You all know how long I’ve been a financial planner. Not that I ever thought I’d seen it all, but I certainly thought that with 25 years of experience I’d seen most everything. What has been occurring in the past 12 months is hard to understand and it’s frightening. I understand what you all are thinking and how frustrating the whole thing as been. As I have told most of you, I believe that a lot of what is causing the markets to react the way they have is fear. We have been adjusting your portfolios to strive to provide more stability and more income. We also have increased our weighting in dividend-paying stocks. It could be a while yet before we see things stabilize, so we’ve taken steps to increase your cash reserves.

 

Please use this as an opportunity to review your goals and update your financial plan. Remember, retirement planning does not stop when you retire! The turn in the market may, or may not, affect your retirement plans, but in either case you’re much better off understanding what the impact has been. This is true whether you’re 1-5, 5-10 or 15 years from retirement, or if you’re currently retired.

 

 

Thank you so much for referring us to your friends, family and co-workers who have questions and concerns about their own financial situation. Finally, I can’t thank you all enough for continuing to do business with us, for having the faith that things will reverse course and for recognizing that the services we provide are worth what you are paying us