Our July posts will round out our coverage on the topics faced by those ages 18 to 30. This chapter of life can be a tad overwhelming. One can go from being a dependent of your parents to being a parent with dependents in just a few years! This is one of the fastest changing periods of your life. Our advice: Begin setting goals and measuring your progress. Our goal is to help our clients build their financial foundation one block at a time.

We are now in the third longest economic recovery phase of our nation since 1950. Many believe that it will become the longest and slowest recovery. So slow that it is now being referred to as the “Tortoise Recovery.” While economic measures such as interest rates, jobs, inflation, and housing are basically indicating neutral or positive, remember we will again experience the economic phase of a recession. It is a part of the investing lifecycle. Predicting, timing, and avoiding it are all things we wish we could do but history has proven this is nearly impossible. We prefer to emphasize several sound practices to help one “stay the course” when the time comes: 

1) Do not have all your money invested in the market. Have plenty of reserves so that when you need money and the market is down, you are less likely to have to sell from your portfolio at a time when it is down in value.

2) Do not have your portfolio invested more aggressively than you can tolerate in a down market. We all like to keep pace with the market while it is going up but remember it does the same when the market goes down.

3) Keep a long term view. The emotional temptation is to move more conservative when the market is going down. Unfortunately this is impossible to time and then sets one up for the even more difficult decision, when to move back in. We prefer you keep a steady hand on the wheel and not try to jerk or over steer your portfolio. Should you feel the need to revisit your portfolio’s allocation, please give us a call.

May of 2017 marked the one year anniversary of our change in broker-dealer to Signator Investors, Inc. With a year under our belt we are very comfortable with the new firm and feel we have a good business relationship with good people. Over the course of the next year we will be speaking to many of you about possible changes with your accounts relating to new rules and regulations put into play by the Department of Labor. Please enjoy your summer, be safe, and let us know if you have any questions. 

— Matt