DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER When you leave your server a tip, do you round it to a whole-dollar amount and often in multiples of $5? Does a 60th birthday seem more significant than a 59th? If you answer yes to these questions, you’re not alone. Most of us prefer round numbers. This preference leads many investors to review results by calendar year and to consider 10-year periods when evaluating long-term returns. People tend to place greater emphasis on the latest period due to recency bias and tend to extrapolate recent results into the future. For these reasons, we should put recent ..read more

DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER In today’s fast-paced digital world, investors are more vulnerable than ever to a wide array of financial scams and social engineering tactics. This is something that we think about regularly at Rockwood but have not yet articulated in our newsletter. These pesky financial scams can have real– sometimes devastating – consequences for those who fall into these hidden traps. Since keeping your hard-earned money safe is a top priority for your advisory team, we wanted to outline some common scams and best practices to help you avoid falling victim to them, as well as a ..read more

DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER Can artificial intelligence help pick stocks? More specifically, can investors use AI to determine the fair price of a stock or a bond? We bet a lot of people right now would say yes, given recent advances that allow for the processing of ever greater amounts of information. We think our AI is better than all the other ones out there. Our AI is the market. For example, pick a stock. Check the price. Why is it that exact price? Because an equal number of buyers and sellers think they are getting a good deal when they sell or buy it at exactly that time. They make thos ..read more

DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER As a client of Rockwood, you know how strongly we believe that a current estate plan is a vital component of comprehensive financial planning. You’ve had these conversations with your advisory team and even taken steps to update and modernize your estate plan. That being said, it never hurts to go back to the basics and discuss the core components of a modern estate plan and explore reasons to potentially update those components. What exactly is an estate plan and why do I need one? Generally, an estate plan includes documents that explain how you want your belonging ..read more

DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER Appropriate insurance coverage is one of the building blocks of a comprehensive financial plan, but the rising costs of premiums in recent years have been a point of frustration for many. Let’s revisit the role of insurance planning, unpack the reasons for rising premiums, and cover some sensible planning techniques that can potentially reduce premiums without putting your financial plan at risk. Why is insurance a critical component of a financial plan? At its core, insurance is a method of transferring the risk of financial loss to an insurance company. While the e ..read more

DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER Last month, regulators took control of Silicon Valley Bank as a run on the bank unfolded. Two days later, regulators took control of a second lender, Signature Bank. With increasing anxiety, many investors are eyeing their portfolios for exposure to these and other regional banks. Rather than rummaging through your portfolio looking for trouble when headlines have you worrying, turn instead to your investment plan. Hopefully, your plan is designed with your long-term goals in mind and is based on principles that you can stick with, given your personal risk tolerances ..read more

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill that included the long-anticipated retirement planning updates known as SECURE Act 2.0. A “sequel” to the original SECURE Act from 2019, there are many more provisions this time around. While it’s fair to say that we don’t see any singular change with the same impact as the elimination of the stretch IRA, SECURE 2.0 does contain more changes that could potentially have an impact on your financial plan. The sheer si ..read more

The past 3 years were a good test for the prudence of your investment plan. DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER Think back to December 2019. The economy was humming. Unemployment, interest rates, and inflation were at historically low levels. But then what happened? A global pandemic hit. The S&P 500 dropped nearly 20% FAANG stocks soared…before giving up a lot of gains Meme stocks shot way up….and fell Bitcoin reached record highs…then crashed Inflation spiked to the highest levels most of us have ever experienced And Russia invaded Ukraine, sparking a humanitarian crisis and geopolitical uncerta ..read more

Last time investors saw back-to-back losses was late 1950s DOWNLOAD FULL NEWSLETTER Some may view fixed income as a safe haven for investors, expecting bonds to rise in value when stocks fall. However, this was not the case in 2022. The tandem decline for equities and fixed income was relatively rare. Benchmark US Treasuries posted their worst annual returns in decades, with 10-year Treasury notes losing 16.3%[5], a second straight annual loss. The last time investors saw back-to-back losses was in the late 1950s. The yield curve, which charts the difference in yield between long-dated and s ..read more