Financial Planning
Milestones
Yesterday, my son Ethan celebrated his 9th birthday. He was super excited for his cake and his gifts—most of all his new skateboard. To Ethan, 9 is a pretty important year—it is the last year in the single digits. He says he feels like he is really growing up… There are some mile
Nathan GilbertAug 1, 2017School of Rock & Earnings Season
For most of us with kids, summer presents the challenge of keeping our children occupied (hopefully constructively!) until school starts again. Camps are certainly a popular option as they take up big chunks of the summer and allow kids to explore activities outside of a typical
Nathan GilbertJul 25, 2017ROI to ROL
The financial services industry loves acronyms—as an example, I am a CFP1 that works at an RIA2 which makes me an IAR3—yeesh! At Meridian we try to strip all of the jargon and opaque phrases from our conversations, as we want to help people truly understand their money and what i
Nathan GilbertJul 18, 2017The 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, 2017