If you read financial planning textbooks, you might be left with the impression that people report to the financial planner’s office to begin the planning process as soon as they land their first job. However, that’s not how it usually happens. Instead, people need a sense of urgency to get started. This often comes after …Read More
Most of you know by now that, as of January, I began cutting back my hours at Bell and moving into a career transition most commonly known as “Semi-Retirement.” I have to say, it has been smoothing out a bit since the first quarter of the year, which is good news. Don’t get me wrong, …Read More
At a 2010 lecture discussing the financial crisis of 2007-2009 – Navigating the New Normal in Industrialized Countries – Mohamed El-Erian (now chief economic advisor at Allianz) said, “The crisis was not a mere flesh wound. The crisis cut to the bone.” Once you start cutting bone, you change the structure of whatever is being …Read More
…So wrote Charles Dickens in his famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities. Dickens wrote this novel in part as a warning and as an encouragement to his fellow citizens of Great Britain not to devolve into indiscriminate mass murder and mob violence as he compared the relative safety and stability of London …Read More
Ever since Jim’s Succession Letter went out last month announcing that Forrest has become President of Bell Investment Advisors, people have been asking me about my own plans for 2019, as if now I would be joining the Peace Corps or the circus, or finding a new job, or traveling to the Far East all …Read More
Over the past two years, the number of homes destroyed by wildfires in California has prompted many homeowners to reconsider their homeowners insurance policies and for good reason. Homeowners policies that are written to insure a home from damage affecting a single home might not provide coverage for damage that results from a larger disaster. …Read More
With the S&P 500 fully recovered from the correction earlier this year, and hovering near its all-time high, the current bull market in U.S. large-cap stocks remains one of the longest in history. The reasons for this bull market are still in debate. Skeptics suggest the rise is a product of artificially low, government-suppressed interest …Read More
On October 8, 2017, a fire began in Calistoga, California, that would kill 43 people and displace 100,000 others. Because of the weather conditions, the fire moved fast. The following morning, I remember hearing that the fire had jumped the 101 freeway and engulfed the Fountaingrove Inn. By the time my first meeting of the day …Read More
In 2017 investors benefited from an unusually non-volatile market with consistent growth, but 2018 has been notably less euphoric. So what changed? In short, tariffs: these economic and political tools are the only force holding back the U.S. stock market in 2018. A tariff is a border tax imposed by a country on imported goods. …Read More
Thanks to the St. Patrick’s Day editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, I learned about American Keg in Pottstown, PA, the only remaining U.S. manufacturer of stainless steel beer kegs. Their biggest seller is the 15.5 gallon keg, very popular with fraternities, bars, and restaurants. Despite competition from Germany and China with cheaper kegs, …Read More
Bell received notification from our custodian, Charles Schwab, of a text message-based phishing attempt imitating Schwab. The phishing attempt appears to have been sent to a random set of phone numbers, not necessarily clients of Schwab or Bell Investment Advisors. The phishing attempt was conveyed through text messages appearing to come from Schwab, but in …Read More
