To Inspire: As we celebrate Valentine’s Day this week, we might pause to consider this amazing gift we call love.  The ancient Greeks defined four types of love: Eros – romantic love; Storge – the love of family members for one another; Phileo – the affectionate, warm and platonic love of friends; Agape – an unconditional […]

To Inform:   Earlier this week we sent out a note regarding the Dow’s “biggest point loss in history” (although it does not crack the top 100 declines in percentage terms) and how computerized trading strategies related to volatility seemed to be driving extremes in market movements.  After another significant decline on Thursday, most U.S. stock […]

To Inform:   1. What’s Happening?! After one of the strongest starts to a year ever in 2018, the stock market has quickly corrected over the last few days, reversing January’s gains.  The market correction, including the largest point loss for the Dow ever on Monday, has been fast and furious but in a big picture […]

To Inspire:  In our last Wealth Notes, we shared a three-step formula for your best year ever.  At its core, the formula calls for all of us to make small incremental changes each day that move us towards a desired goal, maintaining that small change day after day for weeks, months, even years.  It is this […]

To Inform:  The U.S. stock market has had an amazing run recently, but it appears volatility is coming back into the markets.  It may feel strange to see negative numbers on the market indexes, but we would say the volatility is not what is strange – it’s the fact the lack of volatility has lasted so […]

To Inform:  In 2017, foreign stocks broadly outperformed U.S. stocks.  Is foreign stock leadership a one-year fluke or can it continue?   Part of the outperformance in 2017 came from a weaker dollar, but based on earnings and valuation, we believe both emerging market stocks (think India, Brazil, and China) and developed market foreign stocks (think Japan […]

To Inspire:  Have you made some new year resolutions?  Perhaps, like many, you’ve stopped making them because it’s so discouraging to fail after only a week or two of effort.  Why bother?! Well, there’s hope!  I (Matt) just finished reading The Compound Effect by Success Magazine publisher Darren Hardy.  In it, Darren defines the phrase as […]

To Inspire:  As we look ahead to 2018, take stock of the year that is about to conclude.  What are you most thankful for?  What were the significant moments – good ones and challenging ones – that are worth reflecting on?  What did you learn from them?  How did you grow this year as a person?  […]

To inform:  Last week we held our final Portfolios at Panera discussion for 2017 and the main topic on everyone’s mind was the new tax reform bill recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump.  What are the potential market implications of the new tax laws heading into 2018?  Here are some […]

Business Coach and author Darren Hardy tells a great story about lions and makes an analogy for us all.