Welcome to the Johnson Wealth Management blog. Here we'll post updates on the latest in the market, tips on personal finance, and overall investment knowledge for our clients and readers.
Monday, October 25, 2021
What do you do as a married couple if you or your significant other is not knowledgeable about money? In this case, I’m not referring to a spouse that mishandles money. That’s another subject altogether. What I have in mind...
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Monday, October 18, 2021
Imagine watching almost 22% of your entire account value vanish in one day. Let’s say your account was $500,000 on Friday and when you opened it on Monday morning it was off $110,000 and clocked in at just $390,000. Unsettling....
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Monday, October 11, 2021
This may come as a shock to you. Are you sitting down? Our aim at Johnson Wealth Management is not to beat the stock market. We are not a hedge fund. (And even they don’t always outperform the market). We don’t wake up...
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Monday, October 4, 2021
While September is the worst month for the stock market (September didn’t fail to end in the red this year either), the last three months of the year are usually the best for the S&P 500. As the above chart shows1, the fourth...
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Monday, September 27, 2021
You might be the kind of person that loves the feeling of reading an actual newspaper in the morning and sipping your coffee with ink-stained hands. If so, you may also still love writing checks and keeping a check register. You might...
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Monday, September 20, 2021
I like charts. They make the Nerd-In-Me happy. At there best they can illustrate reality simply. They can also give false correlations. Like the one above.1 If one were to take this chart literally it might mean that you should be...
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Monday, September 13, 2021
We human beings love secret knowledge. We love the idea that we might have access to inside information and know the *real* truth behind the curtain. We crave a compelling conspiracy theory, even if it’s just for entertainment...
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Monday, September 6, 2021
September not only kicks off the Fall season but can be a month of falling prices for stocks. In fact, as the above chart reveals1, it’s infamous for being the worst performing month for the S&P 500 index. Wall Street loves to...
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Monday, August 30, 2021
“Where am I going to put all the extra cash?” This question often gets posed to me when a client or prospect sells an asset like real estate or after a sale of a particular investment for reallocation purposes. And...
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Monday, August 23, 2021
In my most recent post, I revealed the big secret about economic and investment forecasts—no one knows. You can forecast your brains out about all the reasons the market will have a big or bad year, or why an investment bubble...
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Monday, August 16, 2021
If someone asks me, “What do you think will happen in the stock market the rest of the year?” my primary answer is, “I don’t know.” I can even answer more broadly (without pomposity, I promise): “No...
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Monday, August 9, 2021
So say some in my office. Related statements follow: “It’s all paper money.” “I like hard assets.” “It’s gambling.” “I prefer something I can touch.” I understand the...
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Monday, August 2, 2021
Expectations are a double-edged sword in relationships. Everyone has them. When they are regularly met, relational life between two parties can be bliss. When they are consistently unmet, it can be a dumpster fire. One popular...
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Monday, July 26, 2021
The law of compound interest is everywhere. If you invest deeply in your relationships, they will grow. If you take the time to care for your family in everyday ordinary ways, they can add up meaningful ripple effect upon future...
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Monday, July 19, 2021
The process of building an emergency fund can be considered the training wheels of personal finance. Since it’s the first step to becoming financially savvy, let’s use an educator’s interrogative grid to nail down the...
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Monday, July 12, 2021
In a low-interest rate environment, it’s normal to ask the question, “Why would I own bonds in my portfolio?” Or, as some have rhythmically remarked, “Why be a loaner when I can be an owner?” Here are some...
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Wednesday, July 7, 2021
We at Johnson Wealth Management want to help our clients live and leave a legacy. Our aim is to add more clients who resonate with this mission, so we are adding another advisor to our team. We are simultaneously a national and local...
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Monday, July 5, 2021
We at Johnson Wealth Management hope you had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We know it has been an eventful year-and-a-half. If COVID restrictions lifted where you are located, we trust you were able to gather with some of those you...
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Monday, June 28, 2021
There are many lessons to be learned from the pandemic. Life is short. Getting outside is good for you. Rethink your work-family balance. And more. Here are a few investing lessons: #1 - Since markets move quickly, investment decisions...
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Monday, June 21, 2021
You don’t know what you don’t know. Until you do. And then you beat yourself up for not knowing it sooner or think you should have known the whole time. This happens in investing too. We call it a black swan event. The term...
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Monday, June 14, 2021
This may come as a shock, but you are going to die. I get that considering your death isn’t the most chipper form of reading. Hear me out though, you need to not only consider it yourself but talk about it with your family and...
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Monday, June 7, 2021
Having an educated opinion is one thing, but dogmatically asserting the direction of an investment has a record of making the pontificator eat one’s words. Historian Niall Ferguson, aptly wrote, “Nothing illustrates more...
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Monday, May 31, 2021
The stock market is closed today. For good reason. It’s Memorial Day. What began as Decoration Day to commemorate the fallen in the Civil War by decorating their graves, over time became a day to remember those who died in all...
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Monday, May 24, 2021
The most famous investor that even those who couldn’t care less about the stock market have probably heard of is Warren Buffett. The noted Nebraskan is one of the wealthiest individuals in the world and heads up Berkshire...
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Monday, May 17, 2021
How does one even define what the most valuable company in the world is? One commonly used metric to get this valuation is through something called market cap. The market cap of a company is what stock market buyers and sellers say...
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Monday, May 10, 2021
We are an investment planning firm. We speak the language of risk management, financial planning, and asset allocation. Discussions of losses and profits, reallocations and diversifications, echo from our offices. But these...
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Monday, May 3, 2021
“How much return should I expect if I invest in stocks?” A financial advisor might answer with brevity, “Ten percent.” Or she might give a more precise answer tagged to 1957 when the S&P 500 index began:...
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Monday, April 26, 2021
One of the hardest things about being a long-term investor is that there are always going to be reasons to sell. Since fear itself sells, there will be a headline somewhere that poo-poos investing in the stock market. If you are...
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Monday, April 19, 2021
You ever wonder why a gain on your monthly statement doesn’t affect you near as much as an equivalent loss? You may get a brief jolt of adrenaline to lift your spirits at the sight of a gain and not think about your investments...
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Monday, April 12, 2021
Ain’t the stock market just a casino for people that say they don’t gamble? Generally, no. Here are two reasons: First, investing in the stock market is investing in companies in the real world. You aren’t pulling...
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Monday, April 5, 2021
Most of us are getting used to a barrage of monthly subscription costs adding up on our bank statements. Whether it’s the regular unveiling of new video streaming services for your (or your kids’!) favorite shows, and applications...
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Monday, March 29, 2021
Life is lived more and more online these days. For better or for worse, the boundaries between digital life in virtual worlds and physical life in the real world is getting thinner and thinner. One evidence of this is found in the rise...
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Monday, March 22, 2021
Arguing about whether the stock market is in a period of euphoria or is continuing on in a secular bull market these days isn’t the point of this post. You can read those debates elsewhere. The goal here is to provide you with...
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Monday, March 15, 2021
Why post something with this title now? After all, the DOW hit all-time highs last week. Am I predicting a collapse? Nope. I’m simply preparing you for how to respond when it happens so that whenever it happens, you’re...
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Monday, March 8, 2021
It’s your money. Whether you earned it or inherited it, it is not your financial advisor’s money—it is yours. Therefore, you must take ultimate responsibility for it, and make sure the person(s) that you choose to...
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Monday, March 1, 2021
News and the truth are not always related. In fact, in some cases, they can be nearly opposites. One of the reasons for this is that we live in a world of infotainment. Infotainment is the blending of news with entertainment. The goal...
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Monday, February 22, 2021
You ever heard someone say, “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst”? It can come across as if the best is merely a wish, and the worst is more likely. It feels more glass half-empty than half-full. Buy the generator...
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Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Diversification is a bit of a buzzword in financial planning circles. You may not know much about investments, yet probably know that that diversification is important even if you don’t know what it means. So, what is it? And why...
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Friday, February 12, 2021
Have you ever overreacted in your life? Ever made an emotional decision in response to a negative event that adversely affected you that was really hard to recover from? Yes? Me too. Human beings tend to respond to negative events via...
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Monday, February 8, 2021
You may have the perception that gold is safe. Certain late night commercials definitely give that impression. In your mind the stock market might equal risk and uncertainty while gold equals safety and security. There are a lot of...
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Tuesday, February 2, 2021
You don’t have to be interested in the stock market or investments to have seen the news about Gamestop stock (GME). The story went viral, and there are plenty of articles written and people speaking about the details of it in...
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Wednesday, January 27, 2021
The stock market, like life, doesn’t always make sense. As I mentioned in the previous blog, the market doesn’t always rise and fall based on whether our political team is winning or losing. Similarly, the stock market...
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Monday, January 25, 2021
Last week was the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., as the 46th President of the United States of America. He is entering the presidency with many challenges like a global pandemic and a political climate that is rife with tension....
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