Portfolio Strategy Review 2022
Overview The reset of 2022 was a painful reminder that investment fads and cycles can shift direction with little warning. Diversification helps mitigate risk, but it isn’t perfect. Bonds typically are a reliable and stable diversifier when stocks decline, but the...
Portfolio Strategy Review Q3 2022
Overview The primary financial headline is the same: Inflation is over 8.0%; Interest rates are still rising. With a lot of political and economic drama beneath the surface. In the time honored tradition, the party in power takes more credit or gets more blame for the...
Portfolio Strategy Review Q2 2022
Overview The second quarter continued the negative trends that we saw in the first quarter. Interest rates and inflation increased, though there has been recent price relief in the housing, energy, and other commodity markets. The labor market remains strong with...
The Energy Debate: Green vs Greener
My last conference summary to you was about rising prices. Energy costs contribute to the price of most everything. Whether its vacation travel, transportation of goods or raw materials, food, heating or cooling, or just staying plugged in! Therefore, the debate (or...
Portfolio Strategy Review Q1 2022
"I need ammunition. Not a ride." History Lessons from War, Appeasement, and Markets It’s useful to compare the events in Ukraine against history because we all have a stake in the outcome. In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria; and demanded a portion of Czechoslovakia that...
The January Effect
According to the zany theory called the January Effect, they are supposed to go up. January was rough across most markets. The doomsayers, armed with historical data, were out in full force predicting the “mother of all bear markets” is just around the corner. And...
Portfolio Strategy Review 2021
Overview Between the pandemic that won’t go away and the politics of the day, US stock markets shrugged it off and delivered extraordinary returns in 2021. At least we are closer to the end of the pandemic. The politics I’m not so sure about. Economic growth forecasts...
Portfolio Rebalancing: You Can’t Spend an Average
Avoiding Bad Luck with Rebalancing It’s easy to be complacent as our account balances have risen over the past twelve years. The record fast market decline from COVID was offset by an equally fast recuperation, driven by large doses of fiscal and monetary stimulation....
Portfolio Rebalancing: The Dull Discipline
The famed economist John Maynard Keynes once quipped: “The market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” Or employed. Or happily married. It’s easy to get complacent when we watch our account balance increase during the great melt up over the past...
Proposed Tax and Planning Updates
I spent 2 days last week at a continuing education conference with Ed Slott & Company. This is my third year in the program. Slott has been a thought leader in retirement and distribution planning for over thirty years. My Master Elite membership gives me full...
