Insights, Advice & a Whole Lot More
Report Cards
With over a month of school behind us, grades are starting to come in for Yakel kids—for the most part, it’s all good news. Everyone’s doing ok for first quarter—except Melanie…she’s working on pulling up her C in PE!! Apparently, the new PE teacher at school is a little more str
Nathan GilbertOct 8, 2019
Risk vs. Return (or Cute vs. Stinky)
As investment managers, we are constantly trying to walk the line between risk and return. And, more importantly, we are trying to find the right mix for our clients’ particular situation. Typically, the more risk you take, the more return you can expect over time. It’s a fairly
Nathan GilbertOct 1, 2019A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Meridian
A few weeks ago, my low tire pressure light came on as I was driving the kids to school. I stopped quickly, topped off all the tires, and kept on heading to school. After I dropped the kids off, the light came on again, and I knew I had a leak. What I didn’t realize […]
Sarah YakelSep 24, 2019
An Unexpected Storm
This past Labor Day, my family and I experienced a very strong “micro-burst” (my wife claims tornado!) at our house. While it was far from a disaster, it did do quite bit of damage to many of our trees, small portions of our house, and it completely wiped out an old shed/spring h
Nathan GilbertSep 17, 2019Better Late Than Never…
Sorry for the delayed blog post (we usually post on Tuesdays), but we’ve been at the Wealth/Stack conference in Arizona and have been totally occupied. Wealth/Stack has been a great conference to hear where the future of financial advice and investment management is heading. In t
Sarah YakelSep 12, 2019
Comparing Apples to Oranges
Lately, some of our clients have been asking us why their account is not performing as well as the S&P 500 so far this year. It’s certainly a valid question, but it misses the point of what it means to stay diversified. Certainly, investing SOME of your money in a low-cost index
Nathan GilbertSep 3, 2019Back to the Routine
Unlike Nathan’s children that had to start school this week, our kids don’t go back until after Labor Day. –The Gilbert kids not at the beach So, to squeeze the last bit of summer fun in, we are spending some of our last few days of freedom at the beach. –The Yakel kids at the […
Nathan GilbertAug 27, 2019
What’s Up (or down) with the Yield Curve?
If you follow the financial headlines even a little bit, it would be hard to miss all of the recent attention focused on the yield curve. Why? Mainly because an inversion in parts of the yield curve have been predictors of the last 5 recessions. What is the yield curve anyway? Th
Nathan GilbertAug 20, 2019
Basic Instincts
It’s tough to fight against an innate instinct. Nature is filled with examples of instincts at work—animals have extremely strong predator or prey behaviors, as anyone who has ever been dragged by their dog chasing a squirrel can attest… …or attempted to shield the family guinea
Sarah YakelAug 13, 2019DOUBLE OUCH!
Yesterday gave us another unfriendly reminder that stocks can be volatile. Investors continue to focus on the US-China trade war, which escalated even further on Monday. As a result, the S&P 500 lost about 3% of its value. That’s the largest one-day point drop since December of l
Nathan GilbertAug 6, 2019Wellness Checks
It’s the week of doctor’s visits at the Yakel household…these two handsome guys just had birthdays and have each had wellness checks to be sure they were growing up healthy: The birthday boys: Milo and Ethan While annual checkups are just a part of life, they can be a little pain
Sarah YakelJul 30, 2019More Daisy (and maybe more stocks?)
As you are probably already aware, stocks have had a strong rally since a very difficult end to 2018. Not surprisingly, this spooked a lot of retail investors (the average investor) and equity (stocks) fund outflows have been sharply negative since the beginning of the year. And,
Nathan GilbertJul 23, 2019