The U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates aggressively to fight inflation, battering both equity and fixed income investments. By year-end, those efforts helped to bring inflation from a peak of 9.1% in mid-2022 to 6.0% in February 2023, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The first quarter 2023 investment market returns are in the books. The S&P 500 was up a 7.36%. The international stock markets were up 3.96% ( MSCI EM ) to 8.47% ( MSCI )…

Amid growing concerns about U.S. financial system stability, the Federal Reserve (Fed) continued pursuing its inflation-fighting mandate…

The Federal Reserve (Fed) has a history of raising short-term interest rates until something “breaks.” Considering the Fed has raised rates from a near-zero level to 4.75% (upper bound) over the course of only one year…

Given the news of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week, I thought it good to review how the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insurance works to protect your bank accounts. FDIC insurance applies to accounts held at FDIC-insured banks only....

One of the main goals we are asked to calculate for our financial coaching clients is: “How much do I need to save to be able to retire?” This calculation has many moving parts but I thought today we could give you a chart with some general rules of thumb…

A health savings account (HSA) may be the best tax benefitable tool you can use. Maximizing an HSA for health care expenses: Health Savings Accounts are triple-tax free, so if eligible to contribute, make the most of it…

During the recent bull market, investors had to get one thing right: Recognize that leading U.S. internet companies with strong growth potential could generate the greatest returns…

A few weeks ago we mentioned the recently enacted tax bill called the Securing a Strong Retirement Act 2022, otherwise known as “SECURE 2.0 Act.” or “SECURE Act 2.0”. It addresses many beneficial changes as we all plan for our retirements…

Reading this weekend’s WSJ, I came across an article about “ Amateur Investors ” (WSJ Subscription needed). What I discovered was these “investors” were actually speculators (some may call them gamblers).