Financial Planning
Best of…
37 days until Christmas. Holiday decorations are starting to creep through our neighborhood—the stores are decked out with full Christmas regalia and sale signage—and our calendar is starting to fill with kids Christmas concerts and parties. Although I will allow a little Christm
Sarah YakelNov 19, 2019
Smart vs. Dumb
News flash: Predicting when markets go up or down can be almost impossible. Some people can get it right some of the time, but no one can get it right all the time. We’ve shown plenty of evidence of this in many of our blog posts, but I reacquainted myself with an interesting cha
Nathan GilbertNov 12, 2019Growing Up – and growing old
At Meridian, we just did our annual family pictures—and we are again shocked at how big our kids are getting—they just keep growing up! Speaking of growing up…our US expansion just keeps growing older too! It is now the longest US economic expansion on record: Janet Yellen famous
Sarah YakelNov 5, 2019Children & Money
As a parent and investment manager/planner, I want to teach my children good money habits. It can be relatively straightforward to teach them what to do, but actually setting up accounts for children, it can be difficult and confusing. Probably the most talked about account type
Nathan GilbertOct 29, 2019Lost Things
At our house, “Have you seen my _{insert lost thing} ?” is a common refrain. This morning, I couldn’t find the carpet cleaner (that I had just used last week on a different pet incident), Ben couldn’t find the belt for his school uniform, and Ethan couldn’t find his History boo
Sarah YakelOct 22, 2019
Fund Flows & Huge Cucumbers
Recently, there have been record outflows from equity funds and record inflows into bond funds. This is likely due to the negative sentiment around the current market environment. As we continue to enjoy the longest bull market in history, many investors feel that it can’t last a
Nathan GilbertOct 15, 2019Report 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, 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