Monthly Market Insights | December 2023

U.S. Markets Stock prices surged last month as positive inflation data and falling bond yields emboldened investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 8.77 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index advanced 8.92 percent. The Nasdaq Composite, which has led all year, picked up 10.70 percent.1 Inflation Eases, Bond Yields Fall The fears that […]

Six Keys to More Successful Investing

Six Keys to More Successful Investing

A successful investor maximizes gain and minimizes loss. While there’s no guarantee that any investment strategy will be successful and all investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal, here are six basic principles that may help you invest successfully.   1.  Long-Term Compounding Helps Your Nest Egg Grow Put simply, compounding pays you […]

Choosing a Beneficiary for Your IRA or 401(k)

Choosing a Beneficiary for Your IRA or 401(k)

Selecting beneficiaries for retirement benefits is different from choosing beneficiaries for other assets such as life insurance. With retirement benefits, you need to know the impact of income tax and estate tax laws to select the right beneficiaries. Although taxes shouldn’t be the sole determining factor in naming your beneficiaries, ignoring the impact of taxes […]

How to Allocate Your Assets

How to Allocate Your Assets

Investing can be risky, and asset allocation is a way to manage that risk. Instead of picking individual stocks, asset allocation focuses on broad categories, mixing them in the right proportion to match your financial goals, the amount of time you have to invest, and your risk tolerance. Because not all investments are alike, spreading […]

How to Teach Your Teen About Money

How to Teach Your Teen About Money

Teens love to think they’re independent. They also love to try and convince you of it, but despite what they say, your teen still needs your advice. With more money and more ways to spend it, teenagers can more easily find themselves in financial trouble. So before money burns a hole in your teen’s pocket, […]

How to Teach Your Child About Money

How to Teach Your Child About Money

Ask your child where money comes from and you’ll probably get an entertaining answer. Maybe they’ll say, “From a tree,” or, “From a machine,” or even, “Magic!” Children might not understand where money comes from, but they do understand that it can buy them things that they want. Because of that, it’s wise to start […]

How to Teach Your College-Age Child About Money

How to Teach Your College-Age Child About Money

When your child first started school, you doled out the change for milk and a snack daily. Things were simple and you had direct control over what they spent it on. Now that they’ve grown up and are leaving childish things behind, it’s time for you to make sure that they meet adulthood with some […]

How Does Dollar Cost Averaging Work?

How Does Dollar Cost Averaging Work?

Many people make the mistake of avoiding investing because they’re worried about short-term volatility. Don’t be one of them. Use dollar cost averaging instead. This popular investment strategy takes some of the guesswork out of the game. Instead of holding onto a lump sum and waiting for the market to reach its lowest point, agonizing […]

How to Organize Your Finances After Your Spouse Has Passed Away

How to Organize Your Finances After Your Spouse Has Passed Away

Losing a spouse is a devastating event, and adapting to life afterward can be a stressful transition. Add in the pressure of settling the estate and organizing finances, and it can be unbearable. It’s not a topic most of us like to engage with, but it’s also a necessary one. We’re here to help get […]

Tax Planning for Self-Employed

Tax Planning for Self-Employed

How to Protect Your Assets in Estate Planning If you’ve worked hard to build your wealth, you’ll soon run into a major problem: protecting it from future potential creditors. We see clients more often than we’d like who neglected this problem and are hit out of nowhere with an accident, heavy healthcare costs, or missed […]