Financial Planning Articles

This is a long a complicated act and there are still some issues to be worked out by either Congress or the IRS as some of the provisions have some clear errors in them that contradict already existing law without clarification.  These have to do with Required Minimum Distributions, SEP and SIMPLE IRA plan changes, and Roth Catch-up contributions in retirement plans.  However, history does suggest that in time this will all get settled into a clearer law that hopefully we can all understand.

Read More

It is easy to buy investments. What’s hard is owning the right portfolio over the long term.

For an illustration, as I write this on February 28, 2023, I’ve just looked back at a missive I wrote on this day exactly three years ago, in the very beginning stages of the COVID crisis that continues to send aftershocks of disruption and anxiety through our world.

Read More

Happy New Year! All of us here hope 2023 brings you health, happiness, prosperity, and enough personal challenge and growth to make life interesting and fulfilling.

And thank you. I feel truly fortunate to serve such great clients and friends. You are, to a person, people I like, trust, and respect.

Read More

All of us at Lucien, Stirling & Gray wish you and your families a very

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

We hope 2023 brings you health, happiness and prosperity.

Read More

With all the inflation we have seen this year, is there any silver lining to be found? Like most things in life, it depends on how you choose to look at it. So, let’s take a look at some of the changes taking place in 2023, and examine both the benefits and the costs that have come about in response to inflation.

Read More

I believe that truly investing in anything for the long term, just like the decision to become a parent and raise a family, or to build and manage a business through many decades of uncertainty and challenge, or to stalwartly own a portfolio comprised of the great companies of the US and the world, is an open-ended act of faith.

Read More

One of the benefits of having written these quarterly missives for more than 20 years is the ability to look back with the benefit of hindsight and grade my own work. Another is the opportunity to revisit thoughts I developed years ago, and to update and reinforce them in a whole new context.

Read More

The first half of 2022 was a disheartening experience for all of us. As the personal Quarterly Review that accompanies this report attests, your investment portfolio experienced painful declines, as did the accounts of every single one of our clients. Each of us here has shared a similar experience as investors ourselves,…

Read More

It’s no secret that I think people in general are way too fixated on myopic, short-term outlooks. They’re not patient or disciplined enough to take a deep breath, get a broad perspective, and just chill - especially when conditions are volatile and a little unclear.

Nowhere is this shortcoming more prevalent than in the financial profession. Speculators abound and myopia rules the day.

Read More

Last year, long before this current downturn started, I wrote about the incredible frequency with which we had seen the words “uncharted territory” being bandied about in the financial press. It seemed like every other talking head made it part of their daily repertoire in vapid attempts to appear profound in their observations about the environment we’re all navigating.

Read More

The Secure Act, enacted in 2019, left many open questions about RMDs

·         The proposed IRS regulations are filled with in-depth information on how the Secure Act RMD rules will be applied in the future

·         The proposed regs are now out for a 90-day public comment period, with a public hearing to be held June 15

On Wednesday February 23rd, The Internal Revenue Service released long-awaited proposed regulations that address unanswered questions concerning Required Minimum Distributions under the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019.

Read More

In our missive of last month, which was actually a re-publication of my President’s Message for our Q4 2021 Report – and therefore written before the Russian invasion of Ukraine – I encouraged our readers to take a long-range view and buckle your seat belts, because the intermediate term future for financial markets looked pretty bumpy to me.

For obvious reasons now, I feel compelled to reiterate that advice here – but I want to augment it with two very concrete examples of why taking the long view is so critical.

Read More

If the second year of this pandemic taught us anything, it’s that the pace of disruption in our world isn’t slowing down any time soon. On the other hand, neither is human ingenuity, creativity, and drive. That’s an important point for all long-term investors to recognize and remember.

But it is not easy to keep a faithful, patient, and disciplined eye on the far horizon when all around you seems so tumultuous.

Read More

While cyber scams have been around since the invention of the internet, these scams have become part of our daily lives now more than ever. In fact, cyber scammers are expected to steal over $3 billion in 2022. The good news is, with most scams the warning signs are there if you know what to look for. We have put together a guide that can help you spot scams and protect yourself from falling victim to their schemes.

Read More

When folks reach out to us it’s usually because they have been handed a challenge. They’re facing a big life decision. Or they find themselves in one stage or another of a major transition, where they suddenly feel unsure of their approach to financial questions that keep popping up. Maybe they want a good sounding board, and patient, objective feedback about how to think through the long-term financial ramifications of what most people regard as primarily non-financial issues. In short, they need competent financial advice that fits comfortably and empathetically into their big-picture life planning.

Read More

“There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don’t know, and those who don’t know they don’t know.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith

I came across this quote in the first couple of years of my career, when I was pretty sure I knew nothing about economic forecasting, so I decided I had no choice but to plant my flag proudly in the first camp. In the 35 years or so that have elapsed since then, I haven’t encountered anything new that dissuades me from thinking that initial assessment has changed. I still don’t know anything for sure.

Read More

To create a plan of any kind, you have to know the ultimate destination you are trying to reach, right? Theoretically anyway, that is a “no-brainer.” Because without a “big, hairy, audacious goal” to aim towards on the far horizon, how can you possibly keep yourself motivated?

So, in the so-called “retail investing” world, the attention focused on big financial goals and dreams is significant. Think about all the ads you have seen of mature, tanned, fit people strolling along white sand beaches or sipping beverages with little umbrellas in them as the golden sun sets over the bay. Think of the houses, cars, yachts, golf courses and exotic vacations depicted.

Read More

How many times in the last year have you encountered the term “uncharted territory” in a newspaper or magazine article, a podcast, a social media post, or a television news story? For me, it seems like thousands. I have not done anything scientific to verify this theory, but I would hazard a guess that that term has been employed more times in the last 12 or 13 months than it has been in any comparable period during my lifetime to describe: the pandemic, the sudden social, economic, financial, and political changes it has helped to catalyze, the massive amounts of government borrowing we’re engaging in, the current and future government spending programs that are now being proposed, and the massive environmental and social changes we are witnessing around the globe.

Read More

Finances can be an isolating subject for many. If you’re anything like me, it was a completely taboo subject in my household growing up. From the basics of saving money to the complexities of credit scores and loans, I was ushered into adulthood armed with nothing more than a pat on the back and Google in my pocket (I know many of you were not even that lucky). Then I went off to college and graduate school, gaining all kinds of new understanding and confidence in my abilities to learn and grow. But not in this particular arena.

What I have learned from my teammates at LSG is a secret that is a surprising and unfortunate reality. I’d like to share this secret with you now. You see, the truth is…my story is not unusual. In fact, it is true for a large majority of Americans.

Read More

I have spent a fair amount of time in the last week or so looking back at where we were a year ago. Anniversaries have a way of provoking such things, and it’s amazing to contemplate just how much has changed since then, and how little of that change any of us could possibly have anticipated.

On a national level, there are plenty of similar musings being published right now, so I promise not to belabor the same points, but a couple of financial statistics just take your breath away.

Read More