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2024 will mark the first time in many decades that Berkshire Hathaway’s legendary Chairman, Warren Buffet won’t be joined onstage at the annual meeting by his longtime sidekick and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. Munger, who died late last year shortly before his 100th birthday was credited with being the “architect” of Berkshire Hathaway, with...
While driving in your car and listening to the radio, it’s common to hear something like: “The Dow was up 500 points today, while the S&P was up 2%.” The commentators are talking about the daily performance of stock market indexes. These indexes represent a hypothetical portfolio of investment holdings, capturing a specific segment of...
Employee Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs) are popular employee benefits programs offered by many companies as a way to allow employees to purchase company stock at a discounted price. ESPPs are designed to enable employees to purchase company stock through payroll deductions, often at a discount from the market price. These plans are a way to...
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Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) have become a popular way to compensate employees for their efforts. RSUs are a type of equity-based compensation in which an employee receives shares of company stock as part of their overall compensation package. However, RSUs typically do not grant the employee ownership of the stock outright until certain conditions are […]
Looking for a financial advisor? Someone to bounce ideas off of or double-check what you hear from friends or read about online? Many people are in the same position, struggling to manage their finances and just not sure what the next steps are. According to the National Financial Educators Council, in 2023, U.S. residents lost […]
Direct indexing gives investors the ability to mimic the performance of an index such as the S&P 500 by purchasing its underlying stocks to create a customized portfolio. Since you can’t invest directly in an index, most investors will buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or mutual fund to replicate its performance. When you own shares […]
Since early in 2023, stock market gains have been led by a small subset of companies. These firms are known collectively as “The Magnificent Seven.” Apple Microsoft Amazon Nvidia Tesla Meta Alphabet There are a number of reasons these companies have done well, but one of the biggest is the excitement around artificial intelligence (AI). […]
2023 saw political strife, a regional bank crisis, Fed rate hikes, and worries about an economy that might be either too hot (inflation) or too cold (recession.) Yet despite it all, markets generally posted positive returns, with the S&P 500 ending 2023 up more than 25%, while the MSCI EAFE Index rose more than 18% […]
As 2023 draws to a close, let’s step back and consider what dominated headlines in the last twelve months. Though markets and the economic backdrop remained volatile, 2023 was generally a better year than its predecessor. Inflation and the Fed continued to dominate headlines, though they often shared the news cycle with political developments at […]
The Federal Reserve: An Overview of the World’s Most Powerful Financial Institution Nearly every country in the world has a central bank that plays an important role in guiding the nation’s economy. The actions of several of these, including the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England (BOE), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), […]
During the second half of 2022, worries about a potential economic slowdown grew. Those fears seemed to dissipate as the calendar flipped to 2023, but they’ve recently begun percolating again. On April 11th, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a new forecast1 for short and intermediate term global economic growth, which included some of the […]
“Inflation is raging. There might be a recession. Markets are volatile. An election is on the horizon. Several banks have failed. We might hit the debt ceiling. Russia is still invading Ukraine. China might invade Taiwan.” The list goes on and on, a litany of troubling headlines. It’s enough to keep you up at night. […]
As you may have heard, the collapse and takeover by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank has driven the recent volatility and investor concern of “contagion” in financial markets. SVB, the 16th biggest bank in the US, had operated as a major funding source for Silicon Valley […]
If you looked at your statements late last year, you know that 2022 was tough for investors. The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, declined nearly 20%. S&P 500 – 12 Months (as of 1/24/2023) However, what made 2022 an unusual year was that even as stocks were falling, there was almost no […]
We’ve never asked for ratings or reviews on the Your Money, Your Wealth® podcast. We haven’t featured guests regularly in years. We’ve never enabled comments on our YouTube channel. In fact, we’ve never really engaged on social media much at all. We’ve also never paid for podcast advertising. And yet, monthly downloads of the Your […]