2022’s Investment Lessons

2022 was a unique year, but they ALL are “unique” years in some way, right?  What can we learn from this, and what are the important takeaways to make us better investors?

Here’s what our Head of Financial and Economic Research, Larry Swedroe, had to say about it:

“While each year features new twists on the age-old investment stories, smart investors know how to apply the same basic principles to every event. That’s why one of my favorite sayings is that there’s nothing new in investing, only investment history you don’t know. Last year, however, investors did experience something that happened for the first time in history.”

To read Larry’s 10 investment lessons from 2022, click here to read more, and as always if you have any questions about how this impacts your own retirement and investment planning, feel free to reach out to us.

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Six Things to Think About for Year-End 2021

With yesterday’s 72 degree day (here in Maryland) behind us and today’s 40-ish degrees setting in, it’s a fierce reminder that winter is coming; and that means another calendar year is coming to a close. That said, there’s still time to warm up that financial plan and position yourself to finish out the year well.

With that in mind, we thought it would be helpful to send along six financial “best practices” to do just that:

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Stimulus 2.0

What You Need to Know About Stimulus 2.0

After nearly six months of back-and-forth negotiations, and in response to the economic hardship that many Americans face from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Congress proposed a new, $900 billion relief package.

Many elements—like stimulus payments and PPP loans—will sound familiar from earlier this year.

However, debate surrounding certain provisions in the economic stimulus and relief package has intensified since it left Congress, and as of this posting, President Trump has yet to sign the bill.

Luckily, should it become law, few measures in the whopping 5,593-page bill require prompt action before the end of 2020. Nevertheless, extensive media coverage has prompted questions regarding how it will affect you and your family. To help offer some clarity, here’s a high-level breakdown of six important provisions in the bill you need to know about. > SEE MORE

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Which Path Would You Take?

“I don’t know…something just doesn’t feel right,” you mumble through your mask to your primary care doctor while sitting on the examination table under a flickering fluorescent light in a room decorated with anatomical charts and hand-sanitizer dispensers. After listening to your heart and your lungs, the doctor diagnoses your feelings of worry as a mild condition that is easily treatable but could become serious if a proper treatment regimen isn’t followed. The doctor gives two treatment plans: one coming from the New England Journal of Medicine and the other from a health magazine that can be purchased at your local convenience store. Which plan do you choose?

 

The health magazines are filled with tips and tricks, such as how to burn body fat, jump-start the body’s metabolic rate, and build immune system strength. And they might even work sometimes. If you want to choose the treatment plan with the highest odds of success, it might give you more confidence to know that the medical journal, and its recommendations, are based on decades of data collected from research studies performed by medical experts and peer-reviewed by the medical community.

We face the same decision when it comes to investing. > SEE MORE

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What Has Historically Followed A Time Like This?

Having patience can be challenging when recent downturns have occurred. But the reality is that some of the biggest innovations (and opportunities) arise out of difficult times. And when it comes to investing, all we have is what those opportunities might bring us in the future. This is why investing can be hard when focusing on short-term movements for your long-term retirement plan.

We can’t go back in time and change the past, but we can return to the evidence, and review what has occurred each time.  And while not perfect or any guarantee, we can put the odds in our favor to grow over time.

Our partners at Dimensional put this visual together (below) showing how returns have averaged coming out of downturns of -10%, -20%, and -30%. Please take a look as a reminder of how having a longer-term outlook has helped investors in times like these – to not only stay on course but also to be confident in what can lie ahead.  > SEE MORE

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