With less than two weeks to go before the November 2024 election, many clients are feeling a bit anxious. These feelings are understandable as many aspects of our lives can be swayed by the political party that wins the various branches of the US government – including the markets and investments. I wrote a post […]

It’s hard to escape talk about the upcoming presidential election cycle in the US, especially if you live in a swing state. While there are many differences between the candidates, one that I’m discussing more often than not with clients is income tax policy. It’s understandable – income taxes can have a material impact on […]

If you have been listening to the business news this week, you may have the same question a client did..what is the VIX and why is everyone talking about it? The VIX is shorthand for the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)’s Volatility Index. It is a tool used to measure the expected volatility in the […]

In talking with a client this week about the market’s closure for Labor Day, the question was said in passing – “is the market always closed on National Holidays?” This is a question I’ve never answered here, so let’s take care of that today! As is often the case, the question doesn’t have a straightforward […]

While there has been talk of interest rate cuts for virtually all of 2024, it seems as though we may be fast approaching that prediction becoming a reality. This has clients rightfully asking what actions they should take regarding cash liquidity in the coming months. Let’s take a look The challenge facings my clients, and […]

Before I dive into this week’s post, I want you to remember of an important fact. We’ve been here before and come out the other side. What proof do I have? I’m about to re-post an article I wrote on March 9, 2020. Over four years ago, we were in a similar spot, albeit one […]

Below is an excerpt from Warren Buffett’s letter to shareholders in 1987- reminding us how to handle market fluctuations. Almost 40 years later, the advice still holds. Ben Graham, my friend and teacher, long ago described the mental attitude toward market fluctuations that I believe to be most conducive to investment success. He said that […]

I talked with a client recently about dividend reinvestment. The question came up as he placed a trade and was prompted to elect whether to reinvest dividends. It’s a great topic to understand so let’s look at it more closely What are dividends? Dividends are a sum of money paid out by a company to […]

In the past few weeks, I’ve gotten a few client questions about emails they’ve received from Charles Schwab, alerting them the “Vote Now” regarding an individual stock position held in their account. These diligent clients have asked what these emails are referring to and if there is anything they should do to address them. This […]

I received a question from one of my favorite clients this week (my mom!) She was watching a news story about Culver’s (a popular fast food chain founded in Wisconsin) and asked me if it was publicly traded. The news story was talking about their expansion plans so she was curious if it would be […]