Blog
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.
How One Individual Stock Can Spoil or Supercharge an Investment Portfolio
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Geopolitical Strife, Portfolio Performance, and People’s Lives
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Inflation Lions, Federal Reserve Tigers, Stock Market Bears: Oh, Buy (An Annuity)!
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Rethinking Your Investment Assumptions
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...
Read MoreThe Joy of Christmas Giving
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...
Read More"They Already Have a Guy"
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...
Read MoreReaping the Rewards of Technology While Resisting Technopoly
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...
Read MoreLook Out for the Investment Gorilla
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...
Read MorePracticing Gratitude
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…...
Read MoreBig Brother "Mutual Fund" & Its Coming-of-Age Little Brother "ETF"
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...
Read MoreThe Worry That Won't Go Away
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...
Read MoreThe Power & The Peril of Dividend Stocks
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...
Read MoreWhat to Do When One Spouse is Not Involved in the Finances
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...
Read MoreThe Anniversary of Black Monday
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....
Read MoreOur Goal is Not to Outperform the Stock Market
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...
Read MoreThe Best Quarter of the Stock Market
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...
Read MoreAutomation: Making the Robots Work for You
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...
Read MoreBeware of Charts!
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...
Read MoreThe Secret to Getting Rich
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...
Read MoreSeptember Slumps & The Seasonality of the Stock Market
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...
Read MoreThe Cash Conundrum for Conservative Investors
“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...
Read MoreInvestment Action in the Face of Uncertainty
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...
Read MoreNo One Knows: The Reality of Stock Market Forecasts
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...
Read More"I Don't Understand the Stock Market"
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...
Read MoreThe Great Expectations of Investment Return
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...
Read MoreThe Compound Interest of Everything
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...
Read MoreThe 5 Ws and 2 Hs of an Emergency Fund
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...
Read MoreWhy Would I Own Bonds?
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...
Read MoreOur Team is Expanding: Welcome Sani Fuimaono
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...
Read MoreJuly 4th: More Than a Bar-B-Q
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...
Read More2 Investing Lessons from COVID-19
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...
Read MoreBlack Swan Events: Planning for What You Don't Know
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...
Read MoreThe Loving Gift of a Family Meeting & Family Estate Kit
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...
Read MorePontificating on Investments is Foolish
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...
Read MoreMemorial Day: A Marker for Remembrance & Reflection
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...
Read MorePlan for Investment Mistakes
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...
Read MoreThe Rise & Fall of the Most Valuable Companies in the World
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...
Read MoreLiving & Leaving a Legacy
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...
Read MoreStock Market Returns: When 10% a Year Ain’t 10% a Year
“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:...
Read MoreLooking for a Reason to Sell Your Stocks?
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...
Read MoreThe Emotional Inequality of Investment Gains & Losses
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...
Read MoreInvesting is Not a Casino
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...
Read MoreVolatility: The Subscription Price of Investing
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...
Read MoreWhat is Cryptocurrency?
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...
Read More7 Ways to Respond to Stock Market Euphoria
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...
Read More7 Ways to Respond to a Stock Market Crash
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...
Read More8 Things to Remember When Seeking a Financial Advisor
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...
Read MoreFinancial Media is Not Financial Advice
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...
Read MoreHope in the Worst. Prepare for the Best.
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...
Read MoreWhat’s the Big Deal With Diversification?
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...
Read MoreFight, Flight, or Freeze in Finance
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...
Read MoreIs Gold Safe?
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...
Read MoreInvesting is Not A Video Game
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...
Read MoreThe Stock Market Doesn’t Always Make Sense
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...
Read MoreThe Stock Market Doesn't Care About Your Politics
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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