Refreshing Snippets
Stock Market Volatility and Fed Rate Cuts
What’s driving this decline and why such a departure from the first quarter? The simple answer is… investors’ changing expectations for Fed interest rate cuts.
Government Debt Ceiling Deja Vu
Debt ceiling talks and ramifications for investors and the U.S. government are the top news stories of the day. Bond and stock markets have been volatile as the June 1st date deadline (when the government runs out of money) quickly approaches.
Silicon Valley Bank - What Really Happened?
The financial markets were shaken by news of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) failure and the implications for other banks and the economy. Why did SVB fail and what are the implications?
Another Fed Hike & Midterm Elections
With only one and a half months to go before year-end, a year of negative performance is coming to a close. And, it has been a tough one. What can we expect for the next six weeks?
August CPI Data - Why the Sell-Off?
Why would a small 0.1% increase in CPI cause such a big sell-off in the markets?
The answer: because analysts were expecting a 0.1% decline for August instead of an increase (albeit a small one at that). An increase of 0.1% indicates that inflation remains high from a year-over-year perspective (at 8.3%) and may not be moderating as hoped.
Women and Wealth - Managing An Inheritance
Women should understand that receiving a large inheritance can dramatically improve their lives and those around them. However, sometimes a sudden influx of money may cause stress, confusion, and conflict.
The Fed Gets What It Wants
It's well known that two emotions drive market prices: greed and fear...and fear is at the helm right now. There are more sellers than buyers, causing security prices to decline, but if you stand back and look at the bigger picture, this is exactly what the Fed wants. The Fed is managing inflation by affecting consumer demand.
The Market Sell-Off In Perspective
Today, the Dow Jones Index fell 1,060 points ( 3.1%) and the S&P 500 index fell 3.6%. Year-to-date, the DJIA and SPX indices are down 9.2% and 13%, respectively. Investor sentiment and market commentary are extremely negative...is it time to pull out of the markets?
The Ukraine Invasion and the Markets
The news about the invasion of Ukraine is distressing on a humanitarian level and unsettling when thinking about the impact of increased volatility on investment portfolios. Let's break it down and look at some of the threads we're tracking.
Better Investing by Managing Emotions
Some believe that you can remove emotion from decision-making, but we’re human. Everyone has emotions. The important part is learning how to manage them while managing your money.
A Tax Lens on Retirement Investing - Asset Location
Asset location is a retirement strategy that prioritizes investing in a combination of tax-free, tax-deferred, and taxable accounts to maximize after-tax returns. The return profile of the asset and how it is taxed can make a great deal of difference to both the overall return of the portfolio over time and the amount of taxable income generated each year.
The Difference Between Trading and Investing
The key thing to remember when differentiating between trading and investing is the goal of the action. So let's take a step back and understand the differences between investing and trading and the place each of these styles has in an investment strategy.
Understanding Your Investing Behavior
It’s critical that an advisor, such as Refresh Investments, understands the emotions inherent in investing, including your level of worry and your reaction to loss. To get at that, we need to look at the behavioral aspects of financial planning and investing.
Women & Cash - Is Holding Too Much a Good Thing?
Women tend to hold more cash, but holding too much cash limits wealth growth in the long run. Wealth creation is particularly important for women as they face additional financial challenges that men generally don’t.
Is a Target Date Fund Right for You?
Target date funds offer investors the ability to create a risk-appropriate asset allocation across multiple asset classes that automatically rebalances over time. While target date funds do have some unique attributes that can make investing for retirement on your own a little bit easier, limiting yourself to this type of investment may impact the amount of control you have in the long run.
Your Portfolio Asset Allocation - The Long and the Short of It
Determining your portfolio goals and your risk tolerance is the first step in creating an investment strategy. The next step is to deploy the investment strategy by mapping out an asset allocation.
Buying Bonds in Today’s Markets
When is it a good time to buy individual bonds? In today's interest rate environment, buying bond mutual funds or ETFs may be the way to go.