To Inspire: We were privileged to co-host New York Times best-selling author Tommy Spaulding a little over a week ago at a business leadership breakfast.   Tommy’s talk was based on his most recent book, The Heart Led Leader: How Living and Leading from the Heart Will Change Your Organization and Your Life. The last chapter […]

To Inform:   Source: Shutterstock   Earlier this week I listened to a webcast put on by the fund managers of a flagship “best ideas” global allocation fund from a major investment bank.  I’m taking some liberties to summarize a conversation I had with a friend during the webcast, but the conversation went something like this: […]

To Inspire:  Source: www.sipofhope.com   Suicide is a difficult topic but one that needs discussion.  Suicide rates have skyrocketed in recent years and in 2018 it is estimated that across the globe, 800,000 people will end their lives by suicide.  Here in the United States, 121 people die each day from suicide.  And the vast […]

To Inform:  When you buy a bond, you are effectively loaning money out to a government or a corporation with the expectation to be repaid your original loan with interest. A bond repaying you in two years will often pay a different rate of interest than a bond repaying you in ten years. When we […]

To Inspire:  Source: www.johnmccain.com   Senator John McCain’s life offers us lessons on living well and living with greatness.  What are some of those lessons: Lesson #1 – Know Thyself – McCain knew himself.  His years as a POW, while extremely difficult, also were years to reflect on his own life.  The son and grandson […]

To Inform:  In the first three months of 2018, only one major asset class had positive performance – emerging market (EM) stocks.  Since then, emerging markets have had a significant correction and are now down close to -10% year to date through late August.  Is the recent correction a buying opportunity? Despite pressures from a […]

To Inspire:  Perhaps some of you saw the Dateline documentary, City of Angels, last Sunday night.  It focused on the large and growing issue of homelessness that confronts Los Angeles and how people there are attempting to solve it. Mark Horvath is one of those “angels.”  Mark refers to those who are homeless in LA […]

To Inform:  Could the stock market be in the early stages of a shift in leadership from “Growth” stocks to “Value” stocks?  At this week’s Portfolios at Panera discussion, we talked about major themes which have been areas of focus in The Joseph Group’s Investment Strategy Team meetings.  One of those themes is a potential […]

To Inspire:  It’s the age-old question: can money buy happiness?  CBS Sunday Morning did a segment last Sunday that asked that question.  Their story began by sharing Christian Hinojosa’s take on it.  In 2000, fresh out of Amherst College, Christian took a very high paying job as an investment banker. Chris Hinojosa when he was […]

To Inform:  We are in the early stages of second-quarter earnings announcements in the U.S., and things are looking positive. In order to grow earnings every year, there are really three levers a company can pull: Revenue Growth – is the company growing their sales numbers? Margin Expansion – is the company reducing costs and/or […]