When investment markets have difficult years like 2022, ideas about finding alternative investments that behave differently in down markets are written. Typically, there is a specific economic factor that these ideas solve for, and over the past year, that factor has been inflation. Many pundits had ideas about how to position your portfolio for rising inflation, so let’s see how they turned out! Some of the most common ideas for… Read More
Blog Series: Where We Stand a Year Later, Part 4 – Investing Globally – When will the time come?
I went to my first Hershey Bears hockey game with my grandparents when I was five years old. Since then, I have loved the game of ice hockey. I know we ice hockey fans are a bit of a distinct breed. In fact, I have spent considerable time pondering what captivates me about the game of ice hockey. While I enjoy the speed and flow of the game, I have… Read More
Blog Series: Where We Stand a Year Later, Part 3 – The U.S. Consumer Post Stimulus
The United States has passed some of the largest stimulus packages in its history in the last few years. As a result of this money in the hands of consumers, consumer spending increased and inflation rose to its highest level since the early 1980s. Now that we are removed from these events, where does the U.S. consumer stand going forward and what could it mean for consumer spending? In April… Read More
Blog Series: Where We Stand a Year Later, Part 2 – Bad Time For Bonds – Is It Over?
2022 was certainly an interesting year in the markets, with the US Federal Reserve playing an outsized role in the headlines with their efforts to rein in stubborn inflation by embarking on the most aggressive interest rate-hiking campaign in over thirty years. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall. As a result, the rapid rise in rates during 2022 resulted in the worst bond market returns in recorded market history…. Read More
Blog Series: Where We Stand a Year Later, Part 1 – Rising Interest Rates!
Many of us believe that no single issue has recently interrupted the financial markets more than rapidly rising interest rates! In the past 13 months, the Federal Reserve has raised rates a staggering nine times, totaling almost 5% in cumulative increases. This has created turmoil for both bonds & stocks, as well as both challenges and opportunities in lending & saving. Today’s blog post will focus on the lending &… Read More
Introduction to our 2nd Quarter Blog Series: Where We Stand a Year Later
Garry: So Lyle, today we’re talking about the different approaches we can take to investing. And we’ve seen all sorts of things. We’ve seen all sorts of different ways to approach investing. But right now, we’re thinking about it in 3 different categories. Lyle: Yeah, what we typically see is somebody doesn’t know what they’re doing, they just go out and they buy everything. They buy the entire market, and… Read More
Unintended Consequences
One of the basic truths we all learn early in life is that our actions carry consequences. What often takes longer to learn is that some consequences are intended, and some are unintended. In the financial world, our complex tax code provides many examples of how actions taken in one area can have unintended consequences in other areas. Here are two examples I came across recently: I was a participant… Read More
What to Think About the Current Bank Failures?
We have received questions over the past few weeks about the recent bank failures that are dominating the financial news headlines. In this week’s Master’s Minute, I will summarize the questions that we have been receiving and provide our response to these topics. • Are the recent banking issues a wider spread problem that could lead to significant economic challenges? This is what everyone is trying to determine, and currently,… Read More
Annuities… Love Them, or Hate Them?
Read several financial publications and you will find multiple strongly opinionated articles regarding annuities, some positive, many negative. Annuities may be one of the most misunderstood financial products and are not all created equal. In today’s blog post, I hope to shed some light on the annuity subject. But, before I do so, it will be helpful to remind you of our philosophy at Master’s, regarding all financial products. We… Read More
Blog Series: Values Drive Decisions, Part 5 – Conscientious
As we conclude our series, Values Drive Decisions, we focus on our final core value: Conscientiousness. Financial planning is rarely a discipline of perfection. In dealing with numbers, you would assume that most decisions we help our clients make are 1+1=2 equations, however generally the opposite is true. Much of what we do involves weighing facts against the unique, personal situation of each client. That being said, this business is… Read More
