic. I agree.
Continue reading “[Video] – Questions You Should Ask When Hiring A Financial Advisor”