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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, May 18, 2026

Remember those “For Dummies” books? The ones where you could learn the basics of any subject from an expert. I’m not sure we are allowed to call them that anymore, but there was a plethora of these publications a few decades ago....

Sunday, May 10, 2026

The stock market has been on quite the tear lately. April was a phenomenal month off the lows at the end of March. At the time of this writing late last week, we are already up about 8% halfway through the year, which is not far from...

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Have you ever wanted to talk to someone from back in time about the US stock market? What if you could go back to 1930 and ask someone how they think the market would perform over the next 100 years? I was able to get the opportunity....

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Recently, Ryan Holiday, a bestselling author on Stoicism, outlined twenty-four of his regrets.A therapeutic thing for a Stoic (or anyone) to do.One was about saving and investing. He writes:As far as saving and investing money goes,...

Monday, April 20, 2026

The S&P 500—the stock index of America’s largest companies—hit record levels last week.While the index took 70 years to reach 1,000 points, it has taken nearly a year and a half to go from 6,000 to 7,000.We are in the midst of another...

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Monday, April 13, 2026

You know those commercials about the most interesting man in the world?Debonair. Impenetrably calm and collected.The kind of man even Chuck Norris—and all his accompanying jokes—would curtsy toward.A man who would most certainly always...

Monday, April 6, 2026

“I’m going to sell and wait until things calm down to get back in.”“I’m going to wait to invest and see what happens.”“I’m going to buy when the coast is clear.”Good luck with that.Let’s say you’re sticking with that investing...

Monday, March 30, 2026

Welcome to how investing in the stock market works.In order to watch movies, documentaries, and shows on Netflix you pay a subscription fee. In order to reap the benefits of investment return in the stock market, you pay the...

Monday, March 23, 2026

What shapes your financial plan?Your financial plan should drive your investment decisions. Not the other way around.The headlines of your life—be they present needs or future plans—should influence your decisions more than the...

Monday, March 16, 2026

Do you remember 2020?I’m sure you do.I’m referring to COVID, you must be thinking. No, I’m referring to the year when Exxon Mobil, one of the biggest American energy companies, got kicked out of Dow Jones Industrial Average. With the...

Monday, March 9, 2026

Buckle up.We buckle up when we travel in our cars and on airplanes.You should also buckle up when investing.Why? Because you never know when bumps and turbulence might come.For example, even in the recent string of years where stocks...

Monday, March 2, 2026

It’s everyone’s favorite time of the year.Tax season.According to JPMorgan, about 38% of the federal government’s spending for 2025 comes from income taxes.1And most of that income tax comes from high earners. The Bipartisan Policy...

Monday, February 23, 2026

The stock market has been on quite a run the last three years.And everyone wants to know if it will continue.No one knows if it will.One of the most important things you can do as an investor is make sure your portfolio is built for...

Monday, February 16, 2026

One of the wildest things that I’ve seen over my career as a Financial Advisor is the growth of the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).I started in 2008 during the Financial Crisis. At this time ETFs were well on their way to becoming a thing,...

Monday, February 9, 2026

Should you invest in individual stocks or diversified funds? Here's the data.

Monday, February 2, 2026

You’ve probably already seen in the media and from my posts here the past several months that metals, emerging markets, and international markets have performed well recently.You know what else has performed well?Small caps.Chalk one...

Monday, January 26, 2026

Sometimes the answer to that either/or is simply: yes.Did you know that for those with long time horizons, the best time to invest in the stock market or buy a house has typically been "now" regardless of what is happening in the news...

Monday, January 19, 2026

The US stock market is not the only thing that has been humming along in the US.The economy has too.Apart from the first quarter, last year’s GDP numbers were quite good.It has been hard to argue with investing in the US markets for...

Monday, January 12, 2026

The data is in.Last year the US stock market via the index of its five-hundred-or-so largest companies was up more than 17% including dividends.That number doesn’t tell the whole story though.Did you know that the stock market had a...

Monday, January 5, 2026

At the beginning of the year people talk a lot about habits. What if we talked about our fears? What if we intentionally defined those Things That Must Not Be Named? Tim Ferriss, a bestselling author and productivity thinker, talks...

Monday, December 29, 2025

It’s that time of year again when Wall Street strategists forecast their brains out about where the market is headed next year. They call these attempts to divine the future outlooks. Earlier in December Sam Ro compiled various...

Monday, December 22, 2025

Brandon Stockman, a financial advisor, shares the top 3 investment lessons from 2025: handling market volatility, managing debt in relationships, and avoiding panic selling during downturns.

Monday, December 15, 2025

Should I invest a lump sum all at once or should I invest over time? This is a common question that all financial advisors are asked. As always, the answers can vary based on the individual. But let me give you a little peek behind...

Monday, December 8, 2025

Unless something significant happens in the final weeks of the year, 2025 is turning out to be another year of solid investment gains for investors. It hasn’t all come easy, though. Remember the negative short-term impact tariffs had...

Monday, December 1, 2025

“Envy is the only one of the 7 deadly sins that is no fun to commit”, says one of the world’s greatest investors.1 Mr. Warren Buffett may not have that exactly right (the disordered desire for something someone else has can still...

Monday, November 24, 2025

If you've been an investor for any length of time, you are aware of how your emotions can affect your investment choices. This works on the upside with fear of missing out and the downside with the fear of losing everything. It is so...

Monday, November 17, 2025

Kori Jane Spaulding, a young poet, has written a sobering poem speaking to the negative impact of phones on her generation titled “It Was the Damn Phones”. Here is an excerpt: We used to be scared of robots gaining consciousness, a lie...

Monday, November 10, 2025

In my experience as a financial advisor, clients don’t like volatility. Actually, that’s not quite right. What they don’t like is volatility to the downside. They are quite happy with it on the upside. Fixed income investing legend...

Monday, November 3, 2025

This time of year has been some of the best times to be invested in US stocks. As the above chart indicates, seasonal 3-month returns have been stellar this time of year.1 Furthermore, investment results have been positive in the past...

Monday, October 27, 2025

The recent anniversary of Black Monday and that notorious crash of equities in a single day got me thinking about historical declines in gold. Since the King of Precious Metals has been crushing it this year and some investors treat it...

Monday, October 20, 2025

You see that sharp line pointing down in the above chart? That’s the evaporation of value within inve stment portfolios. They call it Black Monday. Yesterday was the anniversary of that debacle on Wall Street. If you had been 100%...

Monday, October 13, 2025

Anyone remember April? Stocks plummeted after the rollout of President Trump’s tariffs. By now, it nearly feels forgotten because stocks have been on a historic run. In fact, it is one of the best six-month rallies in history. Not only...

Monday, October 6, 2025

The government has been shut down. Again. Maybe by the time you read this, it will be back up and running. Even if it is, this will likely happen again, so you might want to give it a gander anyway and keep reading. Investors want to...

Monday, September 29, 2025

Many stock market valuations are flashing that stocks are expensive.1 Investors should not ignore this, but did you know that this doesn’t necessitate stocks falling anytime soon? Stock prices can go higher (and lower) than you think....

Monday, September 22, 2025

The stock market is not the only thing that has rallied in the last few years. Gold has been on a phenomenal ride. BlackRock has shown that year-to-date, it is the best performing asset overall.1 The Wall Street Journal published an...

Monday, September 15, 2025

There seem to be a few things on investors’ minds right now: where interest rates are headed and whether the stock market is too high and due for a decline. The stock market is high. It hit all-time highs again last week. But as...

Monday, September 8, 2025

Recently, Vanguard made news, calling for a significant allocation of bonds over stocks. Like 70% of an investment portfolio in fixed income. That’s a whole lot of bonds and few stocks. To be clear, this is in reference to their...

Monday, September 1, 2025

The first thing to do is not be surprised. Take it in stride. It is not unusual to hear pundits forecast declines, especially in a news cycle that loves outrage and big headlines. It is also totally normal for investors to experience...

Monday, August 25, 2025

One of the best protectors against the ravages of inflation is the US Stock Market. The compound returns of investing in the biggest US companies over time have far outweighed the erosion of the purchasing power of your dollar. Stocks...

Monday, August 18, 2025

It’s easy to have news headlines frame our investment mood. We react to presidents and politics and justify our view of investing based on which side of the aisle we are on. Or we look at tragic wars or geopolitical tensions and...

Monday, August 11, 2025

July 2025 was a good month for the stock market. More than two percent doesn’t sound like much, but that’s half of what a US Treasury Bill or many CDs will pay over an entire twelve months. If we go back a decade, large US stocks are...

Monday, August 4, 2025

Betting against the stock market via the S&P 500 index has not been a winning idea. Betting against Warren Buffett has not been one either. Back in 2017, in an article for Bloomberg, a hedge fund manager named Ted Seides, who had also...

Monday, July 28, 2025

One of the easiest things to do in life is get stuck. Stuck in bad habits. Embedded in the same negative communication patterns. Glued to a seemingly endless recycling of an unchanging situation day after day. Inaction has a way of...

Monday, July 21, 2025

Did you know that during this year’s stock market decline, many average investors have appeared to have made better investment decisions than professional investors? Back in April, The Wall Street Journal noted: In the market chaos of...

Monday, July 14, 2025

Whether stocks are high or low there is always something to fear. If stocks are low, we think it will get worse. When they are high, we are convinced it might fall. Two common fears about the stock market are high stock prices and the...

Monday, July 7, 2025

Life moves fast. So do stocks. So far this year, the stock market experienced one of its fastest snapback rallies ever.1 The drama of liberation day and the tariff selloff is in the rearview mirror. For now, at least. Remember, though...

Monday, June 30, 2025

Investing in the stock market is not for the faint-hearted. The first half of this decade has been nearly as volatile as an entire decade. Investing may not have been comfortable in the Roiling 20s so far, but your investment portfolio...

Monday, June 23, 2025

It's easy to get anxious about money. In times of geopolitical uncertainty, that worry can easily increase. Headlines about military movement and missiles, death and destruction, are hard and heart-wrenching to watch. By the time you...

Monday, June 16, 2025

"Why are you always so reactive?" That's not the best way to respond to a spouse in an argument. Try it and find out. It's a way of saying you're being overly emotional. Yuck. It's also not a great thing for a financial advisor to say...

Monday, June 9, 2025

If you followed the proverb and sold in May and went away due to all the market pain earlier in 2025, you missed out. Eddy Elfenbein has the numbers: For the month, the S&P 500 gained 6.15%. If we include dividends, then the market...

Monday, June 2, 2025

Americans like their debt. Consumers have roughly 18 trillion dollars of it.¹ Most of this is mortgage debt. What some might call "good" debt. There is also plenty of "bad" debt to go around. Ramsey Solutions has the data on credit...

Monday, May 26, 2025

American debt got another thumbs down from a noted credit rating agency this month. Moody’s, one of the big three of rating agencies, was the last one of the trio to downgrade US debt. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board...

Monday, May 19, 2025

“I don't need a financial advisor. I do everything financially for our family." This may be exactly why you need one. Yes, there are all kinds of self-service options nowadays, which can work out for the financially savvy. There are...

Monday, May 12, 2025

Warren Buffett is stepping down as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of this year. His tenure has produced astonishing investment returns for shareholders. Financial writer Morgan Housel has the results: The score card after...

Monday, May 5, 2025

What. A. Month. April was wild for the US stock market. If you entered a time warp on April 1st and came back to reality the evening of the last day of April, you’d notice that the stock market was off only a little: nearly flat for...

Monday, April 28, 2025

With so much bad news in the financial markets during April, it was nice to have some respite for part of last week (up to Thursday at least). Here is some more good news. Despite concerns over potentially waning US exceptionalism, I...

Monday, April 21, 2025

The barrage of news lately can make investors feel like they must do something. The feelings are strong. And bearish. Since 1987, bearish sentiment (read: negative outlook toward the market) has never been this bad for so long.¹ This...

Monday, April 14, 2025

Each day in the market right now feels like a set of whitewall tires, as if from another century, compared to the day before. We live in a world where sudden market movement can happen from a social media post. Time feels like it’s...

Monday, April 7, 2025

A Financial Advisor’s Confessions Today to Keep Investors from Potential Confessions Tomorrow I have a confession to make. I retracted the article I had written last week because it felt outdated and rewrote it this past weekend on a...

Monday, March 31, 2025

One of the key markers of the health of an economy is GDP—“the total market value of the goods and services produced within the United States in a year”.1But many Americans don’t see it that way.All too often a person’s perception of...

Monday, March 24, 2025

If you watch financial media at all, you've probably heard of the Magnificent 7: Tesla, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. These seven stocks have led much of the way for quite some time on the stock market. They...

Monday, March 17, 2025

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Monday, March 10, 2025

President Trump likes tariffs. According to the above chart from JP Morgan, the proposed tariffs are significantly higher than they have been in decades.¹ The US stock market is indicating that it's not a fan, as the main indexes are...

Monday, March 3, 2025

Investors are feeling bad about the market. Bespoke research notes the following: Retail investors have been spooked to a historic degree!!! AAII Bearish sentiment ticked above 60% for just the sixth time in its history dating back to...

Monday, February 24, 2025

It's easy to look at the above chart and think "woulda, shoulda, coulda." "I wish I had bought Apple at its inception." Or "I wish I had bought Apple 10 years ago or 5 years ago." After all, $100 invested in Apple, at the time of the...

Monday, February 17, 2025

Historically, February is not great for the stock market. One writer noted, "...February is, on average, the second-worst month, trailing only September for the lowest monthly average return over the last 100 years."1 The back half of...

Monday, February 10, 2025

The last few Mondays have been down on Wall Street. Last week, the overall market declined on tariff news. The week before, tech stocks and the Nasdaq took a hit due to the new open-source AI from China called DeepSeek, and...

Monday, February 3, 2025

Sex isn’t the only thing that sells. Politics and religion do too. Investment firms love to appeal to the consciences and convictions of investors. Many investors want to purchase what aligns with their values and are happy to pair...

Monday, January 27, 2025

Getting rich is far different than appearing rich. In The Millionaire Next Door, the authors tell the story about the lessons they learned interviewing high-net-worth individuals in a setting designed by gourmet food designers. They...

Monday, January 20, 2025

New years bring new things. This year is no different. We are still learning to adjust to the innovation of artificial intelligence and what that might mean for technology and society. Whether you voted for the Presidential ticket or...

Monday, January 13, 2025

NVDA is one of the most talked about stocks on Wall Street. Investing $1,000 in it near the turn of the millennium would be worth approximately $3.7 million today, making it one of the top-performing stocks in the last 25 years.1 It...

Monday, January 6, 2025

Almost 2% of 2025 is over. One week into January means that there are only 51 weeks left. Time flies. Life is short. We humans are limited. Embracing limits doesn't mean living life passively. It should cause us to put more energy into...

Monday, December 30, 2024

Top 10 lists and best-of-the year rankings flood the internet this time of year. It’s always fun to join in and see what content has resonated with our clients and the public. Opens, clicks, and likes don’t always imply “best” work—but...

Monday, December 23, 2024

The stock market is up dramatically this year. Will it continue in this Christmas season of giving? Last Monday triggered a seasonal indicator of what some call the Santa Clause Rally. While the first part of the month typically starts...

Monday, December 16, 2024

Two of Wall Street’s biggest banks disagree over how stocks will perform over the next decade. Back in October, Goldman Sachs’s forecast for the future of equities was ugly. Bloomberg reports: The S&P 500 Index is expected to post an...

Monday, December 9, 2024

After decades analyzing markets, what's the most striking memory retiring Morningstar columnist, John Rekenthaler, carries with him about the stock market? That the party always seemed to be over and the fear of having missed out is...

Monday, December 2, 2024

Does your financial advisor write their own content? You should not assume they do, even if it looks like they are. Ghostwriting happens in the publishing industry. A similar practice takes place in the wealth management industry. Is...

Monday, November 25, 2024

It is easy to get caught up in the drama of the stock market during the day, but sometimes most of its work is done after the bell rings. Bespoke Investment Research drew attention to this in their recent comments: …this year, nearly...

Monday, November 18, 2024

A dog took me out at the knees last week. It was painful and provided me with investing illustrations galore. I like to run, and at the beginning of one of my routes, I found myself knocked to the ground with a moving creature...

Monday, November 11, 2024

The day after the election, the stock market went bananas. Reporters at The Wall Street Journal gave the recap: Wall Street has rarely been more excited by an election. U.S. stocks’ capitalization rose by $1.62 trillion on Wednesday,...

Monday, November 4, 2024

Is tomorrow the most important election ever? One columnist has this to say: Depending on whom you believe, this year’s presidential election is the “most important” vote: a) in our lifetime. b) in a century. c) in the history of the...

Monday, October 28, 2024

Fraud is despicable human behavior. Data breaches seem constant via our news feeds. I have more and more clients reaching out to me with concerns about cybersecurity risk and fraud. Since it’s Halloween season and National Cyber...

Monday, October 21, 2024

The US stock market’s bull run had a birthday this month. Barrons notes that it turned two years old on Saturday, October 12th: “up more than 60% from the lows it reached in the 2022 bear market.”1 Wait a sec, you say. What do bulls...

Monday, October 14, 2024

The stock market continues its impressive run this year. However, it's crucial to remember what truly matters when the market crashes. Louis Rukeyser, host of PBS's classic financial show "Wall Street Week", eloquently put it like...

Monday, October 7, 2024

“I’m diversified because I have a ton of accounts”, a financial advisor hears a new prospect say. The potential client elaborates: Two checking accounts and a savings account at Bank of America Four accounts at Capital One (which the...

Monday, September 30, 2024

The stock market has been on a tear this year. Even the most optimistic Wall Street strategists didn’t see this coming.1 To be fair, the above chart is for year-end projections, and there are still three months to go. One of those...

Monday, September 23, 2024

The wait is over. Interest rates were cut by the federal reserve last week. They reduced the federal funds rate by 50 bps or, to use the common tongue, 1/2 a point. This all leads to some questions. Are there more interest rate cuts...

Monday, September 16, 2024

September can be an ugly month for the stock market. Since 1928, it's been the worst month of the year, averaging a monthly return of -1.2%.1 Eddy Elfenbein points out that election years are particularly troublesome this time of year...

Monday, September 9, 2024

Don’t live by feelings. Don’t invest by them either. One way the attitudes of consumers toward the economy are measured is through a monthly telephone survey done by the University of Michigan called the Consumer Sentiment Index....

Monday, September 2, 2024

Happy Labor Day! Whether you are resting or laboring on Labor Day, take a moment to pause and consider the following: Why are you at your job? Why do you work? If the answers are to pay bills and to buy more stuff, that will not...

Monday, August 26, 2024

Fall is in the air. Maybe not in your part of the planet, but as I type this, rain showers have been falling outside my window. Interest rates are beginning to drop too. Though one’s location and bank can dictate this metric, mortgage...

Monday, August 19, 2024

You know those swimmers that go in slowly. Their idea of taking a dip is moving inch-by-inch into slightly deeper water, as the body tingles uncomfortably for the 23 minutes it takes to arrive at full immersion. The stock market is...

Monday, August 12, 2024

You can be successful and have repeated failures. Just ask a scientist. Thomas Edison knew this firsthand. He failed a ton. He also invented something called the light bulb. What does this have to do with investing? Plenty! Did you...

Monday, August 5, 2024

Technology, which has led the stock market on the way up, is now leading on the way down. The Wall Street Journal summed it up: “The tech-heavy Nasdaq was hammered, falling more than 3% in recent trading and on pace to close in...

Monday, July 29, 2024

I got sick this last week with an ugly cough, which was beyond my control. It’s a good reminder that you and I are not in charge. There’s an investment lesson here too. You must distinguish between the things you can control in...

Monday, July 22, 2024

“Have some self-control!” Try telling that to a toddler who’s completely lost it. You might have as much luck with that as reminding an investor of self-control when the stock market is moving decisively in one direction—whether up or...

Monday, July 15, 2024

Just as environmentalists understand that adding or removing a single element from an ecosystem can have far-reaching effects, the same principle applies to investment portfolios. The introduction of something new can disrupt and...

Monday, July 8, 2024

Everyone makes personal mistakes in life. Sometimes very big ones. We all face external adversity too. The combination of a big mistake during significant hardship can have a lifelong impact. Your response to stock market challenges...

Monday, July 1, 2024

Since we are officially in presidential debate season and the election draws nigh, we should revisit the impact of elections on the stock market. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you already know how we feel about mixing...

Monday, June 24, 2024

About a week ago, on Tuesday, the stock market via the S&P 500 index hit another record. According to Eddy Elfenbein, this was the 31st record this year for that index.1 Here are four things not to forget: 1. Record highs do not mean...

Monday, June 17, 2024

The days are long, but the years are short. That’s what people love to tell young parents in the throes of dirty diapers, late-night feedings, and temper tantrums. On the difficult days, in that season of life, all mom and dad can see...

Monday, June 10, 2024

We live in a dopamine infused culture. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that “help[s] us feel pleasure of the brain’s reward system.”1 This can be activated by social media and smartphones. And too much dopamine addiction from digital...

Monday, June 3, 2024

You did it. Your fearful emotions about the stock market were validated. Finally. The fearmongers and doomers and prophets and politicians that had been calling for the destruction of the financial system you’ve been listening to for...

Monday, May 27, 2024

Memorial Day is a day to remember those who died in military service for the United States of America. Remembering is one of the most significant things we do as humans. Without memory, we lose our sense of self and identity. One of...

Monday, May 20, 2024

Last week the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed 40,000 for the first time. Although round numbers may not inherently hold significance (is age 29 truly that different from 30?)—we humans tend to attach importance to these round...

Monday, May 13, 2024

It’s one of the classic proverbs of Wall Street: “Sell in May and Go Away”. Here is the problem with that. While stock market returns are generally lower during the May-October period, they are still quite positive. The above chart...

Monday, May 6, 2024

The most recent Federal Reserve decision on interest rates last week kept rates the same, likely coming as a surprise to market strategists late in 2023 who had an inkling that interest rates may have been cut by now. For example, the...

Monday, April 29, 2024

It's an election year, so I need to remind you of something. The above chart shows that an investor's perception of how the nation is doing economically can be shaped by whether or not their chosen candidate is in office. JP Morgan...

Monday, April 22, 2024

Talking about investing in times of war and geopolitical conflicts can appear callous. But it’s our job. We provide guidance during crises, whether narrow tragedies affecting our clients or broad global concerns. Here is stock market...

Monday, April 15, 2024

Time IN the market trumps timing the market. Selling before losses/buying before gains is futile as best/worst days cluster. Miss the top 10 days and long-term returns plummet. Buffett found no one profited from timing entries/exits. Stay i

Monday, April 8, 2024

Interest rates are much higher than they used to be. I’ve drawn attention to this several times: here and here. Does this mean that CDs, Treasury bills, and money markets are the best place to allocate most of your money? After all,...

Monday, April 1, 2024

In my recent YouTube video, I drew attention to the sneaky way banks keep people’s money… CD Rollovers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines these kinds of CDs this way: A rollover or renewal can occur at the end of the...

Monday, March 25, 2024

I’ve said that politics should not play a primary role in whether or not you invest in an election year. But when it comes to the stock market, does it matter whether a Republican or a Democrat gets elected? Former President Trump...

Monday, March 18, 2024

Before you tackle the relationship of politics and investing, you must tackle the relationship of money and investing with your actual life. Investment decisions should be determined by more fundamental categories of personal finance...

Monday, March 11, 2024

I went to Mexico over President’s Week with my daughter. A group of us went down and had the privilege of serving at a few orphanages. One of the men we met ran transitional housing for young men in their late teens. He grew up...

Monday, March 4, 2024

The problem with hiding cash under your mattress is that it doesn’t grow under your mattress. Well, it might grow some bacteria if you leave it there, but it’s not going to spawn more cash. Dollars don’t breed by...

Monday, February 26, 2024

Depending on your personality type you might or might not be comfortable with change. Some people dig innovation. They are ready to not only plug in the latest device that comes out seemingly every other month, but they’d plug...

Monday, February 19, 2024

Ever said something that had an immediate and dramatic effect? Words like “I love you” or “I hate you” can result in relational connection or catastrophe. Even accidental phrases or misspoken remarks can have...

Monday, February 12, 2024

While diversification reduces investment risk, over diversifying can excessively dilute returns so finding the right balance depends on risk tolerance and investing skill. We weigh the tradeoffs between concentration and diversification.

Monday, February 5, 2024

Stocks have been hitting all-time highs recently. Investor questions ensue. Should you still buy stocks at all-time highs? Should you start selling them? The first thing we should recognize is that the stock market spends a lot of...

Monday, January 29, 2024

Cash is not a neutral investment. There is no neutral battlefield when it comes to money and investing. As one investor put it, cash can be a depreciating asset, not a safe haven. Even for those who didn’t literally pile stacks...

Monday, January 22, 2024

They say unsaid expectations breed resentment. Man alive, is that ever true in relationships! When we don’t get what we expect, it’s easy to become angry and bitter. Guess what? This dynamic plays out in the stock market...

Monday, January 15, 2024

You know how we feel about investment forecasts around here. We don’t take them too seriously. And last year you shouldn’t have. The NY Times reported that Bloomberg showed the average forecast for 2023 was “the most...

Monday, January 8, 2024

Mozart was good at making music. Understatement of the millennium. His compositions are admired everywhere. They expand the human soul and serve the ear blissfully. Mozart, however, was not good with money. He served the world...

Monday, January 1, 2024

Welcome to 2024! 2023 is in the books. Each year, I like to recap the most popular content of the previous year. Popularity doesn't necessarily mean our "best" content, but we must start somewhere. Our most opened email for our weekly...

Monday, December 25, 2023

You better not be reading this right now. Seriously. Close it. Save this for tomorrow. It’s Christmas morning. Ok. Now that it’s at least the day after Christmas I can officially wish you: Merry Late Christmas! I just...

Monday, December 18, 2023

Let’s go back in time. Why not? It is the first day of January 2023 and you and I are discussing investment decisions for the year. The good news is, we have a crystal ball that shows us almost everything that will happen during...

Monday, December 11, 2023

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” One the slipperiest forms of statistics is that of averages. For example, I could say that the Smith family has an average height of about...

Monday, December 4, 2023

This one might sting. Punches will not be pulled. Let’s go! All of us have a financial advisor. Even if we don’t. It could be self. Your own mind and gut. On the other hand, we might even have a financial advisor on paper,...

Monday, November 27, 2023

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday And last year rich people gave a ton of money away, even with the stock and bond markets plummeting: “The wealthiest 25 persons in the U.S. had donated US$196 billion over their lifetime by the end of...

Monday, November 20, 2023

We are thankful not when we gorge on the gifts in life, but when we truly enjoy them. GK Chesterton put it this way: “…the proper form of thanks to it is some form of humility and restraint: we should thank God for beer and...

Monday, November 13, 2023

We want to reach for the stars. Be all we can be. No one wants to be average. Who wants to be the average spouse, or the average student, or the average athlete? Average is not alluring. I wonder though if, when it comes to investing,...

Monday, November 6, 2023

Imagine with me two boys having a who-has-the-biggest bicep contest in the front yard with all their neighborhood friends. Each one trying to out-flex the other. One of them wins. And it’s obvious. The winner pounds his chest...

Monday, October 30, 2023

Happy Halloween, tomorrow. For seasonal investors, this is happy news. It marks something called the Halloween Effect or Halloween Indicator. The reasons for this are a mystery (seems appropriate for the suspense of the season), but...

Monday, October 23, 2023

One of the things we say around here is that wealth is more than money. We all know that one can have buckets of money and be deeply dissatisfied and that there are those with little money and profound contentment. Of course, the flip...

Monday, October 16, 2023

On Thursday of this week is the anniversary of Black Monday. 22% was wiped off the Dow Jones Industrial Average in a single day. Read that again. Not a year. Not a month. Not a week. 1 day. Since that day, circuit breakers were...

Thursday, October 12, 2023

There is a time for nuance, and there is a time for clarity. The actions of Hamas last weekend must be named for what it is and not sanitized in the slightest: wickedness and evil. Even in an increasingly secular West, such terms are...

Monday, October 9, 2023

Dave Ramsey has helped a lot of people get out of debt. He is one of the leading writers and speakers in finance, and I’ve had anyone from church-going folk to atheists tell me how they listen to him for financial wisdom. And...

Monday, October 2, 2023

The government may have shut down yesterday. I say “may” because this is being written a week before you’re reading this. Either way, there are some lessons to be learned. Let’s be positive and pretend that the...

Monday, September 25, 2023

We are not stock jocks. And though I reference the stock market a lot in my writings and YouTube videos, there is significantly more to financial planning and portfolio construction than stocks. Bonds are another primary component of...

Monday, September 18, 2023

The stock market is always uncertain. Always. It has also been remarkably resilient. Consistently.1 If you choose to not invest due to uncertainty, then you will remain uninvested. Oftentimes investors are less resilient than the...

Monday, September 11, 2023

“Forecasters usually tell us more about the forecaster than of the future.” That’s how one investor put it. One of the more recent illustrations of this and a common mantra I like to use—no one knows...

Monday, September 4, 2023

Is the stock market due for a fall this fall? Over the last 100 years September has been down about 60% of the time for the DOW and has had the worst monthly average out of any month during that period. Even when looking at the last...

Monday, August 28, 2023

There is often confusion about the relationship between risk and volatility. They are not the same thing, yet many investors use them synonymously. As one financial writer explains, “Risk is the chance of a permanent loss of...

Monday, August 21, 2023

The most important organ for investing success isn’t the brain - it’s the stomach. The stock market is not for people who get motion sickness easily during volatility. Rapid ups and downs are normal. You can’t be a...

Monday, August 14, 2023

One benefit of living in a free country with Internet access is the wealth of information at our fingertips. We can easily research almost any topic online and find a range of perspectives: the good, bad, and ugly. However, more...

Monday, August 7, 2023

Not everything that glitters is gold.Not even gold.Over the past century, that is.Gold Vs. Stocks: Since 1928Corporate finance professor in Stern School of Business at NYU, Aswath Damodaran, lays out the returns of US stocks versus...

Monday, July 31, 2023

“This may be a stupid question, but…”I’ve heard this several times in my office.In all honesty, I wish it was asked more.Rarely is it ever a genuinely stupid question, and when other people are present some of...

Monday, July 24, 2023

Would you like to own an S&P 500 index fund like SPY or VOO?Not only does that sound like technical language to most outside of investing circles, but it’s also not exactly a persuasive selling point.If I said to a prospective...

Monday, July 17, 2023

Look at all the pretty colors.Confused?Let me help.What you are looking at are color squares that represent various asset classes in investing organized by yearly columns since 2008 from JP Morgan Chase.1Things like Large Cap Stocks...

Monday, July 10, 2023

Back in 1995, I did my first stock picking.I purchased Disney, Coke, and Glaxo Smith Kline.As the above chart shows, Disney was the big winner. (Not so much lately though)One hundred and forty-five grand aint too shabby.My worst...

Monday, July 3, 2023

Shall I compare thee, O stock market, to a summer’s day?Summer is here.Well, it is somewhere.Where I live it’s been foggy. Yuck.The heater has even been on. Yuck squared.While I may be complaining about the cold there is...

Monday, June 26, 2023

Steve Jobs is one of the most essential figures of technological change in human history.It is hard to underestimate how much the iPhone changed our world.Apple, the company he helped found, hovers around a market cap of 3 trillion...

Monday, June 19, 2023

Peer pressure was a buzzword when I was a young buck.The lesson was: don’t give into peers that would pressure you to do bad things.You may get made fun of. You may not fit in. But don’t give into social conformity if it...

Monday, June 12, 2023

We are nearing the half-way point of 2023.As I type this, the S&P 500 is up over 12% and the Nasdaq is up 27% year to date.US government Treasury bills are yielding around 5%.This means that those stock indexes are outperforming safe...

Monday, June 5, 2023

If you made major investment decisions based on the recent debt ceiling debacle, it may not have paid off.Don’t misunderstand.Gratuitous spending and out-of-control debt is dangerous.If you do it as a person the consequences are...

Monday, May 29, 2023

It once was called Decoration Day.A day marked by adorning the graves of those who died in the Civil War.Congressman James Garfield, a Civil War general, gave the first speech at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868. He stated...

Monday, May 22, 2023

“Sell in May and go away” is a common mantra on Wall Street.Certain investors use seasonality—an indicator for how stocks may do better or worse at particular times during the year—as a factor on making...

Monday, May 15, 2023

The day after Mother’s Day is a good day to consider your family of origin.Your view of money is inherited from your parent’s view of money. We don’t just inherit tangible money (or not) from our mom and/or dad, but...

Monday, May 8, 2023

Quitting can be a good thing.There are all kinds of things I can think of that one might benefit one’s life by quitting: -Going into deep debt-Smoking-Drinking too much-ComplainingIt’s good to quit things that...

Monday, May 1, 2023

I think we can all agree that Isaac Newton was brilliant.According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy, he invented calculus and formulated the theory of universal gravity.1He also made a really bad trade in the markets.The book...

Monday, April 24, 2023

In case you haven’t noticed, despite interest rate increases at the Federal Reserve, you still aren’t making much money in savings accounts.While Uncle Sam is paying around 5% APY for a 3-month T-bill, savings accounts are...

Monday, April 17, 2023

If you’re looking to throw your money away, look no further than doing what economic forecasters say.At least that’s what Warren Buffett said in an interview last week with CNBC’s Squawk Box.He was asked a question...

Monday, April 10, 2023

Social critic Neil Postman, in his book Amusing Ourselves To Death, describes how much news is not actionable. He states,“…most of our daily news is inert consisting of information that gives us something to talk about but...

Monday, April 3, 2023

Confidence can be enchanting.A person can fall head over heels for a love interest they find confident.People like to follow self-assured leaders.We like our CEO and politicians to at least appear like they know what they are doing...

Monday, March 27, 2023

If you left for a camping trip and unplugged from everything Thursday, March 9 and the first thing you did upon your return a week later on Thursday, March 22 was check the stock market, you wouldn’t think that one of the largest...

Monday, March 20, 2023

You know that famous scene in The Princess Bride where Westley faces off against Vizzini over a goblet of poison?The stock market is like that.Or at least investors try to be.You are bullish on the economy and the future of America....

Monday, March 13, 2023

Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB) was shut down Friday.According to Barron’s, the Nasdaq will delist the stock: “Nasdaq said it will delist SVB’s stock, per its listing rules. Even if the company appeals, shares would trade...

Monday, March 6, 2023

Poets have long lauded spring.William Wordsworth wrote, The budding twigs spread out their fan,To catch the breezy air;And I must think, do all I can,That there was pleasure there.1Investors can take pleasure too in the reality...

Monday, February 27, 2023

“So you’re saying there’s a chance…”That was the comment one person on Twitter recounted in light of the above chart1, hearkening back to the iconic comedy Dumb & Dumber.Investing in the stock market can...

Monday, February 20, 2023

Some investment funds that make us feel good to invest in don’t always do good, even when they promise to.And I don’t just mean do good in the sense of investment performance.I mean doing good in the world.The desire to...

Monday, February 13, 2023

I know what you’re really thinking. The real question is how long WILL it take?The answer is hated: no one knows.But arithmetic tells us how long it WOULD take.Since the end of January 2023 as the above chart shows1, we would...

Monday, February 6, 2023

So goes January, so goes the stock market for the year… the saying goes.If so, 2023 might be a good one.I look at historical data more than equity forecasters. Not because data is predictive, but because it’s all we have to...

Monday, January 30, 2023

You’d be surprised to hear of those who have approached me about my opinion on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency the last few years.In my experience it, hasn’t been young people. It’s been those who are concerned about a...

Monday, January 23, 2023

Emergencies happen.And Humboldt County, California just got reminded of the importance of preparing for them.We at Johnson Wealth Management serve people in numerous states in the nation, but the firm’s first location began in...

Monday, January 16, 2023

What you do with your money says a lot about you.One thing it shows is what kind of an extremist you are.You might say: “No? Not me. I’m no radical.”C’mon all of us are fanatical about something, even if...

Monday, January 9, 2023

We don’t even know what tomorrow will bring, but Wall Street loves to try and predict what will happen next year.Every year analysts come up with forecasts about the future. They turn around and do it again several months later...

Monday, January 2, 2023

Welcome to 2023. Why not start a new habit this year?Just one.It could be physical, financial, relational… you name it. Do it!Since this is primarily a financial blog, here are three financial habits to consider implementing...

Monday, December 26, 2022

It’s that time of year when the “best of” lists start coming out of the woodwork.These kinds of lists are subjective, so I used three different measurements to gauge what the public found most interesting.Would you do...

Monday, December 19, 2022

It is better to give than to receive.Let’s be honest though, it’s great when you can do a little of both.In America, financial giving is not entirely an act of altruism, as many times it can be tax deductible for the giver....

Monday, December 12, 2022

I write in nuance.Sentences composed of qualifiers. Rarely (see what I did there?) will you see words like certain, absolutely, guaranteed and the sort in my blog posts and newsletters.Annoying? Maybe.“That guy always has an out...

Monday, December 5, 2022

People are busy. Christmas festivities and planning for them doesn’t exactly make us slow down either.Even if you are in the stage of life wear child-rearing is over and retirement has arrived, all of us live in a frenetic...

Monday, November 28, 2022

Slaughter is a strong word.Quite visceral.But that’s how this year has felt for “safe” assets. Fixed income—the part of the investment portfolio that is usually considered safer than riskier assets like...

Monday, November 21, 2022

Sex sells.So does anger.In a recent 60 Minutes, Tristan Harris, a tech ethicist and entrepreneur, recalled how technology through the medium of social networking fuels outrage."The more moral outrageous language you use, the more...

Monday, November 14, 2022

I have never served in the armed forces.I’m no military man.Jocko Willink is though.Jocko is a retired Navy SEAL that now serves as a leadership instructor, speaker, author, podcaster, and executive coach. In his...

Monday, November 7, 2022

There are less than two more months in 2022.Wild.As the year winds down, it’s a good time to reflect and consider actions that may need to be taken financially before year end.We all know it’s been a tough year for stocks...

Monday, October 31, 2022

It’s one of those iconic Hollywood scenes.Jerry Maguire, the sports agent played by Tom Cruise, yells into the phone to Rod Tidwell, the star Wide Receiver played by Cuba Gooding Jr., four words: “SHOW ME THE...

Monday, October 24, 2022

We are not stock jocks.Obviously, we pay attention to the stock market. I write about it often.Over the long-term stocks via the power of compound interest remain one of the best ways to grow your money and beat inflation.But investing...

Monday, October 17, 2022

After being an advisor for nearly a decade and a half, I’ve learned one thing about people’s opinion on where the market might be headed—it’s wed to their politics.If their political party is in or on the way in...

Monday, October 10, 2022

Getting stuck is easy.To go Shakespearean: Let me count the ways…It’s easy to get stuck in the same unhealthy relational and communication patterns. Being in a job you hate year after year, decade after decade is far too...

Monday, October 3, 2022

Do you want the good news or bad news first?How about both? At the same time.The stock and bond market are down considerably. Even supposed inflation hedges like gold are down year to date. CNN’s Fear & Greed Index is at extreme...

Monday, September 26, 2022

Ouch.As of this writing, the markets are near the lows of the year again.We may have slashed through them by the time this goes to publish, or we may have bounced off the previous bottom. Time will tell.I have no idea when the market...

Monday, September 19, 2022

We live in a culture obsessed with self-expression.Open Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter and you will find people on the social networking stage displaying their opinions, bodies, lifestyle, work, and play for the world to see. While...

Monday, September 12, 2022

We all have at least one argumentative friend or family member.Or two. Or ten.These are the ones you go out to dinner with, and they always have an argument for something. Turns out it’s usually the opposite of your beliefs.Every...

Monday, September 5, 2022

Fall is almost here. Crazy. Kids and grandkids are back to school. Camping equipment is headed to storage. The holidays will be here in no time. Ho-Ho-Ho. Historically, like the weather, the stock market cools off too. As Barron’s...

Monday, August 29, 2022

Parents do their best to teach their kids courage -  a virtue worthy of life implementation.As we know, an act of courage is not fearless. The very definition of courage has fear embedded within it. Merriam-Webster defines it as a...

Monday, August 22, 2022

You ever played, “Would you rather?”My kids do sometimes. It gets gross—fast.It goes like this: Would you rather lick the bottom of a shoe or lick the kitchen sink?Would you rather eat moldy bread or eat a rotten...

Monday, August 15, 2022

Who do you spend your time with?Recently I came across this sobering set of data about who Americans spend their time with.1 It serves as a stark reminder that as life goes on, your relational network decreases and you can become more...

Monday, August 8, 2022

To be or not to be that is the question.Less poetically, the question on traders’ minds right now is:Was that the bottom back in June or not?It’s hard to know. This is why trading stocks is hard. One finds out more by...

Monday, August 1, 2022

You only bet on the end of the world once… So the saying goes.Some people, though, are happy to bet on it a few times throughout their lifetime. They build their financial decisions and investment portfolios around financial...

Monday, July 25, 2022

Around summertime, midyear outlooks for investment firms come out of the woodwork to the delight of stock market and economic geeks everywhere. Adjustments are made from the start of the year while forecasters, chart wizards, and data...

Monday, July 18, 2022

I’m not the world’s greatest flyer.The first time I flew was in my 20s and I was a bit of a wreck. I felt dizzy and clammy. Anxious would sum it up rather nicely.That wasn’t all though.Looking down from tens of...

Monday, July 11, 2022

News media magnifies the current moment. All that matters is the present.To make things worse, often the reporting of this or that event is framed in such a way that makes things looks SOOO bad according to the bias of the particular...

Monday, July 4, 2022

We human beings like living with a why. Meaning is a critical part of human flourishing.Sometimes we can get carried away though.Take the stock market for example. Financial media loves to generate reasons for why the stock market did...

Monday, June 27, 2022

The R word is rearing its ugly head more and more across news media: R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N.The technical description of a recession varies, but one common definition is when the nation’s economy has two straight quarters of negative...

Monday, June 20, 2022

Change doesn’t always come right away. Even when it should.Juneteenth is evidence of that on many levels.It has been treasured as a holiday by Black Americans for years and celebrated in some states despite not being declared a...

Monday, June 13, 2022

A great deal can happen in a short amount of time. A pandemic can change the world and how we act in it so much that a company founded in 2011 can become a household name in 2020 and eclipse the market cap of a global oil giant...

Monday, June 6, 2022

As a kid I can remember hearing about the demise of the dollar. This sounded bad being that the few greenbacks in my pocket were what I used to buy stuff.I probably absorbed this from adults spouting their economic opinions that they...

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Monday, December 27, 2021

All of us have opinions. Lots of them. Too many nowadays. Well, no, that isn’t really the problem. Opinions are good. It’s just that it feels like we must have an opinion and announce it as a fact all the time, especially...

Monday, December 20, 2021

One of the best things about the Christmas season is the reminder that giving is better than receiving. The pleasure of watching others open gifts hints at how the nature of joy itself is a shared experience, not a hoarded one. Have...

Monday, December 13, 2021

One of the ways a good business grows is through referral. They grow when consumers of the services they provide enjoy them and tell their friends about them. You try a new cup of coffee that’s quite good, so you grab one for...

Monday, December 6, 2021

I love technology. I’m a sucker for the latest upgrade. Its tendrils spread throughout the course of my day. It’s hard for even the technically challenged among us to not love technology at least a bit when their...

Monday, November 29, 2021

Sometimes our attention is so glued to one thing that we miss what is glaringly obvious. This is illustrated in the book The Invisible Gorilla and is recounted by Economic Sciences Nobel Prize winning author Daniel Kahneman: Intense...

Monday, November 22, 2021

Whether you are in the holiday mood or not, Thanksgiving week is here. No matter what your investment portfolio looks like, it’s the season we’ve set aside to reflect on what matters. Let’s be honest though…...

Monday, November 15, 2021

Mutual funds used to be what all the cool kids were into. Times have changed a bit. Exchange Traded Funds, aka ETFs, were born in the 1990s and offered some unique features. Here is a breakdown from Bankrate that shows how the two...

Monday, November 8, 2021

If you are waiting for something not to worry about in the stock market (or life for that matter), it’s not going to happen. Seriously. There is never a perfectly pristine time unhindered by worries in which to act. There is...

Monday, November 1, 2021

Companies that are publicly traded tend to fall in two categories: dividend stocks or growth stocks. While the two can overlap, there are key differences. A dividend paying company takes some of their profits and gives it back to their...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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:...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....