At the start of this year, the anticipation was that interest rates would start to come down given the steady decline in inflation and the softening of the labor market. Fast forward to today, and the US 10 year interest rate now sits ~ 40 basis points higher than it did at the start of […]

Whenever a client approaches a distribution phase (when they will being to draw from investments versus adding to investments), I always start with the simplest goal first (and we can build from there). What do you wish to spend each year to live the life you want to live? This determines the needed withdrawal rate […]

Many years ago when my sister was planning her wedding, she was flooded with advice and thoughts from everyone involved. It was all well intentioned advice but led to her having a moment of exasperation where she proclaimed “everybody has an opinion!” It quickly became a family mantra and one that was bouncing around in […]

If you have watched the financial news over the past few weeks or if you happen to be an investor in any software stocks, you are likely aware of this sharp and broad based sell-off in these names. The software segment of the market is down over 30% from its September 2025 peak, marking the […]

At the risk of saying what many of you are probably thinking – “where has the year gone?” It will be September in less than two weeks! With four months left in a very interesting year for investors, I thought it was worth taking stock of where we’ve been and where we may go from […]

It’s that time of year – second quarter estimated tax payments are due June 16, 2025 (you get an extra day as a result of the 15th falling on a weekend!) I talked with a client this week about adjusting tax payments mid-year (due to a change in business earnings). It’s a great question that […]

I wrote last week about the increased discussion of a recession in the business media (and also discussed the definition of a recession here). It’s safe to say that many in the US are on the lookout for a recession in the coming months. I read an interesting analysis a few weeks ago discussing two […]

So much for a quiet end to summer. Markets had other plans. Starting after last Friday’s job report, markets took a sharp turn downward and reached levels of volatility only seen twice before (during the global financial crisis and COVID). While we currently sit just down ~1% in most equity indexes (as of Thursday afternoon), […]

There are weeks where not much happens…and then there are the first few weeks of July 2024! In addition to all that is happening in the world and political arena around us, the markets have had their fair share of excitement in recent weeks. Let’s take a quick look at what’s happened, what is coming […]

While meeting with a client this week, we were discussing cash balances and potential uses. One topic that came up was the pre-payment on debt instrument (in her case, a mortgage). Let’s take a closer look at things to consider when evaluating debt prepayment Basics of Consumer Debt Debt serves a useful purpose for many […]