Happy is as Happy Does
Ridgeview Financial planning
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21h ago
You may have heard recently that the US is less happy than it used to be. I saw this news about an annual update from Gallup and others last week to their World Happiness Report. I won’t repeat it all here. Instead, I’ll provide some links and notes to scan through and you can read more when you have the time. First, here’s a link to a brief article on the update. I like this format because Axios presents us with the news item, gives a quick summary and a suggestion of why it matters, followed by some additional detail. It’s a news appetizer and we can consume the rest later if we want to. The ..read more
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Is Inflation Actually Getting Better?
Ridgeview Financial planning
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1w ago
So which is it, is inflation getting better or worse? You get different answers depending on who you ask. The impact of inflation can be intensely personal and people have stories to share, but investors and the markets care more about inflation at the “headline” level then about individual anecdotes. Metrics like the Consumer Price Index and variations on this theme that come from the government may seem less relevant when compared to your personal finances, but they do move markets. As we’re all aware, official CPI numbers spiked a couple of summers ago following the pandemic before falling ..read more
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The Power and Pain of "Yes"
Ridgeview Financial planning
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2w ago
A few years ago during Covid I decided to say “Yes” more. “No” is negative and exclusionary while “maybe” can be so unfulfilling. But yes is exciting and freeing while also sometimes being a little terrifying. Life is short, as they say, and I wanted to put myself out there and reset my definition of possible. So both in my personal and business life I was determined to move forward instead of getting stuck in analysis paralysis mode, as was my habit. Call it an occupational hazard. This led to some exciting ramifications but I won’t bore you with all that here. Instead, let me briefly share s ..read more
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If it Wasn't Already Hard Enough...
Ridgeview Financial planning
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1M ago
Before we delve into today’s post, just a heads up that I won’t be posting next Monday as I’ll be out of the office. On to this week’s post… We’re getting deeper into tax season and that’s stressful for just about everybody. Yet another, perhaps larger stressor for some families right now is that we’re also entering college acceptance season. Some high school seniors have already received acceptance letters but most traditionally learn their fate from about mid-March to mid-April. Also traditionally students and their families are expected to choose a school by May 1st. It’s an exciting time t ..read more
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Contrasting Narratives
Ridgeview Financial planning
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1M ago
Contrasting narratives about our strong economy post-Covid continue to mystify just about everyone. From the Federal Reserve on down it’s been interesting to watch how forecasts and opinions evolved over the past few years. The economy was going to crash. We were supposed to be in a lengthy recession by now. High inflation was expected to be part of the new normal. And the government, overburdened by debt and intent on raising interest rates to fight inflation, was supposed to be the culprit. Or… high government spending would be absorbed by the economy. There would be imbalances, but these wo ..read more
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Recasting Your Mortgage
Ridgeview Financial planning
by
2M ago
I’ve received some questions about this and have recently gone down the decision road myself, so let’s talk about recasting your mortgage, how it works, pros and cons, and so forth. What is a Recast? Recasting a home loan isn’t refinancing. When you recast you’re working with the same loan terms, such as length and interest rate, while lowering your loan balance with a lump sum payment. Your lender then reworks your amortization schedule and lowers your monthly payment accordingly. Here’s an example: Say you’re five years into a 30yr loan with a $350,000 balance. At 3.5% interest your monthly ..read more
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Crypto Chango
Ridgeview Financial planning
by
2M ago
Did you hear about changes in the digital assets/cryptocurrency realm a week or so ago? The SEC approved the first physical bitcoin exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. Even if you’re not into crypto it’s good to have at least a general understanding of popular investment products, so let’s talk about it. Now I don’t want to sound overly negative or kid around too much but hearing the term “physical bitcoin” reminds me of learning about oxymorons in grammar school. I remember thinking that pretty ugly seemed funny and illustrated the point. I wonder if kids today would understand how that applies t ..read more
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More Predictions...
Ridgeview Financial planning
by
2M ago
Whenever I hear someone ask about market predictions I think about one of the many famous quotes from the Rocky saga. This time it’s from Rocky III, probably my favorite. It’s minutes before Rocky’s big rematch versus Clubber Lang and the villain is asked by a sports reporter for his thoughts on the coming fight. Here’s that eloquent exchange in brief. Clubber: “Prediction?” Reporter: “Yes, prediction…” Clubber: “Pain.” And then we have the famous prediction of more than 100 years ago from either Henry Poor, a founder of Standard & Poor’s, JD Rockefeller, or JP Morgan himself on what stock ..read more
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Quarterly Update
Ridgeview Financial planning
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3M ago
The fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023 was an about face from the first nine months of the year. Just about every asset class was up almost the whole time and investors were optimistic. This, after investors had spent the bulk of the year on recession watch while punishing most stocks and bonds. Expectations about inflation, recession, and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies were the crux of market developments for the quarter and year before momentum finally turned positive in a big way during Q4. Here’s a roundup of how major markets performed during the quarter and for the year, respectiv ..read more
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Happy Holidays!
Ridgeview Financial planning
by
3M ago
Well, here we are and it’s less than three weeks until the start of 2024. This year has flown by. Don’t they all. The markets have thrown us a few curveballs but (knock on wood) the year seems poised to finish out pretty strong, especially when compared to last year. The outlook is still primarily focused on the Fed and interest rates, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. As I mentioned recently, investors are expecting that the economy will continue to slow gradually and that the Fed will start lowering rates as early as March to compensate. In other words it’s a weird dynamic where in ..read more
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