Blog and Updates

Have you made a federal student loan payment in the last three months? About 11% of federal student loan borrowers have not and are therefore in default. That default rate only represents the borrowers entering repayment.¹ More...

Your twenties are the perfect time to save and invest. Do it now, and you will have a great ally-time-on your side. Think about doing the following things if you're not doing them already. Put money into a retirement plan. Save and...

Dear Valued Investor: After more than 18 months of nearly uninterrupted advances, the U.S. equity markets started declining last week, with a large sell-off on February 5, 2018. Although it is always difficult to endure these declines...

­Weekly Market Commentary December 19, 2016 The Markets The Federal Reserve put a hitch in the markets’ giddy-up last week. It wasn’t the Fed’s second interest rate hike in a decade that caused markets to stumble....

Weekly Market Commentary December 12, 2016 The Markets Dad: “Fra-gee-lay” …it must be Italian! Mom: I think that says “fragile,” honey. Dad: Oh, yeah. This holiday season, investors’ enthusiasm for...

Weekly Market Commentary December 5, 2016 The Markets Flirting with higher interest rates. Last week, yields on 10-year Treasury bonds rose to a 17-month high of 2.44 percent, reported The Wall Street Journal, before retreating to...

Weekly Market Commentary November 28, 2016 The Markets It’s a myth! According to WebMD, the amino acid L-Tryptophan is not responsible for Americans’ post-Thanksgiving food coma. The real culprit is overeating. So, last...

Thanksgiving: A Time for Gratitude Some folks love the shopping, cooking, and camaraderie of holidays; others dislike the long lines, financial stress, and seasonal music. No matter which tribe you belong to, focusing on the...

Weekly Market Commentary November 14, 2016 The Markets Surprise! Markets were remarkably sanguine following the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. There was a moment of panic. As election results rolled in...

Weekly Market Commentary November 7, 2016 The Markets Markets hate uncertainty – and that may create opportunities. Last week, investors experienced another bout of election jitters, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500)...

Weekly Market Commentary October 31, 2016 The Markets It’s almost over… During July 2016, Pew Research reported almost 60 percent of Americans were suffering from election fatigue. They weren’t uninterested in the...

Weekly Market Commentary October 24, 2016 The Markets “Verrrry interesting.” Arte Johnson’s catch phrase from Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In may not have described U.S. stock markets last week, but there were some...

Weekly Market Commentary October 17, 2016 The Markets ‘Tis the season! Third quarter earnings season, that is. Every quarter, companies report earnings to let investors know how profitable the companies were during the quarter....

Weekly Market Commentary October 10, 2016 The Markets Was it good news or wasn’t it? The U.S. unemployment rate ticked higher last week. The September jobs report showed the United States added 156,000 new jobs in September. That...

Weekly Market Commentary October 3, 2016 The Markets Markets were relatively calm during the third quarter of 2016, yet they delivered some attractive returns overall. In the United States, all three major U.S. indices posted record...

Weekly Market Commentary September 19, 2016 The Markets If it’s not one thing, it may be another. Economic data released last week will factor into this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decision on whether to...

The Markets "Start your engines," was not in the Department of Labor (DOL)'s June Employment Report Summary, but it may as well have been. A positive jobs report revved investor optimism and sent U.S.stock markets sprinting higher last...

The Markets When the yield on 10-year Treasuries finished last week at 1.37 percent, a record closing low, Barron's called it a Kübler-Ross rally. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross was a Swiss psychiatrist whose research identified the...

Since America was founded, the roles and responsibilities of fathers have changed dramatically: During the 1700's and early 1800's, men generally worked as farmers, artisans, and tradesmen. Often their homes were also their work...

The Markets The British may be leaving. The British may be leaving. Last week, the interest rate on 10-year U.S. Treasuries dropped to levels last seen in 2013. Why, you may ask, would bond yields move lower when Federal Reserve policy...

Memorial Day is set aside to honor the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military, defending the ideas for which this country stands. One way to observe Memorial Day is to do something for those who have fought and...