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 […]

Two key inflation reports were released for March this week – the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Producer Price Index (PPI). Let’s look at these reports and then discuss a question that may be on your mind – why is the market reacting so much to these data points? The CPI for March 2024 […]

On February 29th (happy leap day!), the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure – Personal Consumption Expenditures (known as Core PCE) was released for the month of January 2024. (Note: Core PCE excludes food and energy, which can be very volatile.) Core PCE increased 0.4% for the month and 2.8% year-over-year, exactly in line with expectations […]

A few weeks ago, a client told me that the movie “Dumb Money” was now available on Netflix. I watched the movie this past weekend, which portrays the still shocking events surrounding the surge of Game Stop stock in early 2021. The movie (while a bit crass and dramatic – it is a movie after […]