The last time we owned a dedicated position of gold in our portfolios was early 2013. Since then, gold prices have generally disappointed, with the metal priced today at roughly the same level as September 2013. However, the outlook for the commodity may be brightening, at least according to the research we have been conducting. The case for owning gold...
Cybersecurity in the News Many of us have become aware of serious data breaches over the last several years involving big companies such as Target, Yahoo, Marriot and Equifax. These data breaches affected hundreds of millions of people around the world and brought light to the importance of cybersecurity, a topic that otherwise doesn’t garner much attention. While the larger...
On May 23rd the House of Representatives passed a bill “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” or SECURE for short. While the name is a little zany, this bill would make some of the biggest changes to retirement policy in over 10 years. The bill is expected to get fast-tracked in the Senate, as SECURE is receiving bipartisan support,...
We have been sitting tight on our portfolio asset allocation since the beginning of the trade war escalation this month. Does this mean we aren’t worried? For now, the answer is, “Yes, unless.” The outlook for US/China trade relations is unsettled. The US could be at the beginning of a long drawn out trade war, or we could see some...
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" -George Santayana, Famed philosopher and poet Last Friday President Trump announced he would hike tariffs on another $200 Billion of Chinese goods. For months, the stock market seems to rally and then selloff based on anonymous sources talking about the progress of finding a resolution to the tariffs. As...
For most people, the rising cost of healthcare poses a major concern for lifestyle in retirement. It also makes the decision of when to retire that much more challenging, knowing this is an unavoidable yet sizeable expense. After the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2010, the focus was more on access to services, not about coverage or controlling...
Several clients have asked if we are happy with our move to Fidelity Investments. Our response has been that we couldn’t be more pleased with the changes we have seen since we transitioned custodians nineteen months ago. Fidelity has more than met our objectives to reduce client fees (low or free trading costs) and to provide innovative technological solutions for...
We recently held our annual “ShredIt” event and invited our clients to bring in any old documents that needed shredding. It was our seventh annual event like this, and this year’s was just as well received. This event got me thinking of tax season and I asked myself, “Is there anything I need to change or clean out?” Financially, that is....
We thought we would bring you up to date on our outlook for the markets. While December unnerved many investors, the first quarter of 2019 brought renewed confidence. Q1 S&P 500 performance was the best in over 20 years. What happens next? Where we are not worried: The markets dramatically oversold in December and then rebounded with similar speed. Neither...
I started my career with StrategicPoint way back in 2001, and a lot has changed since then- both with the firm and personally. Back then I was working in client service and placing trades on behalf of the advisors. Personally, I was single and living with some college friends. This summer, my wife and I are expecting our second son to...
