The most recent monthly jobs report came out last Friday and was solid on most counts. The pundits were very excited about it and used it as an example of how strong the economy is and where it’s likely headed. … Continue reading →

On March 22nd we sent a special edition of our monthly Cadence Clips entitled “Was January 26 the Bull Market Peak?” After that S&P 500 peak of 2,873, the index’s value closed at ~2,581 twice: on February 8th and April … Continue reading →

Any investor who has not been 100% invested in the stock market since March 9, 2009 has missed out on some amount of stock market returns. However, everyone knows very few people should ever be 100% invested in the stock … Continue reading →

As a reminder, there are no completely safe places to invest, as nearly all investments have the potential to lose value at times, but there are almost always some investments that are relatively safer than others. The first step in … Continue reading →

The most important thing to understand when building an investment portfolio is that all investments worth considering can and most likely will lose money at some point. Unfortunately this is just how it works. The key is to make sure … Continue reading →

What we’re experiencing in the financial markets right now is unique while at the same time very similar to previous bull markets. Those contending that this time is different are correct. We’ve never had synchronized global monetary easing on the … Continue reading →

Bubbles are dynamic and as a result, different each time. But one common theme amongst them has been the tendency for interest rates to play a role in their eventual demise. Looking back 30 years, there seems to be a … Continue reading →

This current bull market started in March 2009, making it the second longest bull market in investment history. You can just glance at a chart of the S&P 500 and see that bull markets, especially big ones, do eventually come … Continue reading →

Most employers, especially the medium and large-sized ones, provide some sort of retirement plan.  A large percentage of those are traditional 401(k)s, where you contribute pre-tax dollars into the plan, you do not pay any taxes on gains inside the … Continue reading →

Life is complicated, but does passing money to your beneficiaries have to be also? In theory it shouldn’t, as all you want to specify is “when I die, give this much to these people”. That sounds so simple, yet when … Continue reading →

They could, but it depends on what you did to reduce the benefits.  Most people know by now that if you take social security before you reach your full retirement age, which these days for most people is 66 to … Continue reading →

Let’s keep this simple. U.S. stocks by almost any measure that doesn’t obscure reported earnings are either at or very near record levels. Here’s a look at a couple valuation measures we’ve discussed in the past – the Shiller CAPE … Continue reading →

Not necessarily. For those who don’t understand where we are in the economic cycle and the current valuation levels of markets, there will likely be some very unpleasant surprises down the road. This is nothing new. For investors who were … Continue reading →

Contributing to a 401(k) plan is good, right? Then contributing the maximum possible to a 401(k) is even better. However, there is one small mistake we see people making that can have a surprisingly big impact over time: hitting the … Continue reading →

Halfway up the slope of a volcano lived a monkey. Like his fellow monkeys, he spent the majority of his days picking and eating fruit off the trees growing on the side of the volcano. Unbeknownst to his friends, however, … Continue reading →

Although the rationale for this is sound, waiting to invest can be tricky because it’s always difficult knowing when the time is right to start putting money to work. Usually the best time to get invested is when the world … Continue reading →

Being disciplined is hard. When we think about our own private lives, if we’re being honest, none of us have any trouble coming up with instances where we broke down and diverged from our plan. Whether around dieting, exercise, or … Continue reading →

Anything’s possible, but it’s extremely unlikely that the rules of the game have changed. At the end of the day, asset prices only go as high as people are willing to pay for them. The definition of a bubble is … Continue reading →