Punch Bowl Gone?
For decades, commentators on the Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) have referred to the action of raising federal funds interest rates as taking away the punch bowl at the party. After finally arousing from sleep after the inflation fire was already getting out of control, Fed Chair Jerome Powell has [...]
While painful to hear, ENTITLEMENT REFORM is something Washington must consider.
This past week I taught a seminar on effective budget making. It broke down the basics on proper ratios of spending, saving, giving and debt repayment. As I presented, I jokingly said if I could gain access to Congress, I would love to enlighten Washington on these basic principles. As [...]
Wise Generosity
If you give to any favorite charities, you must wonder by year end whether every dollar you give only buys more paper, ink, and postage for more solicitations. I think it is safe to say that the cards and letters are effective. If they were not, they would not send [...]
Secure 2.0 Revisited
Last week I provided a concise breakdown of the major changes to retirement account regulations brought about by the passage of the SECURE act of 2022. For more information about this new law check out my article on the topic that ran on 1/11. Today however, I wish to comment [...]
Secure 2.0, What’s in it and why it matters
In the midst of all the chaos that comes with the whole Christmas season, you may not have realized that as part of the massive Omnibus Bill signed by Congress to avert a government shutdown, significant legislation was passed related to your retirement accounts. The SECURE Act of 2022 commonly [...]
2022 In Rearview Mirror
Would you agree that most investors are glad to see 2022 in the rearview mirror? Even when one obtains better results than the market in a downtrend, the general feeling is still painful. The drop represents real dollars lost from accounts of real people, even if only for a year [...]
A new Christmas tradition
While it will be several weeks before we have a clear picture on total retail sales this holiday season, we do know that it started very poorly with November sales numbers, typically the highest month of the entire year, actually dropping .6% when compared to October. Many on Wall Street have interpreted [...]
Advantage from Losses
I know that many of you reading this column are investors with a long term perspective who generally hold your positions for years. Therefore, today’s message is particularly for you. Since applying technical analysis is definitely not easy or perfect and is labor intensive, keeping stock, bond, or mutual fund [...]
Lesson’s Learned After 25 Years
At Stewardship Capital we recently celebrated our 25th anniversary in business. Before 1997, the idea of an independent advisor actively managing the portfolios of clients who were not high-net-worth was quite rare. (Honestly, in many ways it still is 25 years later.) At that time most individuals invested their money [...]
When good news is bad
A perceptive client just asked, How is it that a positive jobs report came out last week and the Market proceeded to drop? Great question, I replied. This phenomenon occurs regularly. It is difficult to understand unless one looks at the effects of the news for the intermediate term, months [...]