Quarterly Newsletter
4thQuarter Market Outlook
As I write this I am returning from a wonderful, rain filled weekend with my wife to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. Much like our wedding day when we had a special uninvited guest in the form of a tropical storm, our trip to the Virginia mountains was greeted by a hurricane especially named after me.
Speaking of storms, there may be a lot to learn when it comes to your financial life. This year has included two strong, although short lived storms in the form of the oil panic, Brexit and interest rate scares. As with other financial storms in the past, you have survived. While the fear of the coming storm and the damage it will cause can make any downtick in your investments feel like a repeat experience, be sure to focus on the big picture. While Matthew has caused a lot of damage and even death, you who are reading this survived much like you have survived previous storms in the financial world.
On the Personal Side:
We spend most of our free time on the weekends these days out at the Bryan Park soccer complex cheering on Lila and Amelia. I would say that both of them are playing soccer, but the 4 and under group seems to lean more towards a rugby/ soccer mix with an amoebic blob of 4 year olds having random scrums around a soccer ball. Lila and the under 8s seem a little more like soccer. Either way, it is special to see the kids build confidence and helpful to wear them out. The most recent game, I had the honor of sitting on the sideline and helping the four year olds pay attention to their own game and not the game that the 4 year-old boys were playing on the next field. (Yes, I have been experiencing night terrors that could be related to this event.) Ever looking to improve her health, Evan has just successfully completed a 30 day cleanse of no processed foods, sugar etc. The cleanse ended just in time as we were close to running out of grass clippings for her to consume. She is in full swing Uber driver mom mode lately with kids, school and activities and having a lot of fun with it. Her big October task is Halloween costumes which can be quite difficult as Amelia changes her plan of attack on a very irregular schedule.
On the business side:
The markets have been focused a lot on the Federal Reserve and unless you are living under a rock you are aware of the upcoming presidential election that has the media and everyone else in a frenzy. We are very comfortable with our stance and have been digesting lots of information from various investment sources as we look to constantly provide you with portfolios to meet your individualized needs.
Here at the office we have been working on reviewing portfolios and financial plans. If you have not yet done a financial plan or utilized E-money to do custom yet simple straightforward retirement and financial analysis. you want to know whether you are on track for retirement and we have not yet done a plan, email us [email protected] to schedule an appointment.
Within the office, we have been working internally on our service models and begun the process of getting some of our team licensed to better help your needs. As I reported last quarter, we are working on a survey to get a little more feedback on how we are doing. In the meantime, if you have any feedback, we would all love to hear it, whether critical or not as we strive to improve on the services we offer.
On a final note, I am going to show of my knack for interior decorating. Well, to be honest, we had help with it. We have done some upgrades to our office and even had a lot of help from the Greensboro Historical Museum as they assisted us to get digital versions of a lot of Greensboro’s past to hang on our walls. If you have not stopped into our office and are local, you should. Our new intern Laura did a great job creating a fun office tour if you care to check it out.
Social Media:
If you have not already done so, please connect via LinkedIn or Twitter at @mattloganinc or follow my page on Facebook where you will find timely articles and regular TV interviews. I even recently began using Instagram and have been having a lot of fun with it.
Introductions:
You have probably seen that I do not ask for introductions when we meet. That’s because I never want to seem pushy. At the same time, there is a lot of fear and misinformation that I see on a daily basis. For these reasons, if there is anyone you care about, that could benefit from a second set of eyes, I would be glad to help them.
Online Access:
As I mentioned, we have consolidated our online account access through E-money. To access your accounts, click here. The system really helps me advise you in a more effective manor by allowing me to see your whole financial picture and craft a plan to fit your needs. You can include account not held here in your analysis as well as any debt or assets you have and most of them link directly to other sites, allowing you a walking net worth statement to impress friends at the next party you are at. (Well, only if you don’t want to be invited back) If you need assistance setting this up, let us know and we would be happy to walk you through the system.
The Bus:
The bus has been a lot of fun this past month with football season kicking off. We have some fun community involvement planned as we start the new year. Even better news is that the bus experiment has been such a hit, we have decided to make it a regular thing and have been working with Matthews Mobile Media to have a new bus custom built. We expect to have it in operation in late January. If you are working on a charity auction or have any ideas or needs that the bus may be a fit for, please let me know. For further info, please go to www.whythebus.com.
Featured News Interview:
Tax time also brings with it an onslaught of fraud. I saw it fitting to feature:
The Google Doc Scam
Fourth Quarter Outlook:
With the markets coming off of a great 3rd quarter with the S&P 500 up 2.4% and up 6.3% for the year, the markets have been performing well. Foreign markets, especially emerging markets have done particularly well with the MSCI Emerging Market Index up a whopping15.6% for the year. As you can read in the link historically, markets have performed well in the 4th quarter during an election. If this were any other election I would put some weight in that information but this election seems to be very unique thus far.
Disclosure: The views stated in this piece are not necessarily the opinion of Cetera Advisor Networks LLC and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Due to volatility within the markets mentioned, opinions are subject to change without notice. Information is based on sources believed to be reliable; however, their accuracy or completeness cannot be guaranteed. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Investors cannot invest directly in indexes. The performance of any index is not indicative of the performance of any investment and does not take into account the effects of inflation and the fees and expenses associated with investing.
The S&P 500 is a capitalization-weighted index of 500 stocks designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of 500 stocks representing all major industries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 significant stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is designed to measure equity market performance in global emerging markets. It is a float-adjusted market capitalization index. Additional risks are associated with international investing, such as currency fluctuations, political and economic stability, and differences in accounting standards.
