Markets: What’s Really Behind It All?

As we look back on a year filled with surprises (from its opening days onward), it’s natural to wonder what to expect in 2017. This is especially so, since most of those surprising events have yet to play out in full – from the political climate in the U.S., to the Brexit referendum in the U.K. to uncertainty in government bond and oil prices around the world.

We are reminded of a favorite quote from The Wall Street Journal personal financial columnist Jason Zweig, who once observed that “Wall Street often resembles a blindfolded person looking in a darkened closet for a pair of black shoes that isn’t there.”

Interestingly, Zweig made his comment back in October 2008, when we had yet to see the light at the end of a very dark financial tunnel. We think the sentiment fits nearly any global market and any market climate, including whatever 2017 has in store for us.

 

 

Instead of getting too hung up on the forecasts from pundits or prognosticators, let’s take a moment to pause and celebrate the truly remarkable life force that has long driven our financial markets: human enterprise.

 

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Waypoint Wealth Management

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Waypoint Wealth Management

Is Your Advice Good Enough?

In today’s climate of one-page financial plans, bargain-basement fund pricing and automated investment tools, you may wonder whether you need a living, breathing financial adviser.

We think you do, but with a twist. First, we need to redefine traditional financial advice – the kind that’s been delivered by those focused on issuing buy/sell recommendations, executing transactions, making you think they have the best investment product for you, and collecting their commissions. If that’s what you’re thinking of, you are correct. You don’t need that. You probably never did.

 

 

As we face continual changes with the markets, Social Security, taxes, etc., the welcome advances we referenced above are best thought of as augmenting rather than replacing the solid advice most investors still sorely need to see their way through to a rewarding retirement.

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Waypoint Wealth Management

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Waypoint Wealth Management