Post Election Reflections
Whether you’re feeling elated, deflated or mostly just jaded about what just happened in the U.S. elections, we wanted to reach out to you with a few thoughts related to the recent election. It’s possible that even President-elect Trump himself didn’t see this one coming, and so we wanted to provide some perspective from this important event.
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Waypoint Wealth Management
The Life You Chose
For some reason, a lot of people seem to be retiring lately. Over the last year, I and my partners Dave and Grant have helped numerous people make that leap away from their career, which for many can be a scary time. This is a very rewarding aspect of our careers as advisors. And it is also humbling and a great responsibility to advise those clients through this major event in their lives.
Once we get beyond the “X’s and O’s” related to the financial aspect of this planning, I can’t help but think about this next chapter for them and this word “Retirement.” At a recent class I attended, financial planner and Forbes columnist Carolyn McClanahan said something that we couldn’t agree with more. She said “let’s stop calling this Retirement, and start calling this just another transition in life that needs to be planned for.” To me, that opens up the realm of possibilities for the future rather than just contemplating what you would stop doing (which is the traditional way to approach retirement).
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Pete Dixon, CFP®
Partner and Advisor
Heated Politics, and Thinking Beyond “Stage One”
It’s no surprise that this year’s U.S. presidential race has become a subject of conversation around the globe. And it’s probably a fair assumption that the intensity will only increase as the November 8 election date nears.
We are by no means implying that you should ignore what is going on in the world around you. Politics and politicians regularly and directly affect many aspects of our lives. But as you think through this year’s raucous race, remember this:
The more heated the politics, the more important it is to establish and maintain
a well-planned, long-term approach to managing your investments. > SEE MORE
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Waypoint Wealth Management
Your Investment’s “Survival Rate” And Why It Matters To You
Pretend for a moment that you have a mild medical condition and you visit your doctor for advice. After looking you over and running tests, the doctor provides you with a recommendation. There is a new drug available, and she would like to prescribe it to you. The only issue is that there is a 50% chance of survival over the next 15 years. Would you take that advice?
Would you be surprised to know that there is a similar chance of survival with investments? The mutual fund/ETF industry is continually creating new products for the investor. Some of them, like the ones that we use at Waypoint, are intended to benefit the investor with lower than average costs, more tax efficiency than many others, and a very high chance that they’re built to last. Unfortunately for many, many other investments the goal is to make money off of you rather than for you. > SEE MORE
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Waypoint Wealth Management
“Trees Losing Their Leaves; Experts Say No End In Sight”
I pulled out my smartphone the other day to view some of the morning’s headlines while waiting for my chicken salad powerhouse wrap (detail added so that you knew I wasn’t driving while reading). Here’s the first line that showed up:
“Dow 20,000 is coming this year…”
My first thought was how funny this headline is. (By the way, for the wise investor who doesn’t track the Dow—the level is around 18,300 as of this writing). Can you imagine the news predicting such a higher market this year just weeks ago when the market sold off by almost 1,000 points (before coming back a few days later)?
This got me thinking about the equity market’s recent “all time high” that is continually making headlines (again). As investors, we have to be careful with what information we’re taking in, and how our perceptions can influence the expectations we have with our own portfolios. A little more than three years ago the same thing was being reported. As the market recouped all of its losses from the ’08-’09 downturn (on a point basis) and began to touch new levels that year, all we heard about was the market’s new high—each time it happened—until a more enticing headline came along.
It’s kind of like having the Baltimore Sun report front page news about how the leaves on trees surprisingly emerge with such brilliance—every single spring. I can see the paper now: “Leaves Are Back, And Greener Than They’ve Ever Been—But For How Long?!” …followed later in the year by the equally astonishing headline “Trees Losing Their Leaves; Experts Say There Is No End In Sight”. > SEE MORE
Posted by:
Pete Dixon, CFP®
Partner and Advisor