Earlier this week, two inflation reports were published for October. Let’s take a look at what they said and the market reaction. First up was Consumer Price Index (“CPI”). It came in at 0.23% month over month, compared to 0.30% consensus. Year over year rise was 3.2%, far slower than consensus of 3.7%. Shelter slowed […]

Inflation has been a headwind for many of us in many areas of our lives over the past few years. One way it has helped us (perhaps without us even noticing) is its impact on income taxes. I explained this dynamic to a client earlier this week and thought it was worth pointing out here […]

I came across two recent interviews with Berkshire Hathaway’s Vice Chairman Charlie Munger this week – who is less than two months away from celebrating his 100th birthday (January 1). It’s impossible to listen to Charlie (or his business partner Warren Buffett) and not come away with some words of wisdom. Feel free to listen […]

With open enrollment season approaching, I was talking with a client about health care coverage and the accounts that are offered to help fund health care costs. Under her health insurance plan, she has the option to use a Flex Spending Account and under her husband’s plan, he can use a Health Savings Account. We […]

I’ve written about trend lines in the past – reminding you (and myself) that (a) no trend line lasts forever and (b) they move in both directions. This week was yet another example of this fact as interest rates made a sharp reversal and started moving down just as rapidly as they had gone up […]

When I was in high school, I received an academic award and as part of that, I was given a Series EE US Savings Bond. It was a $200 denomination. This was in 1996. A lifetime ago! I don’t have an memory of this, but recently, my mom was cleaning out her house and gave […]

We’ve written about education savings accounts (known as 529 plans) in the past (you can read initial post here). I was working with clients on 529 plan funding approach this week and they asked what happens if the accounts are overfunded. While this doesn’t seem to happen all that often, it certainly is a possibility, […]

As I’ve mentioned in the past, we subscribe to a few research services to help provide timely information and analysis of markets. One of these firms (FS Insight) published a video this week discussing the “wall of worry” markets have been attempting to climb (unsuccessfully) ever since late July. I thought it would be worthwhile […]

Markets – stocks and bonds alike – seem singularly focused on one factor in recent weeks – interest rates. The business news channels have the 10-year interest rate ticker in the corner of the screen, watching it near a 5% level all week (which it crossed late Thursday night). As rates continue to rise, both […]

I wouldn’t normally use this column to analyze the daily movements of any individual equity. As you all know, there are many reasons for a stock price to move day in and day out, and as long term investors, we don’t like to get too deep into those daily gyrations. However, when a client asked […]