Nathan Gilbert
A New Mom, a New Take on Mother’s Day
As a new mom, I am so looking forward to what I consider to be my first actual Mother’s Day. Even though Grace was born on April 22, and I experienced my first Mother’s Day shortly after she was born, we were all too exhausted to celebrate it. So, I can’t wait to see what […]
Nathan GilbertMay 7, 2018Are You Biased?
With your investments, I mean. There is an interesting slide from JP Morgan with two charts showing investor allocations by region. There is quite a large disconnect between a US investor’s allocation to non-US investments and the actual make-up of the global markets. As you can
Nathan GilbertMay 1, 2018Happy (?) Tax Day
For most people, tax season officially comes to an end today, April 17th. All of us have the weekend and a Washington D.C. holiday to thank for the extra two days. Because the traditional April 15th fell on a Sunday this year, that would have pushed the tax filing deadline to Mon
Nathan GilbertApr 17, 2018An Old Door & Old Interest Rates
About 58 years ago, my grandparents (and my mom and her 4 siblings) moved from Pasadena, California to the Northern Virginia area. The new owner of the Pasadena house planned to have the house demoed in order to build a new, more modern home. According to my family, my grandfathe
Nathan GilbertApr 3, 2018College Basketball, The Weather, and The Markets
What do all three of the above have in common? Volatility and unexpected outcomes. I would suspect that’s an easy answer for most of you. The aptly named March Madness basketball tournament is certainly in full swing (ouch UVA!), snow is expected on the first day of Spring (that’
Nathan GilbertMar 20, 2018Wondering Whether You Weathered the Weather
I am sure most of you reading this experienced some sort of extreme wind and/or weather conditions this past weekend. All in all, I think Meridian and staff were very fortunate to have avoided any significant damage or long-term outages. Although, my partner Sarah’s kids’ school
Nathan GilbertMar 6, 2018
Don’t Be a Waffler
When you’re an 8-year-old kid like my son Coleman, and you LOVE sports, it’s okay to be a waffler. He is willing to (and pretty much does!) try anything and everything that involves a ball, stick, glove, goal, hoop, etc. As a result, he has asked us to sign him up for several dif
Nathan GilbertFeb 20, 2018
Henny Penny (aka Chicken Little)
Sometimes, when writing a weekly blog post, my partner, Sarah Yakel, and I struggle to come up with a good topic that hasn’t been covered recently and is hopefully interesting. While I am certainly not thankful for a market decline, it does provide an obvious topic about which to
Nathan GilbertFeb 6, 2018
Conferences Can Be Both Fun & Informative
Not Just a Vacation – We’re Learning! My partner, Sarah Yakel, and I are currently attending the Inside ETFs conference at The Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida. Yes, the weather is nice. Yes, the hotel is nice and so are the views. Yes, we are having fun (gasp!). And, yes, we
Nathan GilbertJan 23, 2018Don’t Put All Your Money in Unicorns
Client question: What do you think is going to happen in the markets in 2018? Answer: Well, the global economy remains strong for the most part, so we see continued growth (but maybe not as much as last year) in 2018. There is limited chance of recession, and inflation continues
Nathan GilbertJan 9, 2018
No Takebacks?
As a parent of three young children, this time of year is certainly an exciting (yet hectic!) one. As you might guess, all of the kids were quite literally bouncing off the walls in anticipation of Christmas morning. Fortunately, Santa came through and delivered most of what was
Nathan GilbertDec 27, 2017
Purple and Gold…and Green
My alma mater’s football team is on a pretty impressive winning streak. The James Madison Duke Dogs won their 25th consecutive game in dramatic fashion this past Friday night. Clad in their signature purple and gold jerseys, they defeated Weber State in the quarterfinal round of
Nathan GilbertDec 12, 2017