Education Center

While your neighbors are trying to keep their resolutions for the new year, we suggest you take a slightly different path. Think about the financial behaviors you want AVOID in 2018. By resolving to NOT do a few things you can reduce your financial stress and improve your investment results. Here are some suggestions as the year begins.

To kick off the year we’ve decided to publish our crystal ball list for 2018. From blockbuster IPOs to Blockchain billionaires, here are ten of our favorite developments.

With family in town for the holidays, you may find that the discussion turns to markets and politics at some point. The discussion may even get heated as common ground seems harder to find these days. In these moments, it’s helpful to remember Sayre’s Law. Sayre’s Law dictates that: “In any dispute, the intensity of the feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake.” Here’s more:

With more family time than the rest of the year, the holidays can be an opportune time to talk about money and investing. But where do you start? Before you get into any technical aspects of planning or investing, we recommend you start with goals, values, fears and plans for success for money and life. It’s easier than it sounds. Here is a three-part framework we find leads to great conversations:

2017 has been another big year in a long-running bull market. Your portfolio is probably full of holdings with significant capital gains. To avoid paying the tax on those gains, you may be holding onto securities you’re ready to sell. What to do? Well, if you have any charitable giving goals, consider giving away your capital gains bill in the process.

There is more freely available high-quality financial data out there than ever before. But the quantity of data doesn’t necessarily translate to quality of decisions. Big data can mean big problems when it comes to organizing, filtering, analyzing and displaying it — all of which are prerequisites for using the data to make a decision.

The total US stock market size is shrinking due to buybacks and takeovers. (WSJ). Private companies are being acquired before the public can invest in them. What’s the response? IPO! Gaze at the most likely IPOs for 2018, some well known and others not. Should you invest in any of them? If you do, get ready for a wild ride.

I get more questions about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies than any other finance topic. Everyone wants to know what to do with crypto. What’s your angle, how much is your allocation and which crypto is the most compelling? Here are some facts to help guide you:

Are you making more money this year than usual? Worried about the big chunk that will go to taxes? Fear not. You may have an option that lets you reduce your taxes, save money for the future, and compound your savings tax-free.  It’s called deferred compensation.  Most people who work for a company and anyone who has their own company can defer compensation and reap big benefits. Read on…