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 […]

It’s no surprise that the upcoming election is at the top of client’s minds in recent meetings. This week, a client asked what impact various parties being in control has had on market returns over the years. Let’s take a closer look. The following chart (from Ned Davis Research) shows the performance of the Dow […]

A year certainly goes quickly. It’s hard to believe that it was almost a year ago that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed and sparked a “mini” banking crisis. This week, another bank was in the news with related solvency concerns – New York Community Bancorp (“NYCB”). A client asked what had occurred at this bank […]

I fully appreciate how much industry jargon there is in the financial world, so I do my best to not use it. Finances are confusing enough in plain English right?! However, when talking to a client this week, I accidentally used a jargon phrase and was asked to stop and clarify. The phrase was “clipping […]

Bitcoin has been in the news quite a bit this week, which prompted a client to ask what the key developments were. Let’s take a look at what happened. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC) approved the registration and trading of Bitcoin spot price Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”). Prior to this moment, investors […]

There is no shortage of jargon and industry speak in the financial news. I do my very best to steer clear of it when I write to you, as I fully appreciate how confusing (and sometimes annoying!) it can be. However, one term snuck into my Pam to Paper post last week when I used […]

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 […]

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 […]