That was nasty. The only market positives for September seemed to be more clarity from the Federal Reserve on rate hikes and resulting yield of 3-month treasury bills.
It’s that time of year for fall colors, football … and company benefits enrollment. Take a closer look - don’t just default to last year’s choices.
Markets flipped back to negative monthly returns in August. Only two major asset classes – emerging markets and commodities – were slightly positive. The Fed flexed its muscles in Jackson Hole.
Some kids are going off to college. Some ‘older kids’ wish they were. This blog post covers the mechanics of tapping a 529 plan to pay the bills and reminds ‘older kids’ with student loans about the end of the moratorium on loan payments set to expire 9/1/2022.
Here is a brief pre-vacation summary of the markets. I will let the pictures do most of the talking.
Congrats on your summer earnings! Set aside some for a little fun, then have the rest do double duty as reserve fund and tax-free savings.
We are half-way through the year. I hope your personal life was more solid than the markets which were anything but – except for commodities (energy in particular) and some alternative strategies.
Social Security and Medicare are important programs providing income and health coverage during retirement. Will the programs be around when you retire? The answer is yes, but benefits may be reduced. Here is a brief financial overview of these programs in a Q&A format.
If you only looked at month-end market levels, you would have thought May was a fairly quiet month. Looking under the hood however shows intra-month swings of over 10% for some markets.
We recently celebrated our son’s college graduation. This was our third and final child to graduate – a proud and exciting time for all. What a great time to share the different features and benefits of the 529 Savings Plan.
What will these April showers bring? US equities down 9% for April and 30-year Treasury Bonds down 10%... for the month!
You will likely hear “… a half a point” on May 4th. Who is the Fed, what does this mean, and how many rate hikes are expected this year are important questions.