To Inform: Many Star Wars fans, me included, think “The Last Jedi” (Episode 8) was a bad movie. At the end of “The Force Awakens” (Episode 7), Luke Skywalker came on the screen creating the anticipation that in the next movie, Jedi warrior Luke would be swinging his green lightsaber, saving the galaxy, and fulfilling […]

To Inspire: I (Matt) am going to take a break from John Mark Comer’s book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,” to focus on Valentine’s Day. Today millions of Americans will give candy, flowers and cards to that special someone as an expression of love. Although it seems like a holiday fabricated in the last century […]

To Inform:  If you’ve picked up a newspaper or tuned into financial media lately, it’s not a secret that the stock market is trading at high valuations relative to history. Some of this is no doubt a result of the success many American companies have had over the last several years across a range of […]

To Inspire: People around the world came up with creative ways to pass the time during the COVID-19 lockdown. Silver Springs, Maryland retiree Manuel Vera turned his attention to bicycles, and today he provides free bikes for people in his community. Vera was just looking for something to fill his time, and thought offering to […]

To Inform:   Many of our clients, and all future retirees, could benefit from a provision of Secure Act 2.0 that will allow increased 401(k) contributions to a specific subset of retirement plan investors for the first time in 2025. For several years now, retirement investors have been able to take advantage of catch-up contributions […]

To Inspire: I (Matt) just finished my first book of the New Year, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Wow…what a helpful book for any of you who, like me, find themselves too rushed and too busy. My next couple of Wealth Notes missives will be on excerpts from this book – […]

To Inform: A question I like to ask money managers and market strategists is “what is your most contrarian opinion?” Howard Marks, the investor who helped pioneer junk bond investing and is one of the “rock stars” in the investment world, wrote, “If your behavior is conventional, you’re likely to get conventional results—either good or […]

To Inspire: Most scientific discoveries take years of research and testing, but there are some well-known accidental discoveries that have made big impacts on our lives. The discovery of penicillin, credited as the beginning of modern medicine, happened when Alexander Fleming went on vacation and left a Petri dish uncovered. Vulcanized rubber came about when […]

To Inform: Earlier this week, we hosted a Portfolios at Your Place event where Partner and CEO Travis Upton and Chief Investment Officer Alex Durbin captured five themes from the past and five new themes, all of which are relevant today. I would like to take this opportunity to focus on one of them titled, […]

To Inform: Early in 2023 we talked about why it was a better time to own bonds than it had been in years prior, especially 2022, the worst year on record for bond returns. That indeed was the case in 2023 as investment grade bond indexes were up a little more than 5% and high […]