The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates for the first time in more than 4 years at their next meeting this month. We wanted to share with you how stocks have performed after the federal reserve has previously begun cutting interest rates since 1980. As you can see, the average returns have been […]
Today I want to talk with you about the best performing stock of all time. Alongside this, I also want to use it as another example of why we avoid investing in individual stocks for our clients at Presilium. To help with this, I used the data from Hendrik Bessembinder’s fantastic July 2024 research report […]
Hi Friends. On August 5, 2024 the market was down more than 8% from the last peak reached on July 16, 2024. According to our plan, we rebalanced our client accounts and purchased additional stock. We do this every time the market is down 5% or more from our previous rebalance. Let’s look together at […]
Hi Friends, today I want to discuss protecting yourself from sudden declines in your investment accounts. They can happen at any time and are impossible to predict, therefore they must be planned for. This chart shows the sudden market declines of 20% or more in the S&P 500 since 1980. As you can see, the […]
Hi Friends, today I want to talk with you about stock market declines. I am hoping that by looking at the data together you will see just how common they are and that they are actually opportunities to embrace rather than something to be feared or avoided. This great chart from JP Morgan shows 2 […]
When we talk about investment returns, we generally refer to the gain or loss on an investment over a specific period of time. However, to achieve a true understanding of them, we actually have to look at these returns net of inflation in order to understand the impact they have on your real wealth. […]
Today we would like to talk with you about Required Minimum Distributions or RMDs. They are something that all of us that have retirement accounts will eventually face. The RMD mandates that you begin withdrawing a minimum amount from your retirement accounts annually once you reach a certain age. Their primary purpose is to ensure […]
Social Security was paid to 67 million Americans last year and is a key component of retirement for many of them. According to the latest report from the Social Security Board of Trustees released last month, the Social Security Trust Fund is now projected to run out of funds by the end of 2034. This […]
This great chart from First Trust shows just a few of the global crises over the past 55 years. Each of them was a major news story at the time, likely causing the market to temporarily decline, and unfortunately causing many of our neighbors to sell their long-term stock investments. We’d like to discuss two […]
This chart shows the range of returns for the S&P 500 for the past 150 years. Many investors spend a lot of time and effort worrying about the down years, especially those few down years that had annual losses of more than 20%. (Circle on chart) This concern often causes investors to prematurely sell their […]
Many of our clients have more saved and invested than they will ever spend in their lifetimes. This gives them the opportunity to make gifts to improve the lives of family and friends or further the mission of their favorite charities. They can use the power of compounding through time to magnify these gifts. Please […]
In exchange for the wonderful superior long-term returns of stock, we need to occasionally endure a significant temporary decline. Some are more challenging than others and can be extremely difficult to go through, but like anything else are much easier if you are prepared. Let’s look at the largest temporary decline since the great depression […]
The price of a postage stamp is set to increase, yet again, to 73 cents in July 2024. In 1963, it was 5 cents. It has become almost 15 times more expensive over the past 60 years! This postage stamp chart serves as a great proxy for everything we purchase and just how important it […]
We are currently in a bull market with the S&P 500 now up about 49% since the low made in October 2022. However, it has not gone straight up during that time- instead, the market has gone through a few temporary declines of 5-10%. This is very common, and I wanted to share with you […]
We wanted to share the top three reasons why we don’t recommend individual stocks at Presilium. First and most important: Your basic asset allocation, the mix you hold in stocks vs. bonds is the factor most responsible for your returns in the long-term. Which investments you choose and when you buy or sell them contributes […]
Twenty-twenty-four is picking up right where 2023 left off. The S&P 500 was just up more than five percent for the first two months of this year. Let’s look together at what this has historically meant for market returns This table from Bespoke Research shows the returns from the end of February until the middle […]
Please let us show you how you can make profitable investments while the market is flat or even declining in value! By making regular investments over time, you can actually take advantage of a volatile or declining market and turn it to your favor. Let’s look at 2 examples: First, the S&P 500 had a […]
Everyone needs a financial plan. Have you ever tried to build something without directions or driven somewhere far without mapping out the trip using the GPS in your car? It not only is a lot more difficult, but the final result is nowhere near as good as it could have been. At Presilium we always […]
Happy Valentine’s Day! At Presilium, we love our clients, and we also love investing in the leading companies in the world. And that’s for one simple reason: Investing in stocks has been the most reliable way to grow your wealth faster than inflation, consequently allowing you to reach much higher goals for you and your […]
On October 27th, the S&P 500 bottomed out at 4,117 after experiencing a 10% correction throughout the fall. At that point, the S&P 500 was effectively at the exact same point that it was 30 months prior, on April 9th, 2021. Over 2 and a half years of limited performance from the S&P 500. From […]
We want to talk with you about the best, yet incredibly rare, opportunities that we ever see as investors. These opportunities are so rare, in fact, that they have only occurred six times since World War II yet have returned an average of 46% just one year later. These opportunities, of course, are severe market […]
Happy New Year, we are looking forward to an amazing 2024 with you! To start the year, I wanted to discuss why we invest rather than just save. We invest to build a future that is bigger and brighter for us and our families than we could have ever reached by saving alone. Please let […]
I love looking through history for clues on what may happen next in the market. History gave us a lot of reasons to be optimistic about 2023 and we were right. This was a year of great returns. Let’s look back at a few of the historical examples that we discussed this past year. In […]
Once again this year we wanted to take an updated look at all of the crises of the past 20-plus years. As you’ll see, at the time, each of them would have given us great reasons to not keep our clients invested in stock. Every single year had its own unique crises that looked, and […]
As we enter the last quarter of the year, we wanted to share a few year-end financial planning strategies that we review and complete for our clients at Presilium. First: Tax Loss Swaps. Have you taken the time to review the investments inside your taxable accounts for positions that are temporarily down? Market volatility and […]
The market goes down all the time. But, it never stays there. Over the last 15 years, the market has had an average temporary decline of 16.8% per year. A 16.8% loss every single year! And during that same 15-year period, the S&P 500 had an average return of positive 10.67% per year. But to […]
Today, we’d like to discuss a topic that’s close to my heart and crucial for your financial well-being: When should you update your will and estate plan? Life is a journey filled with milestones. And with each significant event, it’s essential to ensure that your financial legacy reflects your current wishes. So, when exactly should […]
Recently government shutdowns have dominated the headlines, raising concerns about their impact on the market. Just last week, our government narrowly avoided another shutdown, extending funding until mid-November 2023 So, what exactly is a government shutdown? It happens when Congress and the President can’t agree on legislation to fund government operations and agencies, either at […]
What if we told you that the S&P 500 has finished up 10% or more 55 times since 1928. Fifty-five times in 95 years, up by more than 10%. It has had really strong results in more than half of the years. Now, what if we told you that in 23 of those 55 years, […]
Today’s video marks the one-year anniversary in the Financial Planning Friday’s series! Over this past year, these videos have helped people to make much better financial decisions, provided a voice of reason during times of uncertainty, and distilled complex financial planning strategies into short, straight forward videos. While our clients have direct access to a […]
Dividend stocks have been a popular way to invest for a long time. Investors have enjoyed receiving the steady, and seemingly certain, income generated by these types of stocks, especially during retirement. However, at Presilium we prefer to have our clients think about generating their income from the total return of their portfolio, rather than […]
Today we wanted to discuss three key ways to grow your wealth throughout your lifetime, and throughout the inevitable ups and downs, and uncertainty, that we all will experience with the market and in life. To begin, it is vital to have a financial plan. It is equally vital that this plan is regularly updated […]
Today I want you to consider a different way to think about your investments. What if you and your family had a 100-year time horizon? Most Presilium clients have financial plans that show their wealth continuing to grow year after year. Due to their projected withdrawal and growth rates, their investment accounts are projected to […]
Today we wanted to discuss a common problem all around the world. As this episode airs, our CEO, Jerry Davidse, is 9,000 miles away from our headquarters giving a masters level class on financial planning and investment management in Siem Reap, Cambodia to120 of the future leaders of their country. Their economy is finally getting […]
Today we wanted to discuss the best ways to maximize your retirement accounts using the new IRS limits for 2023. These are the largest contribution increases in history and will allow you to save more than you ever could before. Saving into these types of accounts are some of the best ways to make investments […]
Did you know the importance of keeping an accurate family balance sheet? We do, and wanted to share what a client balance sheet at Presilium Private Wealth looks like. The top left includes a section that shows a client’s current net worth and account ownership. This is updated every day so that our clients can […]
Today we wanted to share something with you that we use every day at Presilium: The Decision Center, a key feature of our financial planning software. After creating a financial plan that shows our clients a step-by-step path to reach their goals, we have tools within the Decision Center that clearly show how a variety […]
Today we wanted to discuss something that can have a huge impact on reaching your retirement goals: the order that you take withdrawals from your investment accounts. Many of our clients have three types of investment accounts that each have their own tax rules, after-tax accounts, IRAs/401ks and Roth IRAs. A good financial plan for […]
Welcome to Financial Planning Fridays, our weekly video series on the benefits of financial planning. Today we are going to focus on the probability of success in a financial plan. In the financial planning software that we use from eMoney the probability of success is determined by running 1,000 random trials of your potential investment […]
Welcome to Financial Planning Fridays, our weekly video series on the benefits of financial planning. Pablo Picasso said “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” Unfortunately, I never worked with […]