Insights, Advice & a Whole Lot More
The Individual Medley
As a relatively new “swim parent,” I have learned a lot about swimming and swim meets in general. For those of you experienced swim parents, you are probably doing a combination of cringing and smiling right now; cringing at all of the early morning practices and smiling at all o
Sarah YakelJul 11, 2017House Odds
I write this blog post from Las Vegas—we are here for a few days to celebrate my husband’s birthday. As a financial planner, I am not a huge gambler. My normal life is filled with assessing odds, the lurking risks and potential rewards, so it is hard to ignore the fact that Vegas
Nathan GilbertJul 3, 2017Professional Nitpicker
Unfortunately for me and my family, I recently learned that the Professional Nitpicker does in fact exist and is apparently widely known. While I am tempted to go for the obvious joke and say that I thought that title belonged to my wife, I won’t go there. I am sure the same can
Sarah YakelJun 28, 2017Rules of Thumb: Financial Planning Hack?
I recently heard a radio story about Fidelity Investment’s Rule of $2,000. In an effort to simplify college planning for parents, Fidelity says that in order to determine how much you should have saved currently for your child’s college expenses, multiply your child’s current age
Sarah YakelJun 20, 2017Don’t Fear the Reaper
It may be a bit of a stretch to work in a Blue Oyster Cult reference to the title of this blog post, but I just couldn’t help myself. You’re welcome for putting that song in your head for the rest of the day! For some reason, it’s the song I think of when […]
Sarah YakelJun 13, 2017Introducing Baby Grace!
For those of you who may not have known, our client service specialist, Gretchen gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby girl in April! While Nathan and I are struggling to keep up with all that Gretchen does around Meridian (she does a great job of keeping our office organize
Sarah YakelJun 6, 2017Watch D.O.G.S.
First, I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekends. I will steer clear of Memorial Day as a topic this year, as I am fairly sure that’s what I wrote about last year at this time! This past Friday, I took my second turn volunteering at my kids’ school via the Watch D.O.G.S.
Sarah YakelMay 30, 2017Sell in May and Go Away
Like all catchy adages, the annual stock market advice to “Sell in May and Go Away” does have a kernel of truth to it. A 2015 white paper studied the returns of the stock market over various years from May – October versus November – April and found that on average, the November
Sarah YakelMay 23, 2017The Mom Trifecta
As you all know (or better know!), this past Sunday was Mother’s Day. As always, it served as a reminder how important moms are in all of our lives. As a parent myself, there is an extra level of appreciation for what our parents do for us as children. One of the first things I [
Sarah YakelMay 16, 2017Feelin’ Good
In the investment world, much has been made lately of the divergence between hard data about the U.S. economy and so-called “soft data”, which deals more with how people feel about the economy. In this chart from Morgan Stanley, you can see the large gap between how consumers and
Sarah YakelMay 9, 2017March for Babies
This past Sunday, I was fortunate enough to chair and participate in the Prince William March for Babies. Obviously, supporting at-risk moms, premature births, and prenatal and postpartum care are incredible and worthy causes. March of Dimes helps to fund research on all of these
Nathan GilbertMay 2, 2017Giving Giving a Second Thought
Our community’s biggest day of giving is rapidly approaching—Give Local Piedmont is one week from today on May 2, 2017. Last year, this 24 hour giving contest raised over $879,000 for over 60 local charities. At Meridian, we love this day as the generous spirit of our community i
Nathan GilbertApr 25, 2017