Fee-Only Investment Advisory and Financial Planning Firm Serving Greater Richmond, Virginia
Summit Live: Session 1 Financial Planning vs Investing… Do they work together? How important is it for your investments to coincide with your financial plan? Do you even need a financial plan? Jennifer Luzzatto and Mike Sigmon talk about how there isn’t a “one size fits all” answer when it comes to you and your…
It is often said that percentage of stocks that one should own in their investment portfolio is 100-minus their age. Is this a good rule of thumb? I am not sure where this “rule” originated, but like most “rules of thumb,” it may or may not be the best application to your situation. Let’s start…
The following is adapted from Inheriting Chaos with Compassion. If you inherit an investment portfolio from a loved one after they pass, unless you’re an investor, you might look at the mix of stocks, bonds, and other assets with total confusion. As a financial advisor, I’ve seen it happen before with clients. If you’re in…
The following is adapted from Inheriting Chaos with Compassion. Of all the things you can inherit after a loved one passes away, an investment portfolio is one of the trickiest, especially if you’re not an experienced investor. Understandably, an investment portfolio is designed to help someone achieve their financial goals, and when we inherit that…
The following is adapted from Inheriting Chaos with Compassion. When it comes to investing, most of us are familiar with stocks—an ownership share in a company—but you might be left wondering what a bond is and how it works. Let’s look at what a bond is and how it can be used to grow wealth….
A bit earlier today, my daughter and I were at a local mall where they offered free horse drawn carriage rides. As you can imagine by the word “free,” there was a long line so I had plenty of time to ponder things. As I was doing so, I started thinking about the two horses…
The Markets Stink. Now what? 2018 was a pretty good year for stock market returns…. Until October. Since then we have been hit with very difficult performance. A couple of weeks ago, the US markets had regained enough ground to at least have a zero percent return. At the moment, though, returns are negative…
The US stock markets are still feeling jittery this week, although we are seeing some stabilization in the International Markets, something that rarely gets headline coverage here in the US. The media bathes us in fear inducing coverage when we experience negative returns, but let’s step back from that a bit and think about what…
The stock markets were especially volatile last week. Normally volatile would refer to something going up and down, but when used in the context of the stock markets, we tend to only think about negative returns. I have written before about why holding the course and not making emotionally based decisions is best for anyone’s…
The front cover of Wall Street Journal showcased the news, “Propelled by Tech Stocks, Nasdaq Tops 8000 for the First Time”, followed by “Nasdaq Soars Past 8000 to Record” in even bigger print on the front of the Business & Finance section of the August 28, 2018 edition. To be sure, the US stock markets…
Is it time to panic? Is it time to pull out of stocks? Today was a bit ugly in the US Stock Markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1,175 points, the S&P 500 down 113 points and smaller companies, represented by the NASDAQ closed down 273 points. The news was not a lot…
Over the past year I have been asked numerous times why we would not only continue to hold Emerging Markets stocks, but add to those positions when we rebalance portfolios. Index returns show that Emerging Markets have posted negative returns for four out of the past five years, while the S&P 500 has experienced positive…
