Partnering with an independent, local, family-owned financial advisory firm offers a range of benefits that can enhance your financial planning experience. Full disclosure: I am a little biased in this opinion. Financial Strategies Group (FSG), the firm I am blessed to be a part of, fits this criteria.
It all started when a project on my honey-do list required me to dust off the circular saw. I discovered an interest in woodworking... Most people start their research on Google but fail to realize that everyone has a unique set of circumstances and goals, so general advice isn’t going to get you where you need to be, at least not efficiently. The same goes for financial advice. There are a lot of different ways to save and invest, but making sure you are using the right investments and saving your money in the right places will have a huge impact on the quality and success of your goals.
Markets continued their banner year in Q3, albeit with some bumps and major rotations. Noticeably, investors preferred small-cap, mid-cap, and emerging market stocks over the dominant force of the “big US tech” stocks...
Dart Container, a major employer in the Greater Lansing area, has announced plans to lay off 250 workers, 160 of which are from the Mason headquarters. Dart Container's recent announcement of layoffs has undoubtedly caused concern and uncertainty for many. These job losses will most certainly have a significant impact on the Mason community as a whole.
Instinctively investors know they should diversify their portfolio and most do this. Having looked at hundreds, if not thousands, of portfolios, I can tell you that diversification amounts to more than just owning multiple funds. A common mistake that investors make when trying to diversify their IRA or 401k is that they, inadvertently, create a portfolio that has the illusion of diversification...
I often field this question from clients around election season. I find that everyone has different motivations for it, as well. Some clients are understandably concerned about their retirement savings being negatively affected by a change (or sometimes a continuation) in leadership. However, almost equally, other people are excited about the growth opportunities and policy changes that a presidential election could bring.
Domestic large and mid-sized companies led total returns in the last twelve months and through the initial two quarters of 2024 (although emerging markets were about 1.6% higher than mid-sized companies on a year-to-date basis). Large companies generated a positive total return in the second quarter with mid-size and small companies contracting a couple percent, but on a year-to-date basis all three categories have generated positive total returns...
Many moons ago, I was a Personal Finance Planning major at Central Michigan University. I distinctly remember in the Spring of 2012, my finance class had a competition amongst my peers to see who could make the most money in a trading simulation system. At the time, gold was trading at all-time highs. It was the “hot” asset class that was outperforming everything else. The code was cracked (buy gold), and I was destined to be the top performer. Alas, it was not to be, but it got me thinking. With all of the recent headlines of gold hitting all-time highs and the infatuation from the consumer: Is gold really an asset class for the long term?