Blog | Podcast Appearances
February 2023 Market Update
Warm winter weather seems to have been fueled by hot January economic data reported in February. Employment, retail sales, manufacturing, and inflation all showed acceleration. Markets fell in sympathy. Why?
FSA vs HSA – What are the differences and how do I use them?
Put company benefits and IRS regulations together, and you’re just asking for complexity masked as an acronym. Many employers provide access to Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) or Health Savings Accounts (HSA) to employees to allow pre-tax payments of various expenses. Let’s dive into the different types and strategies around each.
January 2023 Market Update
Broad asset classes kicked off the new year higher after a not-so-jolly December. Sentiment turned decidedly positive based on slowing wage and job growth and cooling price pressures…
2023 Investment Market Outlook
Our investment views are based on a simple idea: as facts change, so may our outlook. The last few years have been an interesting period for this ethos as our annual outlook is beginning to feel like a game of ping-pong, oscillating between bulls and bears, as the environment shifts around us….
Bonds Make Sense Again!
Back in the Spring, I wrote a blog post about how bonds were riskier than stocks, taking into account the role that they each play in most investment portfolios. I discussed the concern that rising interest rates from such as low starting position would create havoc in portfolios. While I believed everything that I wrote, I did not anticipate just how quickly everything discussed would come to pass.
September 2022 Investment Market Update
Ben is joined by Eddie Arraya to discuss several topics, including:
Market performance to date
Focusing on the Long-term
International Investing and Exchange Rates
How to invest for the rest of 2022
5 Good Options for Whole Life Insurance Cash Value (plus 1 bad option)
In Fee-Only Financial Planning circles, it is a continual struggle to avoid blasting the insurance industry for their elaborate marketing of life insurance as anything other than insurance.
In working with clients in their 20’s all the way into their 90’s, we’ve seen countless examples of permanent life insurance sold to people who didn’t need it. Most of these are Whole Life policies that our clients come to us decades after purchasing, but while they are still paying premiums.
Compounding Explained in a “Not Boring Way”
It sounds like a word they would use on a farm.
As in, “I’ve got some compounding to do down on the back forty so I won’t be able to shuck corn with ya this afternoon”.
In reality, compounding is just one more of those financial terms that many have heard, but few can explain. The first thing you should know about compounding is, obviously, that it is fun to say. The second thing you should know about compounding is that it can be both a force of good and a force of evil in terms of your finances.