Will Your Mutual Fund Go Extinct in 15 Years
This article by Jake DeKinder, a friend of mine that works at Dimensional Funds, is an easy to understand article that dives into 3 concepts that are deeply embedded into the portfolios we manage. These beliefs are important to understand if you ever want to look under the hood to better understand what the research says about investing along with how we and our partners implement the ideas that come from academia. Below are 3 ideas that are prevalent in the models we manage and the ...Read More
Sometimes You Need To Run Towards The Fire
Q: Should I Sell My Emerging Markets Positions?
A: If we were going to sell or reduce this position, we would want to do so before the news came out and markets started moving based on the news of strengthen US currency. We don’t want to sell low and buy high. Look at the returns below between the DFA Emerging Market funds and the S&P 500. Keep in mind that markets move on the anticipation of good/bad news yet given how bad the news has been the returns have not been that ...Read More
2018 Q1 Market Review
Click on the image below and view our 2018 Q1 Market Review, which dives into world capital market performance and reviews the returns of stock and bond asset classes within the U.S. and abroad. Lastly, you will find a short commentary titled, "Sailing with the Tides", this commentary serves as a reminder to be flexible, prepared and disciplined in your investment journey.
5 Tips for Financial Fitness
With spring and summer fast approaching, bikini-body goals move into of the forefront of our minds, and financial fitness sometimes takes a backseat. Just as people can commit to a health and fitness plan for their physical bodies, your wallet sometimes needs a trim around the waistline. It’s easy to know what is healthy or unhealthy for our bodies—eat your veggies and minimize sugar, exercise a little every day, but don’t overdo it—but it’s not so easy to know what’s healthy for ...Read More
Picking a Trustee
Whether you are selecting a Trustee for a trust that is currently established or for a trust that will spring to life upon a certain event such as your death, you have many choices when it comes to selecting a Trustee. You can choose an individual such as a friend or family member to be the trustee or you can choose a corporate trustee. Every situation is different and there are no easy template answers. Below is a PDF of a blog written by a corporate trustee that does a good job listing the ...Read More
2017 & QUARTER 4 MARKET REVIEW
Happy 2018 and I hope your year is off to a great start! I wanted to provide you with our thoughts on the current investing environment, go over the impact of the tax cuts and how it may affect portfolios over time, and go over a few thoughts going into 2018. Here’s what you will find in this post:
Mike’s Market Commentary U.S. or International Stocks, which way should we lean? MWA Fund ...Read More
Tax Considerations for End of Year
Tax Planning for Year End 2017
Although nothing is certain, Congress appears to be getting closer to enacting significant federal tax law changes that would take effect for 2018. Based on what we know today, the standard deduction amounts will be doubled from current levels and personal exemptions will be eliminated. For those that itemize versus using the standard deduction, the deduction limits will be lowered for mortgage interest and taxes. It appears mortgage interest will ...Read More
What will healthcare cost during retirement?
Two of the biggest future cost retirees will face is the rising cost of healthcare plus the cost associated with providing long term care which are not typically covered by Medicare. These two unknown cost must be addressed in a typical retirement plan. Today Americans spend approximately 3 trillion dollars on health care and these cost have risen at a much faster rate than the overall rate of inflation. Add to this the uncertainty of health care legislation and the fact that ...Read More
2017 Q3 MARKET REVIEW AND MORE UPDATES
Section I: Portfolio Performance
What a year! In addition to this newsletter please know that your quarterly portfolio reviews have been uploaded to your client portal as of 10-13-2017. To date almost every major asset class is positive and some asset types, like emerging markets, are up over 25% year to date. While we can’t expect to get double-digit returns every year that doesn’t mean asset prices must come tumbling down either. The attachment below shows the ...Read More
Getting What You Don’t Pay For
October 2017
Costs matter. Whether you’re buying a car or selecting an investment strategy, the costs you expect to pay are likely to be an important factor in making any major financial decision.
People rely on a lot of different information about costs to help inform these decisions. When you buy a car, for example, the sticker price tells you approximately how much you can expect to pay for the car itself. But the sticker price is only one part of the overall cost ...Read More