Quarter in Charts – Q3 2020
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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,…

Kids & Money – Greenlight: A Solution to Help Kids Save, Spend, Give & Invest
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Kids & Money – Greenlight: A Solution to Help Kids Save, Spend, Give & Invest

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post about how my wife and I are teaching our three kids about money. I covered the basic principles we’re trying to instill (Simplicity, Giving, Discipline, Compounding, Enjoyment, Responsibility, and Hard Work) and how those show up practically.  While we have loved teaching these principles, the…

Should I Refinance My Home?
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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…

Three Financial Planning Strategies During a Down Market
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Three Financial Planning Strategies During a Down Market

I remember the first time I had the wind knocked out of me. The day was unseasonably warm, and I was 8, lying in my dad’s arms in a hammock. I started to doze off and rolled out of the hammock, falling back-first onto the Mexican tile. I remember gasping for air, but I had…

Do I Belong Here? – All-Time Market Highs and The Good Place
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Do I Belong Here? – All-Time Market Highs and The Good Place

“On December 31st, the S&P 500 Closed at 3227.57, Within 0.35% of its All-Time High…” I would bet that reading the above headline tells you something. Maybe “Finally, I made it” or “How long can we keep this up?” or maybe even “There’s nowhere to go but down.” When my wife suggested that we start…

Quarter In Charts – Q4 2019
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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 2): How Much Should I Be Saving?
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Budgeting (Part 2): How Much Should I Be Saving?

(This is part two in a series, if you didn’t read my last blog post, then I would recommend starting there.)  The most common financial goal I know of is financial independence. People want the freedom to travel, spend time with family and friends, work part-time, or start a business. However, America as a whole…

Budgeting (Part 1): Rules and Tools
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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….