Beyond Your Finances, Market Commentary
Good News, New Opportunities and Things We Can Control It is completely understandable to fear uncertainty. Like most crises (9/11, housing recession, etc.) this coronavirus crisis comes with a lot of uncertainty causing us to feel anxious, overwhelmed, and confused about how to handle our money. The COVID-19 pandemic adds the additional unusual aspect of…
As I get used to the new (temporary) normal, working from home each day, I’ve had the morning news shows running in the background and find myself each day stopping my work during the segment where they have a doctor on who is answering write-in questions from viewers. I’m paying attention because in many…
October 2016 Financial Markets Summary Why have interest rates been so low? Despite predictions to the contrary, the third quarter ended with virtually all market sectors in positive territory. Emerging market stocks have out-performed domestic and developed international stocks in a big way this year. Although there are always potential downsides, Guild Investment Management notes…
United Kingdom voters chose to leave the European Union one month ago on June 23rd. Panic immediately spread across the world as people extrapolated this decision into what they expected to follow. Talking heads suggested this would cause a worldwide recession. SELL, SELL, SELL! Some investors actually followed this advice, as it caused the S&P…
March Madness or Market Madness? Think you can pick the perfect bracket or the perfect investment strategy this year? There doesn’t seem to be a clear front-runner for the tournament nor the markets. The 2015-2016 NCAA season was rather strange where Top 10 teams suffered 74 losses, the most since the Associated Press launched their…
Originally published April 2, 2015 Thirty years can go by very quickly. And for us more mature folks, it can seem like yesterday. As I think about those years, I am struck by the changes to the financial planning and investment world, specifically changes at PDS Planning. Our very basic and very large computers had…
As a person, managing my own emotions can be challenging. Understanding the environment around me is difficult. As an advisor, managing client emotions and expectations while balancing their wants vs. needs is daunting at times. Not because clients are hard to work with, but because I cannot always impute their emotions into my recommendations. Portfolio management is…
Historically, mid-term elections have served as reflection points for stocks. Regardless of the outcome, stocks have rallied before the election in the second half of October, and the rally has continued through the following year. The S&P has not declined after a mid-term election since 1946, and the average 12-month increase has been about 16%.…
