Happy 30th Birthday to the First ETF

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The very first ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) was created almost exactly 30 years ago on January 29, 1993, in the form of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (symbol: SPY). It was originally listed on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) which was acquired by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2008. Our industry certainly loves

Out With the Old?

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Happy New Year to you and yours! I hope everyone found time to spend with family and friends and didn’t get too caught up in The Space Between that Sarah Y mentioned in her latest post. Maybe that’s what it’s like to be fully retired and you forget what day of the week it is…I […]

When Taking a Loss Can Help

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As we approach the end of the year, a lot of our clients are asking what they should be doing before 2022 comes to a close. There are plenty of things-to-consider-before-the-end-of-the-year lists out there, but if you have investments in taxable (non-retirement) accounts, you may want to consider tax loss harvesting.

Ch-ch-changes

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If you are an avid reader of our blogs (if avid readers of our blogs even exist!), you may recognize this blog’s title from a previous post years ago. For those who aren’t aware, it refers to the song Changes by David Bowie. One of my favorite lyrics in that song is “turn and face […]

Getting Paid to Wait

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To repeat the obvious, we are still in a period of extreme market volatility and overall decline in 2022. We have said it in this space many times before, but it is almost impossible to time the market. And data and history tell us that trying to “get out and get back in” often hurts […]

What Did You Expect?

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Once again, the market hung on every word that came out of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s mouth, and while his comments were exactly what most expected, the market reacted as though continued Fed funds rate increases were a shock. Powell’s comments came during a speech at the Kansas City Fed’s annual policy forum in

What’s in an Index?

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As much as I try to avoid the noise and focus on what matters to our clients and the investments we hold, I still find myself getting frustrated when I see the financial (and many other) news outlets reporting on the levels of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (aka The Dow or DJIA). Why is […]

What’s a Recession Anyway?

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Unfortunately, there has been a lot of talk about a looming recession sometime in 2022, and the market has certainly priced some (if not all) of that in so far this year. A recent Wall Street Journal survey of economists says there’s a 44% chance of a recession. But, what exactly is a recession? And, […]

Get Paid to Wait

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Stock market decline, and how much lower for how much longer remain among the top questions we are getting from clients lately. All you have to do is look at our recent blog posts to see that! This is despite an S&P 500 return of +6.6% for the last week of May. Granted, we are […]