Tag Archives: Financial Planning

As most know, books are my passion. For me, it's all about gifting knowledge for the holiday season. There's nothing more exciting to me than to peruse used book outlets and antique stores that sell ancient reads for pennies on the dollar. Also, new book releases excite me. My reading topic interests vary. However, most tend to be business or macroeconomic trend related.  With that:  Here are my top reads for 2025 and holiday gift idea for all the voracious...

So, you need a financial advisor, but do you truly understand the full extent of the benefits? Consider these Magnificent Seven Concepts: Concept One: Financial Advisors are NOT Portfolio Managers. Most consumers believe that financial advisors are primarily investment selectors and asset managers. While these duties are valid, they are not at the top of an advisor’s list or priorities. Many financial advisors outsource these duties to third-party experts...

The latest retail sales data suggests a robust consumer, leading economists to become even more optimistic about more robust economic growth this year. To wit: “It has been two years since forecasters felt this good about the economic outlook. In the latest quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal, business and academic economists lowered the chances of a recession within the next year to 29% from 39% in the January survey. That was the lowest probability...

Is immigration why employment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) continue defying mainstream economists’ estimates? Many are asking this question as the U.S. experiences a flood of immigrants across the southern border. Concurrently, many young college graduates continue to complain about the inability to receive a job offer. As noted recently by CNBC: The job market looks solid on paper. According to government data, U.S. employers added 2.7...

With the last half of March upon us, the blackout of stock buybacks threatens to reduce one of the liquidity sources supporting the bullish run this year. If you don’t understand the importance of corporate share buybacks and the blackout periods, here is a snippet of a 2023 article I previously wrote. “The chart below via Pavilion Global Markets shows the impact stock buybacks have had on the market over the last decade. The decomposition of returns for the...

Over the last few years, digital currencies and gold have become decent barometers of speculative investor appetite. Such isn’t surprising given the evolution of the market into a “casino” following the pandemic, where retail traders have increased their speculative appetites. “Such is unsurprising, given that retail investors often fall victim to the psychological behavior of the “fear of missing out.” The chart below shows the “dumb money index” versus the S&P...

Presidential elections and market corrections have a long history of companionship. Given the rampant rhetoric between the right and left, such is not surprising. Such is particularly the case over the last two Presidential elections, where polarizing candidates trumped policies. From a portfolio management perspective, we must understand what happens during election years concerning the stock market and investor returns. Since 1833, the S&P 500 index has...

Regarding the surprisingly strong employment data, Fed Chair Powell said the quiet part out loud. The media hopes you didn’t hear it as we head into a contentious election in November. Over the last several months, we have seen repeated employment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that crushed economists’ estimates and seemed to defy logic. Such is particularly the case when you read commentary about the state of the average American as follows. “New...

Is money distress part of your life? Do the dollars & cents of poor decisions past sneak up on you and rattle around your house like chains? What if I could provide three ideas to tackle 2022’s financial ghosts and put them at rest for good? Listen, ghosts of the financial past are notorious for creeping into the present, especially when holidays roll around. Oh, and watch out for the ghosts of the financial future. They’re dark and ominous and portend to money...

In 2012, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) established, for the first time, a permanent estate tax and gift tax exemption. The exemption is the amount an individual can pass on at death without paying estate taxes. The legislation set the exemption at $5 million per person, indexed for inflation. Five years later, Congress decided the exemption was not large enough and passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), which increased the lifetime exemption...