Quarter in Charts – Q3 2020

COVID-19 Still Hits Hard “What a year this week has been.”  That was the response I got from a friend when I asked him how things were going. And it is probably what most of us have felt as we process COVID-19, the economy, elections, and the market on top of managing work, family, school,

Should I Refinance My Home?

In case you haven’t heard, mortgage rates are the lowest they have ever been. The chart below shows average mortgage rates over the past 49 years, from 1971 to 2020. Currently, the 30-year mortgage has an average rate of 3.17%. You can view the chart above and edit the timeline yourself in order to see

The Price Is Right, Or Is It?

The Price is Right has been running on TV for 48 years, can you believe it? Watching the show with my 84-year old Dad, after he moved from Chattanooga to Greensboro in 1992, is one of my favorite memories. We would roar with laughter at our correct guesses, and stare at the TV in wide-eyed

Quarter In Charts – Q4 2019

It’s interesting to think about what an impact Julius Caesar had on the calendar and from that, our lives. I remember when I started at Smith Partners Wealth Management (then Jonathan Smith & Co.) in 2005. The great Legg Mason Value Trust mutual fund manager Bill Miller was in the middle of his 15th consecutive

Budgeting (Part 1): Rules and Tools

You can find part 2 of Budgeting HERE When I was ten, we would visit our family friends in Michigan called “the five boys”, for obvious reasons. Being a ten-year-old looking for fun, their pig farm was perfect. We would arrive and clamber out of the car yearning for the green light from our parents.