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 […]
To Inspire: A Happy New Year from all of us at The Joseph Group. Last night I (Matt) watched the Orange Bowl – which featured two very good football teams – Penn State and Notre Dame. A great game – which Notre Dame won 27-24 on a last second field goal. The field goal was […]
To Inform: This Wealthnotes title, “Absolutely Positive, Relatively Frustrating,” reflects both returns and my mood as I look at markets to close out 2024. Investment returns are often described as absolute or relative. Absolute simply means positive or negative, and in the absolute case, every major asset class posted positive returns in 2024 (although some […]
To Inspire: Welcome to 2025 and welcome to the season of New Year’s resolutions. Articles recommending the best resolutions to make have been inundating email and social media for the past couple of weeks. My favorite resolution list arrived in my email early January 1, titled “65 Achievable New Year’s Resolutions You’ll Actually Keep.” Sixty-five! […]
To Inform: Markets treat news in a variety of ways. There are times when bad news is simply bad news, and the market responds accordingly (down). There are times when bad news is “good news,” and the market responds accordingly (up). As for good news, there are times when good news is good and the […]
To Inspire: Next week, Christians all over the world will be celebrating the birth of Christ. A remarkable and often overlooked part of the story is Mary’s consent to be His mother. When the angel, Gabriel, shares with her God’s plan, she gives her consent: “I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be […]
To Inspire: I will confess up front that I do not send many Christmas cards these days, just a handful to very faraway friends and very elderly aunts is about all I manage most years. But something I read this week has inspired me to get back to a longer card list. Writer Peter Coy […]
To Inform: Earlier this week we held our December Portfolios and Pints event. As part of the discussion, in what has become a bit of an annual tradition, we shared an updated summary of “Long Term Capital Market Assumptions.” It’s an intimidating sounding term, but “Capital Market Assumptions” (borrowing phraseology from JP Morgan) “provide return […]
To Inform: As we near the end of 2024, it looks like this year will be like last in some respects. As in 2023, the US stock market has done well, but “the average stock” is underperforming the S&P 500. A way to measure the performance of the average stock is by looking at the […]