Blog Posts

When building a financial strategy, we work hard to create an approach that plans for your longevity and allows you to live a satisfying life. But beyond helping clients prepare for a longer retirement, we are focused on addressing a key goal: Managing emotional reactions.

For many investors, the market’s inevitable fluctuations can make investing feel like an emotional roller coaster. However, letting erratic, short-term market movements create anxiety can lead to detrimental financial decisions.

While much of the political fire and fury from Congress’ tax plan debate has settled, some of the economic smoke still lingers as financial analysts and private investors plot their way through the new $1.4 trillion law’s long-range ramifications.

President Donald Trump signed the historic tax bill into law December 22 following a firestorm of partisan exchanges in the last few weeks that painted near apocalyptic visions if the bill either passed or failed. Republican pundits hail the sweeping tax bill as Trump’s first major legislative victory in office.

We once read an article about what to say when your parents ask you about Bitcoin and it makes sense that even though we’ve been hearing about Bitcoin for years, the concept may not be understood by everybody. The article explains, “Well, it’s like money in that it has value and you can use it to buy goods and services. It’s also like a stock because the value fluctuates based on supply and demand. Unlike stock, there are no dividends, just whatever the bitcoin is worth on a given day.”

A common question that follows the explanation usually seeks to uncover where you find Bitcoins. Bitcoins are virtual and can be accessed from your computer, which acts as a “wallet.” A global system is used to update everyone’s holdings and a sophisticated computer system is used to help track the money. The money is not backed by any government and isn’t regulated like other currency.

As the end of 2016 grows closer, we have to say that this has certainly been an eventful year. A long presidential election campaign left many Americans feeling bruised and more divided than ever. And many people were surprised when Donald Trump emerged as the victor. Similar to Brexit’s unexpected win in June, election polling and conventional wisdom proved to be quite wrong once people actually voted.

Every four years, investors have to grapple with the volatility and uncertainty that comes with a presidential election. Sure-bets drop out, long-shot candidates surge to the front. Every election comes with plenty of surprises and uncertainty and the 2016 election is no different. As financial professionals, we field a lot of questions from our clients and friends about how politics and elections affect financial markets so we are going to address some of these common questions and concerns: