Monthly Updates

Awful and empty. That’s how Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan recently described the two Presidential candidates. I thought that was spot on. You can read all the political commentary elsewhere. Here, though, we’re going to show you that the stock market just might be the most reliable forecaster of who wins the upcoming election. […]

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is happy that inflation seems headed in the right direction, now running at just under 3% annualized. He’s obviously not purchased homeowners insurance in California recently. In this month’s update, we’ll discuss our latest experience with that area, along with the historical negatives of September stock market seasonality, the recent […]

Imagine this: You’re about to turn 65 and are excited to switch from private health insurance to Medicare, expecting to save money. But instead, you’re hit with a significant increase in your Medicare premiums. This has become a reality for many of our clients. In one recent situation, a married couple who had both turned […]

In the early 1980s, I started subscribing to many technical stock market newsletters. One of them was called The Chartist, by a guy named Dan Sullivan, out of Seal Beach, CA. Besides being a proponent of using relative strength for stock picking, he did something that I’ve never recalled anyone else in the industry doing. […]

Few assets evoke similar amounts of passion and disdain as the precious metal, gold. This month we’ll look at its role in a diversified portfolio, if any, and what the data says. Trust me, the believers won’t be swayed. We’ll also touch on 529 expenses (what is and isn’t), the on-going upheaval in auto and […]

The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, had risen over 27% since its late October lows, with nary a -3% decline, the longest such streak in over 6 years. That uptrend is over, and cycles now suggest a consolidation into at least late May, if not longer. The momentum of the advance, […]

Last month, I attended an intensive Friday-Saturday IRA workshop that focused on the many changes to IRA regulations in recent years. Ed Slott hosted the workshop. He’s a CPA and IRA expert, and you may recognize his name from the Retirement Freedom specials on PBS. I initially met Ed in 2005, the first time I […]

Eventually, I’ll get into our recap of 2023 and how current market conditions look, but that’s all taking a back seat in my head through this Sunday night, when at about 8 pm Pacific time, either the 49ers or the Chiefs will be Super Bowl champions.  Since by some in the media this has become […]

There are a multitude of things we do at TABR. Managing money. College funding and planning. Social Security and pension decisions. Life insurance coverage. One of the biggest areas and commonalities is retirement planning. We’re usually the ones asking the questions, but TABR will celebrate its 20th anniversary in February of 2024. Steve Medland and […]

In the summer of 2020, I started to use song titles for monthly headlines, to write about different topics. That month, it was Wasted Time, by the Eagles. We delved into the topic of how long it typically takes for markets to recover from losses. That’s relevant now, and the answer to what has been […]