Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve instituted their third 0.75% interest rate hike in as many meetings, bringing the federal funds rate to a range of 3.0 to 3.25%.
The first half of 2022 featured the worst returns for equities since 1970, and has understandably left many investors reflecting on past investment decisions and contemplating how they can best position their portfolios for both the remainder of 2022 and the years to follow.
Last week, during the Fed’s wildly anticipated annual Jackson Hole meeting, Chairman Jerome Powell delivered hawkish remarks on the economy and the degree to which the central bank is going to focus, at all costs, to bring down inflation.
While many professions now have “Summer Fridays” and people take a majority of their allotted time off, economic data, “fed speak” and market moving news has been plentiful this last month.
Investing is really about patience and mitigating risk. This risk of missing out on good returns over a lifetime far outweighs the painful periods of bad returns we inevitably will experience – like this year so far.
Withum Wealth Management hosted a fireside chat with guest Dr. David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist and Head of the Global Market Insights Strategy Team for J.P. Morgan. We discussed global economic trends as well as the current geopolitical conflicts and how they impact markets and investors.
Filling up my SUV with gas over the weekend – the pump stopped at $100.00. While this transaction was done, I was not. I replaced the nozzle, drew another credit card from my wallet and started phase two of refueling, which was a much more palatable $27.12*. As I recall, when I first got my driver’s license, I could get lunch and fill up my tank with a $20 bill. Thinking to myself - how can a young person now afford to get gas? One tank today would have cost me an entire paycheck at my part time job during high school. Then again, I was making $4 an hour back then. I might be showing my age.
If you are filing taxes this year, you may want to familiarize yourself with I Bonds. Yes, that’s probably everyone but hopefully we have your attention for the next two minutes.
As we start the new year and I head back to school to finish my junior year in college, I reflected on my recent study abroad in Sorrento, Italy.