The close of 2023 finds us in mind of two overlapping trends: one short-term and recently driving financial markets to a handsome rally at year’s end, and one long-term that bodes for change and challenges in financial markets as we enter a period with marked differences, certainly from the Covid pandemic and the policy responses, […]
Sometimes less is more. We all know the saying, but seeing it effected in life—through art, sport, business, parenting, gardening—is the exception rather than the rule. Imagination more frequently bends towards complexity. With that in mind, we endeavor to make this quarterly review more compact and to share some thoughts near the end about simplifying […]
Most of us, thankfully, only know what a bank run looks like from movies and television, most famously from the film It’s a Wonderful Life, a holiday staple of broadcast television in the past. George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart), desperate as a young man to leave his hometown of Bedford Falls, is waylaid in […]
The turn of the year marks the start of many rituals. In our financial planning practice, we report to clients and their tax accountants about their investment income and expenses in the previous year. And of course, we write letters like this one summarizing the year past in financial markets and giving reflections and observations […]
Whether we’ve been the driver or a passenger—perhaps as a child in the back seat on a family road trip—we’re all familiar with the question “How long until we get there?” Now, following the third consecutive quarter of market declines in both stocks and bonds amidst the Federal Reserve’s campaign to hike interest rates and […]
We’ve all seen action movies where the hero-protagonist seems to suffer one setback after another in the opening half, to the point where you’re left thinking “What else can go wrong? How is the hero ever going to get out of this?” The front half of 2022 in financial markets has felt a bit that […]
The first quarter of 2022 was a uniquely challenging one for financial markets and investors, as both stocks and bonds generally declined. As a consequence, the boost, or at least store of value, from bonds that normally accompanies a stock decline didn’t happen, causing a mixed stock and bond portfolio to exhibit results much closer […]
Like the turn of weather, the stock market has a way of changing and casting a new brightness or gloom that can pervade our mood and quickly have us forget the recent past. For those like your author, living in the marine climate of Puget Sound, we are accustomed to frequent weather changes and have […]
The fiscal quarter that ended September 30 was supposed to be the off-ramp to normalcy for the economy. It now seems a long time ago, but early summer 2021 was a time of low Covid case counts and great optimism. (We pause here as you, our reader, may sigh upon thinking this is another story […]
We hope you’ve been outside this summer and fall, and perhaps had the chance to hike, enjoy nature and let free the mind for thought. In the nearby Cascade Mountains, many trailheads start at a creek bed and, as the elevation increases, the path switches back and forth up to a ridge and even beyond. […]
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