2015 Final Contributions Deadline
As tax deadline approaches, we wanted to send a reminder regarding retirement plan contributions for tax year 2015. For those of you eligible, and planning to make a 2015 retirement plan contribution, we are asking all contributions be received in our Portland office by Monday April 11, 2016 to ensure sufficient processing time. If you […]
Dumbo’s Feather
After five straight weeks of gains, the troubled start to U.S. stocks is fading from memory as central banks have stepped in to assure investors that they will provide the support they feel is necessary to solve their country’s economic woes. Just last week, the Federal Reserve (i.e., the U.S. central bank) announced it would […]
A December to Remember
December has historically been a good month for stocks. Dating back to 1926, the U.S. stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, has been positive 78.7% of the time in December. This is quite a bit higher than the 62.4% of the time that the U.S. market was positive over all months from […]
A Note About Recent Market Volatility
Stock markets around the globe experienced a good deal of market volatility last week and it continued today. Concerns over the pace of global growth and the possibility of the U.S. Federal Reserve increasing short-term rates in September sent most major global stock markets down. In the U.S., the Dow Jones Industrial Average officially dipped […]
The Great Wall of Worry
News from China has been dominating headlines and increasing stock market volatility. Earlier this year, we witnessed their local stock market, represented by the Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index, increase by 59.7% in the first five and a half months of the year. That was on top of the 52.9% gain achieved in 2014. But, […]
Life Satisfaction and Economic Growth
Here’s the Grexit statistic that really matters. You’re probably tired of hearing about the Greek debt crisis, but sometimes it helps to connect the abstract with the concrete—that is, the huge numbers involved with the actual lives of the people living in the country. The Greeks today live in a vacuum of uncertainty, with their […]
Millennials and Money
Millennials are the great new consumer force and marketers spend billions trying to find them and sell them a product or service. However, most traditional marketing doesn’t seem to work with Millennials. Millennials, the generation formerly referred to as Generation Y and those individuals that were born in the 80’s and 90’s, have come of […]
An Important Notification About Your Account Security
It has come to our attention that some clients may be receiving an Internet “phishing” attempt/scam disguised as an email notification from TD Ameritrade. This fake email may ask for personal information, such as your account number, password, or Social Security Number. TD Ameritrade will never ask for such information in an email. The message […]
Revised 1099-R from SEI
In the next week to ten days you will receive a revised 1099-R for 2014 from SEI Private Trust Company. SEI discovered a problem with their vendor resulting in 2 potential issues: either the boxes in lines 2B or 7 were not checked, or the taxable amount in line 2A was blank. SEI is filing […]
A Flock of Doves
When it comes to an economist’s view of inflation, it has historically been assigned a type of bird. Doves are used to describe economists that aren’t too concerned about inflation in the near term and therefore are supportive of more accommodative economic policies. Hawks are used to describe economists that are concerned about inflation and […]