April 4, 2018
An analysis of the market, the most important investment principles, the threat of tariffs and trade wars...
March 12, 2018
The estate and gift tax exemption in the federal tax code (Form 706) applies to an individual’s gifts made during life and to assets left at death. Beginning in 2018, the exemption from tax is doubling to nearly $11.2 million per individual and $22.4 mi...
March 5, 2018
Be a Winner — Learn to Live with Volatility February brought the highly anticipated 10% pullback after the biggest drop in 2017 of only 3%. Corrections of 10% are evidence that the market does not continually rise, and they motivate technicians to corre...
February 27, 2018
This is an overview of a Health Savings Account (HSA), a unique savings & investment vehicle w/ tax benefits: who qualifies, advantages, restrictions, what medical expenses are covered, which aren't, what you can do before 4/17/18, 2018 caps, not to be co...
February 22, 2018
In December 2017, the U.S. Congress passed and President Trump signed into law a new tax law for American businesses and individual taxpayers. This new law is vast and complicated, so we think it is best to break it down into manageable subject areas rath...
February 12, 2018
On February 6, in response to the volatility that the markets were experiencing, we sent the following thoughts to our clients and other contacts for whom we had email addresses. (If you would like to be added to this list, contact info@bellinvest.com): ...
February 2, 2018
Believe it or not, I would have liked to have seen a greater pullback in the stock market than the two-day drop on Monday and Tuesday, January 29 and 30. The total drop for those two days was 500 points on the Dow, which sounds like a lot, but it was only...
January 5, 2018
Interest Rates: December proved to be an interesting month in the world of finance. Earlier in the month, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. The quarter point raise marked the third interest rate hike this year, bucking a trend of less frequent ra...
December 5, 2017
The operative word above is reason, which frames the question in a rational context. We all know that investors and markets often move with irrational motivations, especially in short-term periods. After another strong gain in November, the U.S. market to...
November 7, 2017
Making contributions to your retirement accounts is guaranteed to strengthen your financial and retirement plan. This year December 31 is on a Sunday, which means you should be planning those 2017 contributions now and targeting Friday, December 29 to hav...
November 2, 2017
Don’t be afraid of a market pull back. This October 19 marked the 30-year anniversary of the great crash of 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 20% that day and still holds the record for the largest percentage drop in a single day. Rob...
October 10, 2017
As you no doubt know, the credit reporting agency Equifax recently reported a major cyber security breach. The hack exposed the personal information of an estimated 143 million Americans. When this news broke, we emailed the following information to all o...
October 4, 2017
September Surprise! On average, September is the worst month of the year for stock market performance. Going back to 1950, September has averaged an S&P 500 decline of 0.5%, but for September 2017, the S&P 500 gained 2.06% driven by strong corpora...
September 6, 2017
It is impossible to effectively time your investments based on the prospects for wars and government policies. Timing is almost always disruptive to financial plans and harmful to long-term investment returns. Investment experts and markets separate their...
August 2, 2017
Thomson Reuters estimates that corporate earnings for the S&P 500 may again reach double digits for the second quarter of 2017. In the first quarter of this year, S&P 500 earnings grew by 15% compared to the first quarter of 2016. As of this date,...
July 6, 2017
Strong corporate earnings growth continues to propel global stock markets upward. . . . International and emerging market stocks represent the greatest potential because valuations are less stretched and profitability gains have further to run. . . .it is...
June 16, 2017
Many of the headlines in the news about brick and mortar retail suggest this method of spending is becoming extinct and that many consumers are using solely electronic means to purchase goods. Even a word as dramatic as “apocalypse” has been used to d...
June 2, 2017
Politics still impact financial markets in the short term, as shown by the Dow Industrial Average falling 373 points on May 17. On that day, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel to investigate Russia’s attack on our 2016 elec...
An analysis of the market, the most important investment principles, the threat of tariffs and trade...
Tune in to Jim Bell, CFP®, President & Founder, Bell Investment Advisors, as he presents a half-hou
Thanks to the St. Patrick’s Day editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, I learned about America...
On Friday, May 18, at 8 pm, at the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Oakland, Maestro Michael Morgan will conduct Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium for Violin and Orchestra, followed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Op. 74, Symphony No. 6, “Pathêtique” in B Minor. As a young conductor, Michael came to know Leonard Bernstein at […]
