2018 Market Review1 Last year was a little bumpy for markets near the end of the year. This excerpt from How Every Asset Class, Currency, and Sector Performed in 2018 by Jeff Desjardins at Visual Capitalist sums up 2018 really well: “We’re only a few days into 2019, but it appears markets have picked up…

Care-Giving During Retirement Can You Afford to Take Care of Your Parents? According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, it is now common for people in their 60s and 70s to be caring for a parent in their 90s or older. 10% of adults between the ages of 60 and 69 with…

Cost of Living Adjustments for Social Security Good news! Social Security benefits are scheduled to increase by 2.8% in 2019, the biggest benefits increase since 2012. The average beneficiary – who received about $1,405 per month in 2018 – can expect to see about $468 more over the course of the year.1 Why is Social…

Recent Increase in Cyber Attacks Over the past few months, the financial industry has experienced an increase in fraudulent attempts to gain access to client data, through false disbursement requests. In fact, cyber attacks are now considered one of the largest risks to financial markets in 2019. To keep pace with the times, we have…

What Are Required Minimum Distributions (RMD’s)? When you reach the age of 70 & 1/2, Uncle Sugar (The IRS) mandates that you take a minimum withdrawal from your tax-deferred retirement accounts. Why? So he can potentially tax that money! In the year you turn 70 & 1/2 years old, you must withdraw the specified amount by…

In U.S. History, We Have Experienced Many Market Recessions: Causes varied greatly and could often be tied to contractionary monetary policy, instituted to reduce inflation. “Contractionary policy refers to either a reduction in government spending, particularly deficit spending, or a reduction in the rate of monetary expansion by a central bank. It is a type…