I wish I had better news as I sit down and right this.  But as you already know, the markets have been very “volatile” for the past couple of months.  “Volatility” is the term we only use when the market goes down. 

We never say a market is “volatile” when it is going straight up.

So, when I say the past month has been very volatile, you can rest assured that I mean that it has gone down.

This is due to uncertainty about tariffs.

Once we get a little more certainty about them, the markets should no longer be…

The 12.4 TRILLION Dollar Opportunity: Why Independent Advisors Shouldn’t Ignore Held Away Assets

There’s a massive, largely untapped opportunity sitting in plain sight for independent investment advisors—$12.4 trillion…

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I feel compelled to write a mid-month Confident Chronicles due to the extreme market volatility of late. Last week the S&P 500 dipped down…

Lots of changes with this month’s update!

Future Contributions have been updated as they always are on the first trading day of the month.

New Tactical Allocations have been updated.

Finally, you will notice that you need to click “I Agree” when logging into your Participant Dashboard. 

We require this each year to comply with the…

We have one month under our belt for 2025. 

And what a wild ride it has been already!  (see S&P 500 info below).

With the first month of investing in your employer’s plan, it’s a good time to review the amount you are contributing. 

There are new limits in 2025 for 401(k) and 403(b) plans and you have the opportunity to invest more if you can. 

The amounts depend on your age, and it’s really convoluted this year:

Anyone using the Plan Confidence Tactical Strategies should have received an email at 9am EST letting them know to log in to their Participant Dashboard.

The Stock and Bond holdings have both gone into “sell” (negative) signals for more than three consecutive trading days.  (See charts below):

Last night I was honored to be one of the 300+ guests for the inaugural Sarasota Tech Summit.

As the owner of a startup fintech company in Sarasota, I was highly intrigued. 

Sarasota is on the “suncoast” of western Florida.  We are an hour south of Tampa and have some of the most beautiful beaches with white powdery sand that does not get hot! 

Siesta Key beach is constantly on Top 10 lists of the country’s greatest beaches. 

However, most of us “locals” don’t hang out at Siesta Key as it is very touristy. 

I put “local” in quotes as almost everyone. . .

I would like to wish you and all your loved ones a very happy new year!

My wish is that 2025 brings you health, wealth and happiness like you have never seen before. 

The end of a year is a great time to reflect and figure out what went well and what could have been better.  Then many of us make resolutions of things we are going to change.  Things we are going to eliminate that have been holding us back.  As well as a resolve to incorporate new habits that will make us better.

The problem with resolutions is they normally don’t last into February.

If you don’t believe me, go to your . . .

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!  I am not sure about you, but I ate way too much food, drank some good wine, and had a great time with my parents visiting me and my daughter for the week. 

November was a great month for the stock and bond markets.  We have the election(s) behind us without any uncertainty.  This is good for the markets.  They don’t care which party gets elected; they just need . . .

According to a 9/21/24 NewsNation article, CEO turnover is up over 50% from the previous year.

It’s not just in our industry.  But major companies like Starbucks, Nike, and Boeing to name just a few.

And it seems that every week there is another CEO stepping down (or being forced out) in the financial industry.

Is there an underlining “cause” for the increase in 2024?