BMC Insights Blog

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

LOOKING BACK It’s difficult to know what the future will hold without understanding the past. 2022 was a difficult year in the market.

If you were to ask someone “What are the best benefits an employer could offer?”, most would respond with perks like health insurance, time off, remote work, and if it’s been a long day… a company sponsored happy hour might be a popular choice. They’d also be remiss if they didn’t mention the valuable 401(k) match, which is a benefit that’s often used synonymously with the phrase “free money”, and who doesn’t love “free money.”

Thank you to Haley Sanford of New York Life for the status update regarding WA LTC Tax: Earlier this year Governor Inslee signed a bill that postponed the tax by 18 months. WA State did this to try and address a few bipartisan issues such as options for those who are close to retirement and […]

During most years, the stock market tends to go up in value, 73% of the time since 1928, to be precise.1 Using historical returns as an indicator, in any given year, you’re usually better off investing in ‘the market’ than not investing at all.

Unfortunately, the S&P 500 (often referred to as the ‘the market’), is having one of its worst starts to the year ever and at the time of this writing, the index is down nearly 20% from its January highs.