Author: Nathan Gilbert

Yes, I have bastardized a quote from Mr. Miyagi (from The Karate Kid movie) as the title for this post. For some reason, the idea of staying disciplined with your investment strategy reminded me of the discipline Mr. Miyagi preaches to “Daniel-san” in the movie. Many of his quotes relate to staying the course in

While summer still lingers this week with the warm and humid weather, glimmers of beautiful Virginia fall are peeking through.  And our family loves the fall—the kids clamor to go apple picking, grab pumpkins and mums to decorate the yard, and jump on the Spooky Bus at Meadow Farms: At Meridian, fall kicks off a

It’s hard to believe, but we celebrated our 3rd anniversary at Meridian Financial Partners on September 25th. As we mentioned at our annual client appreciation event at Airlie, we are now helping over 265 families. Three years isn’t a long time in the investment world, and in fact, we would recommend that most of

Unfortunately for my son Coleman, he had to have a tooth extracted last week for the second time in is short life. The first time was because he banged his mouth on the side of a coffee table and caused one of his front teeth to die (Ouch! It hurts to even write that!). That […]

There has been a lot of talk about a corporate bond “bubble” in the investment world recently. This can be particularly concerning for more conservative investors, who often assume that bonds represent the safe haven in their portfolios. While we don’t see large amounts of evidence of a bubble, it does make

Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, the company (specifically Wells Fargo Advisors) was in the news for all the wrong reasons again today. And, before I go any further, let me say that I have friends and colleagues that work at Wells Fargo and are great people! As with many things in life, it comes down to […]

Set Up Your SSA Account As with many providers of statements for all things, the Social Security Administration wants you to “go green.” Many of us have learned by now that’s code for ‘we want to save the trees, but we also want to save money.’ Unless you are receiving benefits or are almost eligible

Believe it or not, that’s how much you can die with before having to worry about federal estate taxes. And, if you’re married, you and your spouse can double that to $22,360,000. So, why would anyone worry about doing any estate planning or creating a trust if there is no tax benefit? Two main answers: […]

High on the list for “Most Annoying Things in Life” for many people is robocalls. They come in several forms, and while all of them are annoying, a few can be downright dangerous. Often, the calls are a solicitation of some kind, but sometimes an actual person is “voice phishing” for your personal information