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Let me take you back to a moment you likely won’t ever forget.  Super Bowl 49.  Your New England Patriots versus the Seattle Seahawks.  Bill Belichick versus Pete Carroll.  Patriots are leading by four points with 26 seconds left in the game.   Seattle has the ball and it's second-and-goal at the Patriots’ 1 yard line.

Tragedy is a terrible thing.  And for the most part, it is unavoidable.  If X doesn't get you, Y is waiting around the corner.  Tough times are an inevitable part of life.

We’ve had a lot of tragedy in the last 100 years or so.  Two world wars.  Various other military conflicts.  A presidential assassination.   Multiple recessions.  

There is a lot of discussion of how the Coronavirus pandemic might affect us and our economy in the long run. Many are speculating on the various types of companies to buy, or sell, to take best advantage of the situation. 

Major economic and social events have an ability to change us as a culture. I recall growing up around my grandparents who were adults during the Great Depression. They worked modest jobs and lived modest lives. They never took extravagant vacations or owned expensive cars. 

Spring is almost here.  And with it comes thoughts of real estate.  

A few days ago, I was flipping through the channels on the television.  I noticed a curious trend that I hadn't seen in a number of years:  A proliferation of house-flipping television shows.

The economy is poised for the popularity of these shows.  Interest rates are low and property values are increasing.  If you peruse your TV listings or check out your YouTube feed, you'll see dozens of these shows dealing with buying property, fixing it up and selling or perhaps renting it.  

As we transition from one decade to the next, we often focus on what has transpired in the previous ten years.  The last few blogs have focused on the future – and what changes might be in store for us financially.  

As I briefly mentioned in our last blog, life was very different for a graduating college student thirty years ago.  Even though I personally graduated during a recession, I’d rather be a graduate then than now.  It seemed like there were more opportunities back then for success.

Last month we began a short series on trends to watch for in the 2020’s.  In the previous blog, we discussed how real estate might change in the coming years – especially in parts of the country that attract a large number of retirees.  

In this issue, I want to talk about employment.  There is a trend that has been under the radar for over a decade and we need to see how it will impact us economically in the coming decades.

What a wonderful year in the market!  US stocks were up double-digits almost across the board.  It was a great time to be invested.  Before we get our hopes up too high, some of the gains of 2019 were due in part to the losses experienced in late 2018.  

The fourth quarter of 2018 was fraught with panic from retail sales estimates to the China Trade Deal to a myriad of other unimportant issues.  This led to a three-month market drop that saw a 14% loss in the fourth quarter and effectively eliminated any gains for 2018.

It is part of human nature to find order, which is why we focus on milestone dates.  Dates like our 50th or 75th birthday, our 25th wedding anniversary and like many are doing in the last few weeks of this month, the end of every decade.  

I have to be honest – it seems like in many ways that 2010 was last week.  The year 2000 doesn’t even seem that long ago.  

I wanted to spend some time this issue and break down some of the information the government publishes that we take for granted.  I promise it won’t be nearly as boring as that sounds.

It’s not very important that we know how to calculate the figures the government releases.  But if we understand how they are calculated, we can make better decisions with our investments as well as other aspects of our financial lives.

If you ever want to know what a “normal” year in the stock market looks like, this is it.  It seems that every year since the Great Recession was unique – which makes this “normal” year so unusual.

In a typical year, the market rises during the end-of-Winter and Spring.  As Summer rolls around, the market starts to see dips that continue through August or September.  The end of the year typically sees the market regaining its forward momentum.