One of the greatest pitfalls that investors need to be aware of is something called “recency bias.” This term refers to when current events or trends influence the decisions we make with our investments. Recency can be hard to avoid because it can affect us both intellectually as we review numbers, and also emotionally, which can create impulsive decisions. For instance, recency can lead to jumping on the bandwagon with recently well-performing stocks or assets, causing us to end up buying high and selling low. It can also cause us to get rid of what feels like a loss, only to have it turn around and perform well.

Successful investors look at long-term performance and make intentional decisions without falling victim to short-term performance and recency bias. The first step toward strengthening your investment decisions in this way is to understand more about how it can impact our decision-making.

If you’ve saved diligently for retirement – or your parents have – and you’ve accumulated a sizable nest egg, recent rule changes affecting retirement distributions could seriously impact your financial strategy.

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, more commonly called the SECURE Act, was signed into law in December 2019. It was sweeping legislation that included significant provisions to increase access to tax-advantaged accounts and prevent retirees from outliving their money, but it also eliminated a strategy many affluent investors have been relying on.

Nearing retirement is an exciting time. It’s the culmination of the many years you’ve spent working hard and diligently following your retirement plans, and for many, it can be an incredibly meaningful and rewarding phase in your life.

Retiring is a very personal decision, and everyone must decide their own perfect timing. This means that couples aren’t always going to be retiring at the same time. Should you find you and your spouse in the position of retiring at different ages, here are three things you should know.

What is stopping you from achieving financial freedom? Often in life, the biggest hurdle we have to overcome is ourselves. Too often our mindset or our emotions get in the way of us achieving the goals that we’ve set. This is especially true in our financial lives. Whether it’s the feeling of being too overwhelmed by the task set before you, such as saving for a house or retirement, or it’s unhealthy habits you’ve picked up like late night shopping, it’s easy to feel ill-equipped, disparaged, or completely overwhelmed when it comes to tackling your money.

However, money doesn’t have to be this gargantuan, all-consuming burden in your life. It’s possible to overcome these hurdles and take control of your financial reality, and it starts with learning a few healthy money habits. We’ve put together a list of 15 of our favorite money tips that can turn you into a financial guru in no time.  We hope you to try implementing some of these into your own life, then watch as your financial independence blossoms. 

Utilizing qualified retirement plans and individual retirement accounts (IRAs) for your retirement planning is a smart move – after all, earnings on these tax-advantaged accounts grow tax-deferred or even tax-free. In order to make sure you get the most out of them, as well as stay up to date with all account requirements, review the below reminders each year.

You max out your 401(k) contributions, you contribute regularly to your IRA and you’ve diversified your portfolio in order to reduce your overall risk. This is a thoughtful and strategic financial plan, right?

Well, not exactly. Although many people believe a consistent investment strategy sets them up for their desired financial future, the truth is that investing is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to financial planning. If your investments are the only thing you’re being thoughtful and strategic about, you’re missing several crucial steps in protecting your financial future. Below we’ll discuss a three-part plan to help you discern where you may have holes in your current financial plan.

Part 1: Goal Planning

Regardless of what stage of life you’re in, you have short- and long-term goals. Maybe you want to get married and buy your first home, maybe you’re focused on getting the kids through college debt-free and buying a vacation home, or perhaps it’s your dream to retire early and travel the world. In any scenario, you can’t properly plan for the future until you know what you want. Once you’ve clarified your goals, you can devise a strategy to achieve them.

This year, investors have been treated to a rare real-world lesson in the mathematics of investing—namely, the fact that after a market decline, it takes a greater market recovery to get back to even.  The first quarter saw a frightening downturn that delivered 20% losses across the U.S. and developed foreign markets.  Then we experienced a breathtaking 20% gain in the second quarter, the fourth-best quarterly rise since 1950.  Work out the mathematics, and virtually all indices are still showing a loss for the year.

You can see this dynamic everywhere you look.  The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index—the broadest measure of U.S. stocks—fell 20.70% in the first three months of the year, then gained 22.69% in the ensuing quarter.  By the mathematics of the market, investors in the index are still down 2.88% so far this year.  The comparable Russell 3000 index is down 3.48% in the first half of 2020. 

While the recent volatility in the stock market, the likelihood of an economic recession, and the proliferation of a global pandemic has had a deep impact on nearly everyone’s portfolio, our clients experienced little to no impact on their retirement income due to our three-bucket investment approach.

Just when we thought we had finally seen it all, the COVID-19 pandemic forced oil prices into the negative for the first time in history. Producers were paying as much as $37.63 per barrel as of April 20 to get buyers to take oil off their hands. While one might think finding buyers willing to be paid to accept free oil might be easy, the sharp drop in demand in recent months has lead to a massive oversupply of oil such that buyers have nowhere to physically store it. Some producers have reportedly paid nearly $100,000 per day to lease oil tankers that enable them to store their oversupply at sea.

How We Got Here

How did we go from peak oil prices of $150 per barrel 15 years ago to negative pricing recently? In short, coronavirus has acted like a lead foot on the brakes of a car and air travel worldwide, with safety restrictions severely limiting flights, requiring workers to stay home and non-essential businesses to temporarily close. At the same time, both China and India – two of the world’s largest importers of crude – shut their borders in attempts to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

By now, you’ve heard reports that the White House has announced federal guidelines for the easing of social distancing orders that have been put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The leadership of different states will have the final say, of course, but the guidelines offer some indication of when we can expect to start congregating again without gloves and masks.

There are three phases in the proposed guidelines. (We are apparently in Phase 0 currently.)