A little excerpt on the first 100 trading days of 2022 from Bespoke, my favorite market newsletter: 

“While everyone knows that the U.S. equity market has performed horribly in 2022, did you know that it has actually been the second-worst first 100 trading days in a year since the five-day trading week began in late 1952? Through early trading today (5/25), the S&P 500 is down 17.3% YTD, which ranks second only to 1970 for the worst start to a year when the index declined 23.7% in the first 100 trading days. Not only that, but this year has seen the worst start on record for both the Nasdaq (since 1972) and the Russell 2000 (1979), which have declined by 27.9% and 21.4%, respectively.”

After reading that, my first thought was: Are things really that bad to warrant what, collectively, is the worst start to a year in stock market history?

We have relayed this message in the past: Wall Street hates uncertainty, and, right now, we seem to have an unlimited supply of it – uncertainty regarding inflation, uncertainty regarding Fed policy and interest rates, uncertainty surrounding when the supply chain will remedy itself, uncertainty regarding whether the Federal Reserve can engineer a soft landing for the economy, and uncertainty regarding China’s ability to control the virus and keep its economy running, which continues to compound the world’s supply chain issues. All of these uncertainties are on top of the unknowns surrounding Russia and the war in Ukraine. 

As the U.S. makes progress on the vaccine rollout, our country’s economy is picking up momentum and slowly but steadily returning to normal. Pending any new setbacks, many large businesses are planning on bringing staff back to the office in September, and on the educational front, it appears schools at all levels are looking to reopen for the fall semester, and that momentum doesn’t look like it will be slowing down. Anecdotally, almost everyone we have spoken to over the past few months has told us that he or she is booking flights and getting his or her travel plans in place for the upcoming summer and fall. The main point: People are eager to return to as much normalcy as possible.

Early last year, Congress passed significant changes to retirement savings law that affected many in 2020 and will continue to affect many of us now in and in the future. This new law, the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, was part of the massive government spending bill that was approved by Congress on December 19, 2019, and signed into law on December 20, 2019. This bill extensively reshaped the realm of employer-sponsored retirement plans for both employers and employees and enacted the biggest changes to the U.S. retirement system since 2006.

Teaching money management skills is not a requirement in any school or college. Even though some institutions have begun to make efforts to include a lesson or class on the matter, the reality is that the responsibility rests on parents to educate their children on financial matters and shape their financial futures. This can be a daunting task, but financial discipline is one of the most valuable lessons parents can instill on their children. Educating your children on financial prudence early in life will help prepare them to take thoughtful ownership of their finances when the time comes.

Here are five ways to teach your children, no matter what age they are, financial responsibility and the value of such expertise.

Home ownership is one of the biggest investments you can make in life. If and when you consider buying a second home for pleasure or potential rental income, the decision warrants thoughtful and careful consideration, especially in terms of your finances and long-term financial goals. You need to be prepared for the long-term responsibilities that come with owning a second home – from unpredictable and potentially costly maintenance repairs to taxes and the inevitable nuances of having renters – you need to ensure you are both financially and mentally prepared for the responsibility you are assuming. Here are five things to reflect on before you take the next steps towards ownership of a second property.

Saying 2020 has been a wild ride is putting it lightly. Although it would be great to fast forward and file this year in the past, we are not quite there yet. With two months left before the ball drops, a lot can still happen this year, especially with the election a mere few days away, promising phase-three vaccine trials, and an approximately two-trillion-dollar stimulus package being worked on. 

When thinking about today’s markets, it’s helpful to reflect on the old adage, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Keep these words in mind as we take a look at the traditional S&P 500 Index, the market-capitalization-weighted index of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.

In the new normal of our COVID-19 economy, it seems like it’s business as usual (with a slight twist) for some and a complete disruption to the normal business cycle for others. We frequently discuss the performances of various market indexes in our market updates; but for this commentary, we focus on breaking down what’s happening within the various sectors that comprise the S&P 500 Index – the primary U.S. market index – to provide you with a better understanding of how the markets are anything but business as usual.

It was another tough week for the markets – rehashing the numbers merely magnifies the pain, so let’s leave it at that. A positive to acknowledge: The U.S. economy entered this period of uncertainty from a position of strength. The economy was robust, the unemployment rate, at 3.5%, was at historic lows, the consumer balance sheet was strong, and consumer debt service – after years of refinancing – was at modern-era lows. We shudder at the thought of what the damage to the economy would have been if we had had to battle this pandemic in 2009 while our economy was suffering in the aftermath of the credit crisis. This outbreak is an external factor penetrating the economy; it is not a by-the-book recession that involves the economy bubbling and bursting internally with a grim recovery outlook due to the issues stemming from weak fundamentals. Fundamentals were strong and trending positive before this acute event, meaning, from an economic standpoint, we are in a position to weather this storm, regain strength, and eventually recover.