This year’s Tax Day, April 18, 2022, is now in the rearview mirror. Rare is the person who enjoys prepping for the filing of their tax return, much less, writing the checks! I am thankful it only occurs once per year. Sometimes the best way to counteract an unpleasant situation is to add a bit of levity. Here is some tax-time humor for your reading enjoyment. Q – Why didn’t… Read More

You are probably aware that interest rates have increased substantially over the last several months. Since the beginning of the year, the 10-year treasury bond yield has increased from 1.52% to 2.85% as of this writing. That’s an 87.5% increase in less than four months. Similarly, 30-year mortgage rates have increased since the beginning of the year from 3.11% to 5.0% as of this writing. That is a 60.7% increase…. Read More

We are fortunate to experience the change of seasons in Lancaster County, and the one that is my favorite is the change from winter to spring. The longer, warmer days are a welcomed reprieve, and it is always fun to see the trees and flowers begin to bloom once again. For many of us, spring is also the time of year when we clean up around the house, engaging in… Read More

Habit 2 in Stephen Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is to “begin with the end in mind.” I have found it extremely helpful when starting something new to take time to envision what I really want in the end. It might be tempting when we reach an ending point in some aspect of our life to fill the void with whatever is comfortable and straightforward. However,… Read More

My wife, Hannah, and I have known for a while that we wanted to start a family after being married for a certain number of years. After our wedding and purchasing a home, we knew we had to keep this goal of ours in mind as we made decisions. We were intentional about enjoying the stage of life we were in, while making choices that would set us up for… Read More

In last week’s blog post, Charlie wrote about the value of pivoting your plans when the circumstances of life cause a surprise change to be necessary. One underlying skill behind the concept of pivoting is decisiveness. The ability to be decisive comes easier for some people than it does for others. Decisiveness is comprised of two key components: being able to make a decision quickly and effectively. Being able to… Read More

I am a basketball fan. I’ve enjoyed playing the game (mostly in the past), following the NBA, and, college basketball’s March Madness tournament, of course! In basketball, a player pivots when they plant one foot, but then quickly spin to go the opposite direction. It happens many times during the game. Two weeks ago, my wife and I were planning to fly to Florida for a week-long vacation in beautiful… Read More

At Master’s, you hear us talk a lot about connecting your personal values with the use of your capital. We want to help you align your financial decisions with what is most important to you. Why do we believe this is so important? Because the more resources you have, the more difficult it is to be sure that they are all being optimized for your personal goals and values. Think… Read More

As I write this, headlines are dominated by news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, soaring inflation rates, and dropping stock markets. These scary headlines can, understandably, lead to a sense of anxiousness on the part of investors. Times like these illustrate why the Master’s team recommends positioning money using a bucketing strategy. A bucketing approach to asset positioning involves deciding when money will be needed to fulfill a goal or… Read More

The 2022 Winter Olympics have come to a close.  There are many aspects of the Olympics that I enjoy and one of those is the athlete’s journey to compete in the Olympics.  I like to reflect on their story and how it can parallel our journey through life as we work to achieve our goals.  There are several great stories from the Olympics, and one of my favorites this year… Read More