Earlier this month, our team had a meeting with Fidelity Charitable. Although they share the Fidelity name with Fidelity Investments (the custodial firm), they operate as an independent 501(c)(3) public charity. Fidelity Charitable works with donors to maximize their philanthropic wishes through a donor-advised fund, commonly referred to as a DAF. What makes a DAF so great that I needed to write about it? DAF’s are unique in that they…
What we remember A few weeks ago, I had the chance to hike Half Dome in Yosemite National Park for the second time in my life. The first time was over 23 years ago with two close friends. The three of us reunited, added one more long-time friend, and ventured out again to conquer the 8,800 granite peak, climbing 4,800 feet of elevation to reach the top. It was a…
FOMO is the new catchy acronym for a very old phenomenon we know as the “fear of missing out.” While the term is often used in social contexts, FOMO is extremely prevalent when it comes to our personal finances. Oftentimes, we just don’t realize it. In this blog post, we’re going to highlight some common situations where we may feel financial FOMO as it relates to our lifestyle, investing, and…
Our national media cycle is a non-stop barrage of mostly gloomy headlines focused on topics that generate clicks and views. Unfortunately, we are biologically wired to focus and react more to negative news than to positive news. In the information age, you can always find data points to confirm your opinion (cognitive bias, anyone?). But, in this post, we thought we would take the liberty of highlighting some of the…
We are constantly discussing what it takes to meet our long-term financial goals with clients. However, we also discuss how important it is to live, today, finding our own balance between our future needs and our current needs. To be sure, travel budgets are a worthy goal! With summer upon us, we’d like to give a nod to living in the moment and share some of our team’s personal travel…
Recently, two regional banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank have been caught up, to some degree, in the making of their own demise. Both were seized by regulators last quarter, as their depositors realized the banks were struggling to keep up with withdrawals and were being forced to sell securities at a loss, to keep up. Ultimately, regulators intervened, citing a lack of confidence in their respective management…
Recently, I had a chance to preview a personal finance book by a best-selling author that focused on how to build and manage your wealth. During the process of reading an early draft of the book, it struck me that it is easy for many to think of wealth building and wealth management as the same thing. However, they are distinctly different and should be considered separately. Building wealth is…
In today’s world, where information about the stock market is readily available at our fingertips, it can be easy to overlook the importance of developing good savings habits. While investment returns are a critical part of any financial plan, developing consistent savings habits is a tried-and-true way to build financial security over the long run. The investment landscape is always going to be ever changing and as investors, to a…
LOOKING BACK It’s difficult to know what the future will hold without understanding the past. 2022 was a difficult year in the market. An unprecedented, rapid increase in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, created significant market volatility and negative returns for the year: Consequently, the S&P 500 finished down -19.44% and investors experienced the risk side of the “risk/reward” relationship. What was different about 2022 was that the negative…
