Faith

At our small practice, is our most cherished value. Each of us, Bobbie, John, Christina, and me*, have absolute faith in each other that our interests are not only aligned with that of our clients but also that they come first in everything we do. We also have faith that Americans and our innovators are… Read More

“My retirement account is going down faster than my deposits, for Pete’s sake!”

And “I stopped making contributions to my retirement account until the “Stock Market” recovers.”- Otto said. Cecilia, on the other hand, is oblivious to the value of her retirement account, and her contributions continue. So, what are the outcomes? The following hypothetical example tests the question.* Let’s say Otto stops making retirement plan contributions when… Read More

Black Swan

Black Swans, that’s what the latest burp in equity markets is called. That is, previously unseen events which are highly disruptive, with uncertain outcomes. In a six day sell-off the Standards and Poor’s declined approximately 13% wiping out the gains for the year. Fear is as contagious as the Coronavirus which has now become the… Read More

The Greeks

In late 2009, you may remember, the Greek economy suffered the longest recession of any developed capitalist-based economy, overtaking the U.S. Great depression. Not only did the Greeks spiral into history’s deepest and longest recession but also, failed to make their International Monetary Fund loan repayments on time – they went broke. Their friends, the… Read More

IRA Betrayal

On December 20th the SECURE Act – Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement, was signed into law. There went yours and my daughter’s Stretch IRA: If you recollect, under the old rules, a beneficiary, an heir, could stretch the required distributions over their lifetime. This had the effect of allowing funds to build over… Read More

The Best Decade

You may remember, our Net Worth in the third quarter of 2009 was negative. Yep, America was upside down. Not now. We are setting Wealth records every day: How’s net worth of $113 trillion sound? Unimaginable – how many zeros is that? That’s not all. The United Nations in their Human Development Report which, is… Read More

Winners and Losers

Must be nice being Wilbur Ross – as Secretary of Commerce he’s cheering the American worker on. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today (Friday Dec 6th) an increase of 266,000 new jobs in November much better than the 187,00 expected new jobs. Unemployment ticked down to 3.5% from 3.6% equaling the lowest jobless rate… Read More

Getting In-Hock for Going to College, Is It Worth It?

It depends on the degree and the career you choose; we kind of already new this didn’t we? What we didn’t have wide access to, however, was the divergence in the actual costs versus the monetary benefits of the type of degree nor the difference the institution has on outcomes. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was… Read More

Happy Thanksgiving

I’m sure you’ve heard of it: “Sell and go away in May”. We get asked about it every year. Traditionally the period beginning May 1st through October 31st is weak for the Dow industrials. Peek at the figure 1. Astonishing isn’t it? $10,000 every November 1st and sold every April 30th grew to $1,135,173, WOW!… Read More

The Middle Class is Shrinking – Anybody Left?

Coining a phrase is always fun, isn’t? It depends on author and the conveyance of emotion, urgency, or bias. Take the following: “Seven reasons to worry about the American middle class”* “The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground – No longer the majority and falling behind financially.”** Depending on which article you read we are… Read More

Planning & Economy