Meridian Financial Partners
Fresh Start
With this week’s last gasp of winter temperatures, we are hopeful that Spring is finally here. Trees are flowering, daffodils are up, and at the Yakel house, we are just waiting for final frost danger before putting all of these healthy guys to bed: And, we met new puppies!! The
Sarah YakelApr 20, 2021
Home Sweet Home
Buying your first home is considered one of the biggest milestones — in life as well as finances. It’s a big commitment, and there’s a good chance this will be the largest purchase you’ve made to date. If you are a first-time home buyer, here are five guidelines to assist you in
Sarah YakelApr 13, 2021
What is a Roth IRA?
If the only thing you know about a Roth is that it rhymes with sloth …well, then this post is for you. So. Are you ready to find out what this Roth IRA thing is? It is a type of retirement account! Roth IRAs (IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account) are specific retirement a
Sarah YakelMar 16, 2021
Risk On
Irrational investor behavior is nothing new, but as Sarah Yakel pointed out in her blog last week, the sheer volume of data (both good and bad) and wanna-be-stock analysts has increased dramatically in recent years. Some have made headlines touting huge short-term gains, but most
Nathan GilbertMar 2, 2021
Information Overload
Reddit’s Impact on Investing Investing has been front and center this past month with the ongoing Reddit/GameStop/Robinhood saga all over the news: In a Yahoo Finance poll, 28% of investors polled admitted to buying one of the stocks in the news—AMC was the most purchased stock,
Sarah YakelFeb 23, 2021
Yours, Mine, and Ours: Financial Planning Together
It’s February. It’s the month of love, Valentine’s Day. With love comes marriage, and marriage is a beautiful thing. But, what a lot of people forget to talk about is there is a business side to marriage, in the midst of the honeymoon phase. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the di
Sarah YakelFeb 16, 2021
Little Bits of Joy
My recently received edition of Entertainment Weekly started with this glum opening editor’s note: “Nobody with a lick of sense should wax nostalgic about 2020. Should some future soul discover this letter many decades hence, when humanity lives in climate-controlled domed cites
Sarah YakelDec 22, 2020
Do I Even Need a Trust?
We at Meridian often get a lot of questions around trusts and what they can and can’t do. While we are not attorneys and do not draft wills or trusts, we do need to be aware of what estate planning options are available to our clients. “Do I even need a trust?” is probably the […
Nathan GilbertDec 8, 2020
What’s In A Sector?
For the first time in a long time, the Value portion of the S&P 500 outperformed the Growth portion. Granted, it was only over one week, but it could signal a reversal of a trend that has essentially been happening since 2006. Credit to Jeff Weniger at WisdomTree for his analysis
Nathan GilbertNov 17, 2020
How We Think About Elections & Investment Decisions
Each time a U.S. presidential election approaches, we revisit with clients our views about the impact on our investment outlook and portfolio positioning. Here is a quick review of how we think about elections in general within the context of our overall investment approach. Why
Nathan GilbertOct 27, 2020
Investing Can Pay Dividends
When most people think about investing in stocks, they tend to think in terms of buying a stock at a low price and selling at a higher price. This is certainly the goal whenever buying a stock, but what many often forget about is that some companies also pay their shareholders di
Nathan GilbertSep 8, 2020
Headed Up the Mountain
This past weekend, my family and I headed into Shenandoah National Park for a camping weekend. It was very nice to get away to nature and have no choice but to be out of cell range. I think it was healthy for all of us to take a break from the plethora of devices we […]
Nathan GilbertJul 28, 2020