Weekly Memo

  I’ve attended a fair amount of holiday gatherings over the past month. Oftentimes the conversations were pleasant – but could be defined as surface level, contrived, and trite.  I found those conversations to be tolerable and, at times, it was hard work to keep them going.   There were

  I’m doing a premature happy dance over the news about the Social Security Fairness Act. I fervently hope that our teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public servants get a Social Security gift very soon. (1)      How?   Are you aware that retired public servants have been blocked

  I’m loving your account balances these days!  Are you aware that, thus far in 2024, more than20% of all trading days have ended at an all-time high?   [1]   That’s an average of more than oneper week.  I think this is a good time to take a pause

  One of my clients recently had an auto repair quote for $7,100 on his 1992 Toyota pickup.The truck has 272K miles. The body of the vehicle is in good shape – for its age.   What would you do? Keep it? Or send it to the graveyard?   Joe

  It’s a good question.   Let’s say that you are looking at buying a car for $37,500. You put 20% down and finance$30K at 8% interest for 48 months. That’s a high interest rate!   Now let’s take the $30k cash and invest it in a safe, 5-year treasury

I’ll never forget the magic show that I went to, and got to participate in.  The magician had a large jar filled with jellybeans. The challenge was to figure out how many jellybeans were in the jar.  He chose 5 people from the audience and asked each of us to

In October 1994 Peter Lynch gave a commentary about the markets: “The markets will go up and the markets will go down.  Human nature hasn’t changed much in 25,000 years. Some events will come out of left field and the market will go down or the market will go up.  

  For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to cancel a subscription, and it was not easy!  An unsubscribe button didn’t exist.  The search bar took me to unhelpful articles. After a fair number of searches, I finally unburied a phone number where I had to call in to

  In 1939, in Kansas, wheat mills owners realized that women were using their sacks to make clothes for their children. The mills started using flowered fabric for their sacks so that kids would have pretty clothes and the label would wash out. (1) It was a gesture of pure

In 1977 at the age of 19, Peter Buffet received a $90K inheritance from the sale of his grandfather’s farm.  Warren Buffet was clear in telling his kids that he’d give them “enough so they can do anything but not enough so they can do nothing.” (1) The $90K would be the

In August we had a “Flash Crash” – a sudden and significant drop in the value of the market followed by a quick recovery.   On August 5, 2024, the S&P 500 index fell by approximately 3%1. Despite the initial shock, the market bounced back quickly. By the end of August,

Like you, I’m seeing a lot of predictions: Polls are predicting Trump will be the next president. Polls are predicting Harris will be the next president. The economy is headed for a recession. The economy is doing well. Inflation is slowing. Inflation is still bad. There are predictions that the

Highlight the importance of a tailored financial plan. Discuss the key components, such as identifying needs and dreams, setting realistic goals, and actionable steps for a secure future. Include testimonials or case studies to illustrate successful planning.

    Have you ever lost money? Not in the markets, but actual checks or other cash equivalents? How can you even know? The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) claims that 1 in 7 people have unclaimed property. They return over $4 Billion to states each year! Let’s