Insights, Advice & a Whole Lot More
Happy Maycember!
Thanks to the Holderness family—social media stars among parents for their funny parodies (Christmas Jammies, anyone?)—the craziness of May now has a name: Maycember…because it is just as busy (if not busier) than December but without all the holiday lights: Holderness family…#tr
Sarah YakelMay 21, 2019
Be a Gangster Baby: Invest Without Fear
Last week, I had the unfortunate role of taking our youngest child (Molly) to get her immunization shots prior to starting kindergarten next year. If you are a parent, you know that this is one of the worst doctor’s appointments, because the kids are usually old enough to underst
Nathan GilbertMay 14, 2019Investing Lessons from Gold Cup
Photo by Tod Marks This weekend was the 94th running of the Virginia Gold Cup. Our Meridian family had a spot and enjoyed visiting with each other and friends. While Gold Cup is a little challenging when we bring our children (and it is unexpectedly a million degrees and full sun
Sarah YakelMay 7, 2019
Get What You Pay For
As you might expect, many of our clients participate in their workplace retirement plans. As part of our services, we assist in advising them on what investments to select within each plan. The goal is to make sure the investments in their retirement plans are “playing nicely” wi
Nathan GilbertApr 30, 2019Spring Break
Now that taxes are done, many of us are opening our first quarter statements from our investment accounts, 401k accounts, or IRAs and seeing nice positive growth…which is certainly a relief from the end of 2018’s dizzying market drop. In the first quarter of 2019, the US stock ma
Sarah YakelApr 23, 2019
The Benefits of Re-balancing (and having a friend with a great tractor)
Recently, Vanguard put out a great whitepaper (fancy term for “compliance-approved informative article”) on the benefits of rebalancing your portfolio on a regular basis. There was a lot of good information in the article, but I was particularly interested in the two charts that
Nathan GilbertApr 16, 20198,000 Days
I write this from a soccer field in Winchester watching Melanie’s soccer team compete for first place in her conference: Right now, life is fractioned between Meridian, moving, family, clients…all at the same time it feels. Clients and friends older and wiser than me have advised
Sarah YakelApr 9, 2019
Can You Dodge the Tax Axe?
I may be creeping into CPA-land here, but we are getting a lot of questions from our clients about what they can (or can’t) do to reduce their tax bill. All of us are still digesting the new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and for some it has caused an unexpected bill or a lower […]
Nathan GilbertApr 2, 2019Spring Forecast
Spring in Virginia is here—which usually means wildly unpredictable weather…and pollen…lots and lots of pollen: As weathermen attempt precise and accurate forecasts, daily things change—determining the weather more than 7 days out is an exercise in futility, with only about half
Sarah YakelMar 26, 2019
Another March Madness Article!
Okay – I am going for the low-hanging fruit here and using March Madness as a tie in for this week’s blog. Yes, it might be a bit lazy, but there are some good comparisons to be drawn between filling out your bracket (assuming you do such a thing) and investment decision making.
Nathan GilbertMar 19, 2019Doing Well by Doing Good
At Meridian, we are starting to hear from our clients and friends about how the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is actually impacting their returns. For the most part, we’ve not heard a lot of favorable news. For some, refunds have been slightly improved, but many folks were sharply s
Nathan GilbertMar 12, 2019
Ugh, Snow Days AND Tax Season
As mentioned in a previous post, snow days continue to upend the best laid plans for getting any work done for parents. Most recently, it was my wife’s turn to shoulder the load, and she took our kids to her office. Like many things with 3 children under 10, it was fun for a whil
Nathan GilbertMar 5, 2019