The Challenge of Entering a Bull Market
Category: Investing
A Q&A with Senior Lead Advisor, Phil Kruzan.
Satisfying Your Tastes and Preferences for Investing and Dining
Category: Investing
If you were asked to describe what you liked about your favorite food, where would you start? If you were asked to describe what you would like in your investment portfolio, what would you emphasize?
Embracing Uncertainty
Category: Investing
Embrace Uncertainty!
Category: Investing
We may not like uncertainty, but we need to understand and embrace it to keep ourselves positioned for both survival and success.
How Elections Affect the Market
Category: Investing
A bit of history helps bring some perspective to trying to read too much into the influence of elections on stock markets.
Coronavirus Worries Drive Economic Uncertainty and Stock Market Declines
Category: Investing
Investment markets around the world have been declining sharply this week in response to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Recent Market Volatility: Coronavirus Worries Are Only Part of the Story
Category: Investing
In addition to the coronavirus, other sources of investor uncertainty include global economic growth, the UK finalizing their Brexit negotiations, trade negotiations between Europe and the US, President TrumpÆs impeachment and ongoing Senate trial, and 20
Diversification: Preparing for the Next Surprise
Category: Investing
Probably only one thing is certain: The world is still full of surprises yet to be revealed. Is your portfolio diversified in preparation for the next one?
Selecting the Best Ingredients for Your Portfolio
Category: Investing
In this third piece of our series on building a better portfolio by thinking of it in terms of tastes, recipes, and ingredients, we’ll focus on the benefits of selecting better ingredients.
Is Your Portfolio Tailored to Fit Your Needs, or Just ‘Off-The-Rack’?
Category: Investing
While the alterations may be small and subtle, they make a big difference when it comes to comfort and fit. Our experience is better. For an investment thought experiment, think of the “off the rack suit” as the broad market; we simply take what we get off the shelf with no alteration. Now think of Foster Group as the tailor and the alterations as portfolio personalizations called factor allocations.
Is the Stock Market a Glass Half Full?
Category: Investing
The month of January was marked by negative returns for global stock markets. But, as the well-worn phrase, “Is your glass half full or half empty?” implies, our view of, or the way we feel about the state of markets as investors, may be more related to our personal dispositions than what the numbers indicate.
How Should an Investor Position Their Overall Investment Portfolio Now and in the Future?
Category: Investing
Right after, “What will the stock market do next?” the positioning question may be the most asked and re-asked question by investors of all types.
Embracing Uncertainty
Category: Investing
Educated optimism is an antidote for anxious uncertainty, and it can be of great help in enabling investors to embrace the uncertainty that is with us all the time.
Barbell Portfolios Can Be Hard To Hold On To
Category: Investing
Barbells work great at the gym because they put weight on a bar in such a way that it’s balanced, leaving room in the middle for someone to use it to workout. We often see portfolios that are designed like a barbell at the gym: lots of risk in one account and lots of cash or very short-term securities in another. In aggregate, it might produce some balance, but the reality is that it can create some real challenges.
Cloudy Markets Still Have a Silver (Tax) Lining
Category: Investing » Diversification
During negative market cycles, there are some planning and investment strategies that might strengthen your financial plans. One such opportunity is tax-loss harvesting
Why Index Funds Don’t Work for Some People
Category: Investing
Index funds are popular investment tools for good reason. They are low cost, effective ways to capture market return. Choosing to use index funds is only half the battle though; you must use them correctly to truly benefit.
Navigating the Noise: A Reality Check on Fearful Headlines
Sometimes headlines are right, but remember they are created to get your attention, not necessarily to provide you with helpful information.
Home Sweet Home, or an Investment?
Category: Financial Planning » Behavioral Finance
Homes are commonly thought of as investments. It’s easy to see why. For most of us, it’s the single biggest thing on our balance sheets for years.
Tailoring Your Financial Plan to Match Your Goals
If you are a client of Foster Group and have met with your advisor recently, you may have discussed what’s important to you, what we are planning for as it relates to your goals, and what you hope to achieve.
Positives About the Market
Category: Investing
2022 was a historically painful year as an investor with stock markets experiencing a bear market, and bond markets having one of their worst years ever. However, as we enter 2023, I’d like to consider the positives.