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Here is a question we’ve been getting a lot. Everywhere we look—radio, television, social media—we see headlines and conversations about being in a recession. I’ve seen varying levels of concern and bias, including talks of the US dollar’s impending collapse. As we all know, we can trust and believe...

In a reassuring sign to investors during a rocky second quarter, dividend payouts have hit another record, paying $140.6 Billion to stockholders. This is up from the beginning of the year, and nearly $20 billion higher than dividends paid at this time last year. Dividends paid to stockholders have...

Have you seen your recent statement? I have. I know you’re not particularly happy seeing losses, and neither am I.  If you work with an Advisor or have been investing for long enough, you may understand that the market ebbs and flows. The media has focused on the negatives for more than 6 months...

If you’re curious about what’s been going on with interest rates, and your bond portfolio, let me explain some of what is going on. Most likely, the bonds in your 401(k), and often those in your IRA, are in bond funds. Bond mutual funds and bond exchange-traded funds are pooled investment vehicles t...

After Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, officials announced that they would raise the federal funds target rate by three quarters of one percent, the largest increase since 1994. This displays their intention to get aggressive in tackling inflation, “signaling that its benchmark rate will rise cl...

“Your phone must be ringing off the hook” is a comment we hear a lot lately from friends and family. Actually, no. If you’ve been wondering how other investors are reacting to the recent market turmoil, the answer is that our clients, at least, have been calm and collected, so far. Still, w...

As you may have noticed, inflation is here. In April, inflation was 8.3% compared to last year, slightly down from March, which was 8.5%, but still a four-decade high inflation rate. (1) The Federal Reserve believes that they have the resolve and ability to bring U.S. inflation down, but to what lev...

Lately, the dollar has been rising in strength internationally. What is meant by a “strong” dollar, is that Dollars are more expensive to purchase in other currencies, for example: Euros, Yen, or Pounds. Recently, the price, or the exchange rate, of Euros has dropped to less than 1.08 Dollars, from...

The news is filled with talks on “interest rates going up” and the Federal Reserve “raising rates,” because they are - but what does this actually mean for you? The Federal Reserve, the central banking system of US government and it is taking action to make it more expensive to borrow money. They di...

It has been a challenging start to 2022 for the stock market. January is on pace for the worst month since the pandemic started in March of 2020. We have seen days with significant volatility and all three major indices on average down 10%. We wanted to take a moment to reflect on why this is happen...