2020

As we draw closer to wrapping up a very trying and difficult 2020 and continue to face tremendous uncertainty around the presidential election, social unrest, job security, life, markets, etcetera, the famous quote from Charles Swindoll comes to mind: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” It’s times like these when it’s important for us to remember this and try the best we can to live it. Part of this message refers to the importance of attitude in dealing with challenges, while the other form of “reaction” is the choices we make in…

“Buy low, sell high”.  Everyone’s heard of that one.  In fact, we’ve probably all heard it so much we no longer have to think about the math behind it, we just *know* that means you’ve made money.  There are some things you don’t even have to think about any more, you just feel them.  “Your average income tax rate is not the same as your marginal income tax rate”.  That one requires a little more thought, but yes, it makes sense; only the amount of taxable income that falls in the highest marginal bracket is taxed at that rate; the…

For years we’ve been raising the issue of the systematic increase in wealth inequality in America. Whether monetary policy from the Fed or crony capitalism in Washington, the end result has been a widening gyre between the haves and the have-nots. Although there are very specific reasons for some of the protests taking place around the country today, wealth inequality is an overarching cause of much of the angst. What’s most unfortunate about this is that we didn’t just wake up to the highest level of wealth inequality since the Great Depression this morning. It’s been bad and getting worse…

We had a piece in the September 2013 Cadence Clips called “The Cost of Panic”.  In it, we showed how investors who panicked and deviated from their investment plans when stock prices dropped from 2007 to 2009 caused irreparable harm to their wealth.  We have certainly seen a shock to global stock markets this year, with the potential for more losses to come.  As of this writing, many asset categories have bounced off their recent lows giving investors an opportunity to breathe a bit.  Many are asking themselves if now would be a good time to get more aggressive, while…

In four weeks, stock markets have given back more than three years-worth of gains. For our number-oriented readers, that equates to losses accumulating 40 times faster than gains. As the expression goes; “risk happens fast”. If the month of March has taught investors one thing, it’s that things can go from completely peachy to chaotically crappy with the blink of an eye. As we’ve been reminding our clients over the months, the ability for this to happen increases dramatically in a system that is historically overextended in debt, valuation, speculation, greed, complacency and complexity. There is no question that Covid-19…

If the latest data using the best meteorological methods available suggests there’s a storm coming and one takes actions to prepare, does that qualify as panic? One of the things we’ve noticed over the years in raising flags about the risks embedded in markets is that those who question the narrative are quickly criticized and labeled as worrywarts, fear mongers, or worse. This tendency has reached a fever-pitch lately with stocks bubbling up even further and the introduction of the Coronavirus. The use of the word “panic” as a pejorative has become commonplace similar to how most use the term…

On December 20, 2019 the President signed into law the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (the SECURE Act). The new law is intended to expand opportunities for individuals to increase their retirement savings. Some of the changes give people more flexibility and others, less so. We’ll start with the changes that will impact the most people first and work our way down. A new start date for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from IRA’s and retirement plans The SECURE Act raises the age after which you must begin taking RMDs from 70 ½ to 72. This is nice…