What a Difference a Year Makes
On March 23, 2020, the S&P 500 tumbled another 3%, culminating a near 34% drop over that same month. The Dow Jones hovered around 19,000. Gains from the past few years were gone.
American Rescue Plan: Aid Begins Hitting Accounts
Category: Financial Planning
Most notably, the bill included another round of direct payments to Americans, many of whom have already received the $1,400 (individually), plus per spouse and dependent/s.
YOLO, Meme, and EMH: What’s Your Investment Style?
Guest Blogger, Marlena Lee, PhD. While it’s not the intended victim of the YOLO traders, will the efficient market hypothesis be a casualty of these events? The answer depends a lot on your definition of efficient markets.
It’s Worth the Trip!
We had completed our hike successfully, and the challenges made it more memorable and satisfying. The same is true for all of us as investors.
Are You Investing or Playing a Completely Different Game?
Category: Investing
Investing in the market is not about getting rich quick. It’s not led by FOMO, the fear of missing out. Ideally, it’s not driven by fear or greed at all. It’s patient, thoughtful, intentional and guided by a long-term vision of success.
Don’t Leave Your Last Round to Chance
I certainly would argue that building a business is more than just a dice game, but both involve risk. How you fill out your scoresheet in Yahtzee is a good example of what business owners might decide to do with their business profits.
Planning for Retirement? Practice Could Make Perfect
Category: Financial Planning
Retirement isn’t a reward you one day receive at random. It’s not something you jump into without a thought in mind. You work up to this day with purpose, precision, and dedication.
What Can You Do Before the 2021 Tax Deadline?
As you wait for those semi-warm days of spring, there are a few things you can do between now and April 15th connected to your 2020 tax return.
Tips to Help Keep You on Track for Your Financial Goals
Personal financial planning is critical to help ensure that, in both good times and bad, emotions do not lead to irrational money management decisions and costly mistakes.
SECURE Act Signed Into Law. How Will This Impact Your Plan?
Category: Financial Planning » Estate & Transfer Planning
In December 2019, President Trump signed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act into law. Will it affect you?
Why I Hate New Year’s Resolutions
Category: Financial Planning » Behavioral Finance
Here’s the thing, I love the idea of starting fresh and changing that one thing that pushes you to be the person you want to be. However in practice, I hate – OK, strongly dislike – New Year’s Resolutions. Here’s why.
Top 2019 Foster Group Blogs
Category: Foster Group
At the end of every year, we like to gather and share some of our most popular blog posts. Check them out!
Embrace Uncertainty!
We may not like uncertainty, but we need to understand and embrace it to keep ourselves positioned for both survival and success.
The Ins and Outs of Paying Student Loan Debt
Category: Financial Planning » Behavioral Finance
Whether you are working on paying down student debt yourself, or have children looking to do so, below are some questions to consider.
Not All Advisors Are Created Equal
Category: Foster Group
If you are in the market for a financial advisor, rehearse these three questions before sitting down with a potential suitor.
Confirming What You Know
Category: Financial Planning » Behavioral Finance
Even though I’ve been helping married clients with their money for years, I realized we needed help. Were we thinking about things in the right way? Were we asking the right questions? Were we doing a good job of listening to each other and respecting our differences?
An Executive’s Financial Guide
Category: Financial Planning » Estate & Transfer Planning
Our eBook, An Executive's Financial Guide, can help with your road map to retirement, as we show you new ways to make use of your wealth for purposes important to you.
Who Really Needs a Financial Advisor?
Category: Foster Group
The truth is, I donÆt think everyone needs a financial advisor. In my limited time in the industry, here are some of the reasons I think working with a financial advisor might be a good idea.
Selecting the Best Ingredients for Your Portfolio
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.
Teaching Your Kids to be Grateful and Giving
Category: Financial Planning » Charitable Giving
Most of the time, it is not so much how we directly “teach” our kids about the value of money but rather how we model and speak about money around them.
Is Your Portfolio Tailored to Fit Your Needs, or Just ‘Off-The-Rack’?
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.