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...
May 17, 2017
Over the years I have met one-on-one with many college students, often the children or grandchildren of my investment management clients. I am proud that we work with multiple generations for several of our client families; we know and take care of grandp...
May 4, 2017
Scott Wittman, Chief Investment Officer at American Century Investments, is one of the investment professionals I like to follow. Recently, Scott articulated that at American Century, politics has no value as a variable for investment analysis; there are ...
April 4, 2017
In my 35 years as a Financial Advisor, I have never seen a U.S. President capture so much attention from the financial markets, and from almost everywhere else. The New York Times ran an article this month estimating that Donald Trump has received more at...
March 28, 2017
A 2016 Survey by GOBankingRates found that 56% of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Scary stuff. Scarier still is that two-thirds of the women surveyed said they had no savings or less than $10,000 in retirement savings, compared with...
March 18, 2017
Tax season is upon us, and you may be getting ready to file by the April 18 deadline. Typically, the deadline for taxes is April 15, but because that date falls on a Saturday and April 17 is a legal holiday, the tax deadline has been pushed to April 18 th...
March 3, 2017
The Fiduciary Rule After more than a year of deliberation, the US Department of Labor (DOL) under President Obama issued a new regulation specifying how all financial advisors in regard to retirement accounts should be held to a fiduciary standard. This n...
February 3, 2017
Although still positive for the month, the so called Trump Rally took a breather in January. There is concern that Trump’s three business-friendly intentions for 1) tax reform, 2) looser regulations, and 3) infrastructure spending are being undermined b...
January 24, 2017
Especially in uncertain times, it’s a good idea to hold some amount of your savings in cash. A good rule of thumb is to hold three to six months of necessary living expenses in cash or liquid funds generally called your “emergency reserves”. However...
January 11, 2017
Expectations are running high for President-Elect Donald Trump and the Republican majority. Nobody knows exactly what is going to happen in regard to Trump’s business-friendly policies for tax cuts, tax reform, looser regulations, and infrastructure spe...
December 16, 2016
There was no surprise yesterday when the Fed announced a modest 0.25% rate increase, which still leaves interest rates at historic lows. The move is not surprising because the US economy is accelerating, the stock market has reached all-time highs, unempl...
December 5, 2016
Before the November 8 election, the strength of the US economy was well established, as demonstrated by the upward revision of Q3 growth (due to strong consumer spending) from 2.9% to 3.2% annualized. This, plus seven straight years of job growth and the ...
September Surprise! On average, September is the worst month of the year for stock market performanc...
A discussion of the Trump administration’s actions and policies that are relevant to investors and
By no means am I an authentic basketball fan. For example, I do not under-stand a pick and roll. But...
The Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir is hosting a presentation on October 28 by Jim Bell, CFP®, President and Founder of Bell Investment Advisors, for parents and grandparents of chorus members — and opening the event to others in the community who are interested in attending. The half hour talk on giving during the retirement […]
