The past few years have seen a downward trend in charitable giving. In some of the most recent data put together by the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, 2023 proved to be a continuation of this trend. As we move into 2024, we must consider the important factors causing this trend and affecting the future of charitable giving. A changing political landscape, the state of the economy, donor sentiment, and industry changes are four areas which present challenges and opportunities alike. The nonprofit sector has a path forward, but it needs the h ..read more

We often tell our clients that we don’t have a crystal ball, we don’t know how the market will perform over the next few months or what specific stocks will be up or down. What we do know is fundamentally how markets work and what previous economic cycles have shown to be true over and over again. We believe that, in the long run, we will see positive investment returns (otherwise we wouldn’t invest!)  As advisors we have seen the data sliced and diced in study after study and over various time periods that show how difficult it is to time the market. However, clients typically aren’t sp ..read more

I have a lot of nostalgia for the 1980s and watching the “Back to the Future Trilogy” with my wife and my kids to this day remains a mental time machine back to my own high school days (when the trilogy started).  One thing that I enjoy about watching the future “Hill Valley” in BTTF Part II is how much some of the more “creative” minds were influenced by their present (1989) when bringing this future to life. It’s actually quite instructive to look at this depiction of 2015 from our current 2023 perspective. On the one hand, flying cars obviously haven’t quite come to fruition, but, on ..read more

Our talented team of advisors at Walkner Condon have put together a 2024 Market Outlook: Back to the future! We hope you enjoy these articles about lessons learned from the past, and what we might be able to predict for the future. The post 2024 Market Outlook: Back to the future! first appeared on Walkner Condon Financial Advisors. The post 2024 Market Outlook: Back to the future! appeared first on Walkner Condon Financial Advisors ..read more

“There’s that word again. ‘Heavy.’ Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth’s gravitational pull?” –Dr. Emmett Brown, AKA Doc As we began 2022, the majority of prognosticators appeared to be favoring recession and were looking towards negative or tepid returns. Here’s a blog post that breaks down some of the predictions from some very smart people that happened to be almost all wrong! When that did not materialize, the S&P 500 finished solidly positive despite very few stocks that actually did well. The 2024 forecasts are predicting more of the same – an el ..read more

Did the Fed pull it off? Are we experiencing the “soft landing” that we’ve been hearing about? Is this the mid-90s again, where Alan Greenspan was leading the charge to a soft landing?  Many have heard or read about a soft landing in the news, but some may not have an actual definition of what it means. One  definition, according to a speech delivered by Tom Barkin, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, is “where inflation completes its journey back to normal levels while the economy stays healthy”. One might then wonder 1) what are normal inflation levels and 2) wh ..read more

Ever since the market crash of 2008-2009, economists and pundits alike have used the phrase “new normal” to describe everything from stock market conditions to inflation to the employment market and everything in between. As we are now a decade and a half removed from that economic meltdown, I feel that a bit of reflection is in order. Did that period of time, albeit historic in many ways, usher in an actual “new normal” or was it simply an atypical period within an otherwise normal 50-year economic period. THE ROLLERCOASTER OF MORTGAGE RATES It is natural to try and quantify atypical perio ..read more

The post Season’s Greetings from Walkner Condon! Nate & Clint talk holiday traditions. first appeared on Walkner Condon Financial Advisors. The post Season’s Greetings from Walkner Condon! Nate & Clint talk holiday traditions. appeared first on Walkner Condon Financial Advisors ..read more

In general, people should strive to have an emergency that covers 3-6 months of living expenses. These funds should be held in a liquid account that can be easily accessed in case of a sudden emergency or unexpected expense. However, not all savings accounts are created equal. If you’re not earning much in interest on your cash you are losing purchasing power as prices continue to rise. In the environment we are in now, with inflation being as high as it is, you are losing money if you are sitting on a large pile of cash in a bank account. There are places where you can put your money that off ..read more

As I watched my son learn how to bowl, I vividly recall the trepidation in his eyes as he stared down the pins at the end of the lane. He stood frozen, paralyzed by fear. I encouraged him to roll the ball, promising that he could knock down the pins. What held him back was the uncertainty of what the ball would do once released—would it end up in the gutter, yielding no pins knocked down? To overcome his fear, I pressed the little red button on the scorer’s table, causing the bumpers to rise along the gutter. This simple act virtually guaranteed that, with the courage to release the ball, at ..read more