Bear Mountain Capital Inc.

Half Dome Is Anything but Average

| October 4, 2023

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…

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Doom & Gloom?

| July 13, 2023

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…

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What’s Ahead for Investors in 2023 and Beyond

| January 11, 2023

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…

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Economic Hot Buttons

| June 14, 2022

Inflation is an economic indicator we discuss heavily with clients during our planning sessions to project future income needs. For years, inflation has been benign, to say the least. Over the last decade, policy makers have been attempting to increase inflation, to ensure it stays close to their preferred target of 2%. Anything lower than their 2% target, risks stagnation in an economy, or worse deflation, which is difficult to…

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MARKET TIMING: WHY NOT TRY?

| April 5, 2022

During times of high market valuations and following long-periods of strong market returns, we are often asked where we think the market is “going from here”. The real question behind this inquiry is “is it time to sell?” When markets go up, it’s natural to be excited about the gains, while feeling nervous about giving back those same gains in the next market downturn. The crux of the question is…

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ESG Investing: Return Tradeoff?

| August 17, 2021

Investing trends don’t start out of nowhere. Usually, some event happens and pushes investors towards a certain area of the market. In the case of the last year, the pandemic left a lot of people stuck in their homes with more time on their hands than normal, so many turned to the stock market. The retail investor had a resurgence. The rise of the “meme stock” captured the headlines, but…

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The Federal Reserve and It’s Impact on the Market Recovery

| August 18, 2020

Many people have been caught off guard by the recent market volatility. Most have been surprised to see asset prices increase so quickly after hitting bottom in March. We’ve seen unexpected price movements before, but this was quite extreme given the fact that we are still very much in the middle of a pandemic, with no immediate end in site. What has been driving the recent recovery? Government intervention has…

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Hey Alexa – What is a Market Correction?

| December 19, 2018

  It’s official. As of earlier this week, all three major indexes (Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq) all ended in correction territory. What is a correction? A correction is when the stock market experiences a 10% drop from it’s highs. Is it notable? Yes. Should it be worrisome? No. Let me explain. Over the last 50 years, the S&P 500 has entered into a correction 29 times. That is…

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Buying Real Estate in Seattle? In San Francisco?

| June 8, 2018

  Our clients often ask us about real estate, and what we think about buying or selling a primary residence, a vacation home, or an investment property. This is hardly surprising—for many of our clients, their family home is by far their largest asset. What’s more, most of our clients live in either the Seattle or San Francisco areas, both of which have experienced extraordinary real estate appreciation in recent…

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What Does Tax Reform Mean To You and Your Portfolio?

| March 13, 2018

Congress and the President recently passed the biggest tax reform in over 30 years. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 aims to make the United States corporate tax rate more competitive and therefore increase corporate investment domestically. The bill also provides for individual tax breaks beginning in 2018, that will expire at the end of 2025. What Does This Mean For My Portfolio? Corporations will now be taxed…

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