Blog

22 Jan 2016

Posted at 10:10h in The Friday Brief by
Snow DayIt's no secret that the stock market has been pretty crummy in 2016. My younger sister Allegra is in college, without much of a vested interest in these things yet, and I just texted her to ask what the stock market has done this year. Her verbatim response was: "I think it's been kinda all over the place? And it tanked recently? Oil prices or something."

20 Jan 2016

Posted at 17:53h in The Friday Brief by
Today we experienced yet another round of greater-than-usual market volatility. We empathize with your concerns. While we cannot say how long or how deep the declines will go, it may be helpful to give some insight into some of the underlying causes, look at what the impact has been on the major asset classes, and to provide some historical reference to put it into context.

15 Jan 2016

Posted at 13:18h in The Friday Brief by

Market times like these can test our deepest resolve, especially when we are not prepared for the emotional impact of real declining wealth or learning the hard way that our 'expertly designed portfolio' sinks far more easily than we expected. [caption id="attachment_7590" align="alignnone" width="896"] "Winter Swells" by HG DeCortes - Beacon Collection[/caption] We don't...

08 Jan 2016

Posted at 13:19h in The Friday Brief by
It’s been a rocky start for 2016, continuing the choppiness that started in August. US stocks as measured by the CRSP US Total Market Index are down roughly 5% since the beginning of the year and almost 9% since the last market peak on June 22nd.

11 Dec 2015

Posted at 15:06h in The Friday Brief by
When I started Beacon almost 20 years ago, I wanted to do one thing for my clients: Grow their wealth faster than they could grow it elsewhere. That's still true today, but everything else has changed.

04 Dec 2015

Posted at 11:51h in The Friday Brief by
The obvious answer to the title question is 'yes of course,' but only one in five actually accomplishes it. Here's the fascinating part - anyone can join the elite 20% any time they wish and outperform 80% of other investors as long as the 80% continues doing what they are doing. By now, it's widely accepted that most actively managed portfolios, whether mutual funds, private accounts, or hedge funds, fail to beat the benchmarks against which they are measured. Yet most investors continue to chase the goal of market-beating returns, despite the low odds of success.

20 Nov 2015

Posted at 09:24h in The Friday Brief by
"But language is a treacherous thing, a most unsure vehicle."
Mark TwainMark Twain said that, and I can't disagree with him. Mastering the technical, dictionary definitions of words is good, but will only get you part way to communicating fully. That's because words don't always stick to their technical, dictionary definitions. They reshape themselves, sometimes drastically, based on the countless different contexts in which they find themselves written or read, spoken or heard.

13 Nov 2015

Posted at 13:54h in The Friday Brief by

I took a good look at my to do list yesterday. You know the list we add things to and instantly feel we've accomplished a big part of the task merely by writing it down? My list contains things like cleaning the gutters, fixing a crack in...

06 Nov 2015

Posted at 09:26h in The Friday Brief by
[caption id="attachment_7475" align="alignleft" width="300"]President Obama Signs Budget On Monday President Obama Signs Budget On Monday[/caption] First the good news: the House and Senate passed a new budget deal last week that suspends the debt limit until 2017 and increases funding levels for a number of federal programs. President Obama signed the deal into law on Monday, avoiding a government debt default and reducing the risk of a government shutdown in December.