Insights, Advice & a Whole Lot More
Celebrate Good Times, C’mon…
In keeping with the song titles theme that Nathan started a month ago, this weekend was filled with graduation celebrations for many of us. Despite the gloomy rain, we enjoyed the one we attended yesterday. Pictures of the graduate from a tiny baby to a high schooler decorated th
Sarah YakelJun 5, 2018
Reunited and It Feels So Good (and so does saving for college)
Since Sarah called me out on song references in her last post, I thought I would stick with the theme. I could remember the name of the song “Reunited,” but I couldn’t remember the artists. In my defense, the song was released in 1978, and I was only one-year old. Google quickly
Nathan GilbertMay 29, 2018Let’s Get Digital…Digital…
Nathan always references cool songs in his blogs—the only one that came to mind for this blog was Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical”. Not exactly a cool song, but I digress… Recently, I followed our usual Meridian advice to clients and started to review our own estate plan. I hadn’t
Sarah YakelMay 22, 2018
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
“Turn and face the strange. Ch-ch-changes.” It’s hard to say exactly to what David Bowie was referring in his song Changes. Not surprisingly, I am going to use some of this great song’s lyrics and try to tie it back to the markets. As I have said in a previous post, you’re welcom
Nathan GilbertMay 16, 2018A 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, 2018Wait…What?
As we’ve written about many times, Meridian has been compliant with the 2016 Department of Labor fiduciary rule, as we have been fiduciaries since Meridian was founded in 2015. To us, it just makes sense that your advisor should have your best interests in mind at all times! As f
Sarah YakelApr 24, 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, 2018
Short Range Optics
My family and I just returned from a trip to see the Grand Canyon—we are all exhausted and overwhelmed with all of the beautiful things we saw. None of us had ever been to the Grand Canyon before, so we had no idea what to expect. A friend of ours tried to explain it by […]
Sarah YakelApr 10, 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, 2018
Riding out the Storm
This is my daughter Melanie: While she may look pleasant and mild mannered, don’t let that fool you. She turned twelve this year, and it seems we have entered the growing, changing (read: hormonal) phase of life. Melanie’s mood can change lightening fast. Here is a chart of her m
Sarah YakelMar 27, 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, 2018