Lo and behold the first two weeks of 2022 are testing the “best investment strategy” of 2022 as articulated by Jason Zweig from the WSJ and quoted by us last week. Buying the dips because stocks will bounce back has not worked so far. That might change tomorrow but so far “don’t fight the Fed” is dominating market action. Markets decline faster than they go up and, sure enough, market averages are facing sharp declines...
Stocks have sold off in the first couple of weeks in anticipation of the Fed following through with either 3 or 4 interest rate raises in 2022 based on concern about inflation and confidence that the economy is in sound shape-whatever that means. Does their analysis include the omicron impact on the economy? So many questions and few answers. Jason Zweig in his weekly column in the WSJ says “I think the best investment for...
Happy new year and thank you for being valued clients for another year. Whew! We made it and it feels good that we can say our goodbyes to 2021. My wife reminded me that although we had many problems in the past year, there was good happening too. We have some stability and predictability with our government. The political chaos at the top is calmer. A vaccine that is very effective, with booster shots has...
Growth: Markets Economic uncertainty has increased from high to off-the-charts this week. Key events: As the Federal Reserve announced an accelerated reduction in bond purchases as well as the strong possibility of accelerating interest rate increases, the Omicron variant of Covid-19 descended upon the United States. The original cause for tightening money at an accelerated rate was the persistent increase in inflation through the consumer price index and producer price index. As of today, 73%...
When I was a stockbroker in 1984 markets were moved each month with the M-1 numbers emphasized by Milton Friedman. M-1 relates to the liquid money supply. Next were monthly inflation numbers, monthly GDP numbers, unemployment, and oil prices, and so on. Positive news for the economy would impact markets negatively. Negative news would move markets higher. This leads to the good news is bad news, the bad news is good news and the good...
There are few decisions in life that do not involve finances on some level. Our interest: advising SAS clients by introducing and collaborating on the most appropriate frameworks so that clients can make the best decisions at the time those decisions will be or need to be made. Being happy is up to each of us and our goal at SAS Financial Advisors is to make our clients happier by giving them confidence and control...
What is all this stuff? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Many of us have too much stuff. Often, we buy bigger spaces or storage lockers to accommodate more stuff rather than, or in addition to, making the hard choice to dispose of some of this stuff. Here is an article to help you make progress on getting rid of excess stuff, a good end-of-year purge so to speak. Look forward to some very interesting frameworks that may give you...
This is the time of year when we reflect on our lives and reach to provide donations to causes and non-profit organizations that reflect our goals to do better, be better, or do more for others. We have discussed Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) in previous newsletters and this week we will offer another option for giving. Charitable giving can be done by way of Required Minimum Distributions, such as RMDs from pre-tax retirement accounts such...
The bipartisan infrastructure plan was signed into law this week with a big yawn from markets. It is easy to forget that traditional thinking is: markets are always discounting in advance and expecting occurrences that might have an impact. Records for new highs in stock market averages were anticipating financial intervention in the form of infrastructure. The implementation of the infrastructure legislation will take time and will have little impact on the economy in the...
This week’s newsletter and blog headlines: Costs continue to climb-for how long? Infrastructure week? Infrastructure 10 years Climate change and cow belching Covid deaths, blue vs red counties Recognizing and remembering our Veterans on Veterans Day 11/11/2021 Additional Resources: Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs Costs continue to climb-for how long? At the beginning of the Pandemic, I suggested several trends would occur. One was increased investment in our healthcare system to accommodate...
Required Minimum Distributions Required Minimum Distributions, or RMDs, are required again after being waived for all in 2020. Our assumption for clients who have pre-tax accounts under SAS management is that instructions for those receiving RMDs before 2020 are the same. If they are different please let us know. If 2021 is the first year for your RMD then book a time to meet with us to discuss your options. RMD rules for 2021 state...
This has been the week of Facebook so far. The “Facebook Paper” whistleblower gave volumes of research to journalists from many newspapers who published articles dissecting the Facebook strategy of putting profits over doing right by its users or for social good. Facebook created a fictional person living in North Carolina who expressed mild interest in conservative politics and within a week she was receiving advertisements and links to QANON, the conspiracy-laced right-wing group. Facebook...
