Over the past few years, interest rates have been slowly rising, with the Federal Reserve raising the federal funds rate several times. This has had a significant impact on interest-paying investments, as well as on the broader economy. One of the main reasons interest rates have been rising is due to the strong performance of
When building a portfolio, who is the winner? Investing in the securities market has been a popular means of wealth generation over time. With the plethora of investment products available, choosing one that aligns with one’s investment goals and risk tolerance can seem a daunting task. Mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks are three
As we are firmly in the New Year, there is no better time to reassess our current savings plan and how a clear understanding of goals will help guide us to financial comfort. It isn’t “news” that we are living in a different time right now – everyone who has a voice in the financial
Most of us can remember 2008 when we went through a crisis – a perfect storm of multiple aspects of the financial system collapsing at the same time which caused the Dow Jones Index to drop by 50% and the economy to endure an 18-month recession. The consensus is that the housing market was to
Depending on your personality type, a plan can be your best friend or your worst enemy. It isn’t that the plan itself is evil; it is the idea of facing reality that sometimes really terrifies people. This can be something as simple as making plans for the weekend or as complex as figuring out whether
Given our current economy, most news that involves the Fed has been negative, which raises the question: who’s side is the Fed on? We are currently in an economic condition that we haven’t experienced in quite a long time, so it is natural to question some things that we always assumed as true. High inflation,
For the past few decades, few things have been as dependable as the annual increase in tuition fees for post-secondary education; but for the first time in a very long period, the growth rate for tuition has decreased. According to College Board, we are seeing a drop-off in average tuition for the first time in
Until the previous year, the concept of economic inflation was nothing more than a good story the older generation would hold over everyone else’s head. Back in the early ‘80s, it wasn’t inflation that made people very uncomfortable with managing their finances, it was the Fed’s policies to combat inflation that forever changed an entire
If you have paid any attention to the media these last few months, there’s an inevitable event headed our way that they say could be detrimental. Everyone is happy to give their opinion and predictions about it and since so many people say it is coming, it must be true. That nasty little word is:
Gas prices are spiraling upward, inflation is higher than it’s been since the 1980s, and both the stock and bond markets are significantly in negative territory since the beginning of the year. Russia doesn’t seem to be lightening up on whatever quest they are on in Ukraine, and the Federal Reserve has been backed into
As the labor market has been gutted by COVID (early retirements and twenty-somethings who got used to the government sending them paychecks for 18 months and are not willing to work), employers are having to pay significantly higher wages and offer new and exciting benefits to coax people back into the workforce. One of these
On an April 12 podcast by Goldman Sachs called “Rising Stagflation Risks Are Changing the Investment Climate’’ their global head of asset solution stated, “I would say that the playbook for investments and portfolio construction, of the period since the financial crisis, may not be relevant anymore. We have entered a period of higher inflation,
