We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and had the opportunity to spend time with family and friends.  One thing for all of us to be thankful for is the recent rally in stocks.  The S&P 500 was up about 5.4% for November, and is now up about 13.8% for the quarter.  While this improvement is encouraging, we still have a long way to go as the index is still down approximately

Cleaning up personal finances remains one of the top resolutions every New Year. But we all know what happens to most such self-promises, so here’s a month-by-month to-do list to help cultivate better financial health.

Through charitable giving, you can support causes or organizations you believe in and lock in tax benefits simultaneously. Whether you’re new to charitable giving or a veteran, there are several strategies you should keep in mind.

If you struggle to find a gift for the person who has everything—or want to do your holiday shopping without having to leave the house—consider giving stock as a gift. Doing so is easier than you think, and it may offer a few benefits for you as well. Here is some information on giving stock as gifts and the benefits of doing so. 

If you ask someone their favorite part of the holiday season, giving or receiving gifts will likely be their response nine times out of ten. Gift-giving is a huge part of the holidays—it’s why there are entire days dedicated to shopping leading up to the season.

Things to Consider Going into “The New Year" (Year-End Planning Checklist)

The end of the year is necessary to reflect on your financial picture, review the last 12 months, and plan for the future. With all that is involved, it can seem overwhelming.

There’s no question that November and December are the biggest times of year for shopping. But this year, it’s more important than ever to shop small and benefit your community.

Supporting local businesses means you’re supporting your friends and neighbors. And you’re likely to find unique items in mom-and-pop shops that you can’t find anywhere else.

For many of us, a new year is an opportunity for fresh starts and discovering the best versions of ourselves, but some things—like tax contributions and retirement deadlines—don't change much, if at all. And with that shiny new year right around the corner, meeting end of year deadlines and getting tax efficiencies in place now may prepare us for a smoother transition.

The final quarter of the year started well for stocks as the S&P 500 rallied about 8% in October.  While the reprieve was welcomed by investors the S&P 500 is still down about 19% for the year.  Interest rates continued to march higher during the month as the 10 Year Treasury closed the month yielding over 4%, and the 30-year mortgage rate over 7%.  (YCharts)

Concerns are still centered on inflation, Fed policy and the increased chances of recession.  Our economic dashboard once again showed further deterioration with the inversion of our yield curve indicator.  This is reflective of the increasing recession risk we’ve seen throughout the year.  As such, we have been defensively positioned with a portion of our growth portfolio throughout much of this year.  This defensive positioning has been beneficial, and we are now thinking about how to take advantage of the cash we have on the sidelines by looking for potential opportunities to put our defensive allocation back to work.    

September was another difficult month for stocks as the S&P 500 fell into bear market territory once again closing down roughly 9% for the month and 5% for the quarter. (YCharts) The main drivers once again were inflation, the Fed, and interest rates as investors continued to worry about the impact of each of these on economic growth. 

The odds of a recession have steadily increased throughout this year which has been reflected in the deterioration of our economic dashboard. The dashboard helps guide our portfolio positioning. As such, the deterioration in the dashboard led us to be defensively positioned for most of the year with a portion of our growth portfolio.