Every once in a while, I have a topic come up in multiple client conversations in a given week – and this week that happened with life insurance. I’m taking that as a sign that it’s a good time to cover a few considerations with this topic! Please note that I’m not going to address […]

Being from Milwaukee, I likely shouldn’t admit this (shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!) – but I don’t watch a lot of Bucks basketball. Nothing personal against the Bucks, but NBA just isn’t on my usual radar. However, once playoff time rolls around, I can’t help but get swept up in the action and this year was […]

It’s been a relatively quiet week market wise – quarterly earnings continue and we are in between major economic releases and Fed meetings. As a result, I thought we could all use a fun “Pam to Paper” exercise on brand loyalty. Market musings will return next week! Last week, Warren Buffett gave a three-hour interview […]

I was talking with a client this week about this “in between” time – the time after the mad dash of first quarter to-do’s (like tax prep and payment) and the easy-going summer months (when, let’s admit it, few of us want to focus on financial tasks!) She asked what she should be getting in […]

Two major economic reports have been released in the past week for March – labor report and inflation report (as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)). Let’s review the headlines of these economic news releases and explore what these reports may mean for markets moving forward. Labor Market Report Markets may have been closed […]

If you are a procrastinator when it comes filing your income tax return, rest assured you are not alone. The IRS reported that it had received 90 million tax returns as of March 30th (of an estimated 168 million) so clearly, a lot of returns will be coming in under the wire! I’ve heard from […]

The health of employment in the country has always been a topic of interest. However, ever since COVID, the release of the monthly payroll report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has become “must see TV,” second only to the release of CPI! Early on in the pandemic, it was shocking to see how quickly […]

Some client questions and discussions are more challenging than others. The ones I’ve been having in the wake of the recent banking crisis (you can read more on that here) have been hard. Not because these are contentious topics to address and not because I don’t know how to answer them. They are challenging because […]

Here we are, nearing the end of Q1 2023. If you simply looked at market returns, you would think it was a pretty decent quarter. During the first three months of the year (with one trading day to go), equity markets have risen around 5%, interest rates have fallen slightly (giving a boost to bond […]

We’re in the homestretch of the 2022 tax season and as a result, I’ve been fielding questions about IRA and Roth IRA funding. I recently helped a few clients contribute to Roth IRAs (despite being over the income limit) and thought it may be a useful item to touch on this week Wait, what’s a […]