Classic Wall Street saying. The last week has sure felt like taking an express elevator down, as the end of February brought a historic stock market sell-off, with the S&P 500 Index moving from an all-time high to a 10% correction in only six days—the quickest such move ever. Along the way, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) experienced multiple 1,000- point drops, including Thursday’s biggest one-day point drop ever, adding to fears. As the coronavirus spreads around the globe, what was once a promising start to 2020 now has the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq Composite all negative year to date. (more…)
The SECURE Act passed into law in late 2019 and changed several aspects of retirement investing. These modifications included modifying the ability to stretch an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and changing the age when IRA holders must start taking requirement minimum distributions to 72-years-old.1,2 (more…)
Managing Director, Ed Doughty, just returned from a 10-day trip serving with Wine To Water, a North Carolina based non-profit that aims to eradicate the global water crisis. He and a handful other volunteers visited and worked in several remote communities along the Amazon River in Columbia and Brazil. The main project was the construction of a 3-story water tower that will support a 5000-liter water tank connected to a water-pump pulling from a deep underground well. This water system will enable the 40 homes in the riverside community of Santa Luzia to receive water directly to their homes and to the local community school. Wine to Water has also provided a Sawyer Point-One water filter to each family so that the water piped-in from the newly constructed water system will truly provide clean water, free from any bacteria and much safer for the 100+ men, women and children of the community to utilize and consume. If you would like to learn more about Wine to Water, or would like to support them in any way, please visit their website at https://winetowater.org or simply reach out to Ed Doughty who leads the Charlotte Chapter of Wine to Water. Ed has also volunteered with WTW in Uganda, Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic.
For many people who retire, income may come from a variety of sources. Here’s a quick review of the six main sources: (more…)
Families with special needs children have a new tax-deferred savings option.
The ABLE account, also called a 529A savings account, is patterned after the popular 529 savings plan, created to help parents save for a child’s higher education. Like 529 plans, ABLE accounts are run by states rather than the federal government. These plans emerged after the passage of the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act in 2014.1 (more…)
Buying a home is the single largest financial commitment most people ever make. And sorting through mortgages involves a lot of critical choices. One of these is choosing between a fixed- or variable-interest-rate mortgage. (more…)
SRI (Socially Responsible Investing), Impact Investing, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Investing belong to a growing category of investment choices that use traditional investing practices to responsibly impact society.
In the past, these investment strategies were viewed as too restrictive for most investors. But over time, improved evaluative data and competitive returns have pushed these strategies into the mainstream. Even though SRI, ESG investing, and impact investing share many similarities, they differ in some fundamental ways. Read on to learn more.1 (more…)
You’re beginning to accumulate substantial wealth, but you worry about protecting it from future potential creditors. Whether your concern is for your personal assets or your business, various tools exist to keep your property safe from tax collectors, accident victims, health-care providers, credit card issuers, business creditors, and creditors of others. To insulate your property … Continue reading “Estate Planning – Protecting Your Assets”
You know how important it is to plan for your retirement, but where do you begin? One of your first steps should be to estimate how much income you’ll need to fund your retirement. That’s not as easy as it sounds, because retirement planning is not an exact science. Your specific needs depend on your … Continue reading “Estimating Your Retirement Income Needs”
As June begins, markets continue to navigate a complex landscape shaped by trade policy shifts, an uncertain economic and earnings outlook, and bond market headwinds. Several key developments in recent weeks may have implications for markets:
April showers came a month early as stocks fell in March. Tariffs were the primary cause of the market jitters, although that uncertainty became too much for markets to shrug off once economic data started to weaken.
A successful investor maximizes gain and minimizes loss. Though there can be no guarantee that any investment strategy will be successful and all investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal, here are six basic principles that may help you invest more successfully.
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