The U.S. economy continues to show resiliency and disinflation progresses as the February CPI report showed that inflation is still gradually receding. The first quarter’s rally became a “everything rally” as global stocks and bonds posted positive gains with many indices hitting record highs. Here are 3 things you need to know: This year’s first quarter gain for the S&P 500 is the 12th...
The resilience of the U.S. economy will likely be a continuing theme in the months to come, as will be the Fed’s timing (the Fed elected to hold interest rates steady at the first Federal Open Market Committee meeting of the year on January 31st). Here are 3 things you need to know: The S&P 500 recorded new highs and was up +1.59% in January. The Magnificent 7 accounted for 45% of the...
Please join us in welcoming Melissa Ronnie to Benefit Financial Services Group (BFSG). Melissa joins the BFSG team as a Client Service Specialist. She focuses on the client relationship experience and provides clients with account assistance. We are looking forward to the positive impact she is going to make at BFSG and for our clients. Welcome Melissa!
Heightened volatility, robust economic data, and concerns about the sustainability of government finances appear to be driving the recent movement in intermediate to long-term Treasury yields with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note topping 5% for the first time since 2007. For now, the stock market is taking its cues from the bond market. Here are 3 things you need to know: The Bloomberg...
By: Steven Yamshon, Ph.D., Managing Principal It isn’t often that we talk about geopolitical events, but it has great relevance because geopolitical events affect economies. Until shortly, after World War II, the economic courses taught in the universities were not split into macroeconomics and microeconomics. It was taught as just plain economics and was often labeled political economy. Why on...
Out of nowhere, equities entered a bull market on June 8th after exiting a 248-trading-day bear market (its longest since 1948). Here are 3 things you need to know: The Nasdaq Composite surged 32% through the end of June, its best first-half performance in 40 years, far outpacing the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 4%, and the S&P 500, which rose 4.5%. Three-month U.S. Treasury...
Overall, January continued the strong bounce back seen for most global assets since October even if the performance seen in the first half of the month wasn’t quite matched in the second half. It was still the best January in several years for many assets. Here are 3 things you need to know: Q4 2022 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) came in above expectations at 2.9%. The increase primarily...
The S&P 500 index experienced its worst August in seven years as traders weighed the prospect of more aggressive action from the Federal Reserve (the Fed) on interest rates to rein in inflation — even if that means some pain for households and businesses. Here are 3 things you need to know: The unemployment rate in August backed up to 3.7% (from 3.5%) driven by a huge increase in the...
We concluded our Summer Webinar Series in August of 2022. We had a great turnout and thank you to our clients and friends that joined us live. The educational series covered great topics such as planning for loved ones, retirement plan basics, behavioral investing, Social Security and Medicare. We hope you learned something new to help you achieve your retirement goals. For those that were...
By: Henry VanBuskirk, CFP®, Wealth Manager Our team at BFSG has done extensive research on the impact on the average American’s psyche when filing their income tax return and the results of our study concluded that there are two groups of people that don’t like paying taxes…Men and Women. This article will discuss tax planning from a federal estate and gift tax perspective and in future...
By: Michael Allbee, CFP®, Senior Portfolio Manager Late last year we gave you some tips on how to profit from inflation by investing in Series I savings bonds (I-Bonds). You can buy up to $10,000 per person per year directly from Treasury Direct. But you can also fight inflation by buying an additional $5,000 in paper I-Bonds with your income-tax refund. You can ask to receive all or part of...
By: Paul Horn, CFP®, CPWA®, Senior Financial Planner We have all heard the break-up line, “It’s not you, it’s me”. But as we all know, not all financial advisors are created equal and sometimes it is them. Breaking up is never fun, but sometimes it’s necessary. Here are ten reasons to switch your financial advisor: 1. Lack of communication Many advisors can get complacent, and over time...
Focus on What You Can Control By: Paul Horn, CFP®, CPWA®, Senior Financial Planner The goal of every investor is to get the best returns possible per unit of risk based on your risk tolerance (the “optimal portfolio”). No matter how much research you do or the investment philosophy you use, at the end of the day there are many variables that you cannot predict or control for when you are making...
You have done a great job preparing for retirement, but do you understand the risks? Timing is everything, and early market declines at retirement, particularly if they are paired with rising inflation, can significantly reduce the longevity of your retirement nest egg. Learn from Paul Horn, CFP® in this 2-minute BFSG short as he discusses the least understood risk to retirement – sequence risk...
In case you missed this week’s BFSG’s Fall Webinar Series, “Tax Planning: Understanding Biden’s Tax Proposals”, you can now watch the replay by clicking here. Our guest speaker Erica York, an economist with the Tax Foundation, reviewed the current Build Back Better tax proposals and we discussed tax strategies to help you reduce your taxes for 2021 and beyond. Visit BFSG University on YouTube to...
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