Montgomery Community Media

With the tax talk out of Washington indicating a hike in income tax rates as well as capital gains tax rates, I am getting more questions about strategies to reduce taxes. Unfortunately, if your goal is to find ways to reduce taxes, many loopholes have already been closed. However, there is one strategy that has […]

One of the most challenging part of my job as a financial planner is calming clients down during periods of stock market decline. Thankfully, I didn’t have to experience that in 2017. The U.S. stock market clocked a return of more than 21%. International stocks performed even better, rising by more than 27%. Everyone I interacted […]

The Markets:  November, at least as far as the stock market is concerned, was the opposite of March: it came in like a lamb and went out like a lion. At the start of the month, there was caution and uncertainty about the election and its impact on the stock market. The conventional wisdom was […]

The Markets:  Like millions of Americans, the U.S. stock market seems to be waiting for the U.S. election for clues on what will happen next. After a sharp January – February 2016 decline followed by an immediate rebound, the end result is that several of the U.S. stock market indices are up only low single […]

The Markets:  The U.S. investment market’s mid-year report card is a mixed picture. Bonds continue to do well while stocks continue to be flat to down year to date. All those who said interest rates couldn’t go any lower and avoided the bond market, continue to miss a nice rally. Of course, the high yield bond […]

The Markets:   If you still want to participate in the axiom “sell in May and go away” you haven’t missed your chance.  In May, most U.S. stock market indexes were relatively unchanged (see the chart below.) The clear loser in May was the emerging market sector which continues to be plagued by concerns that the […]