Chart of the Day: Not Risking is the Highest Risk

Today’s Chart of the Day from @petermallouk on X and shows the value of a dollar invested in the S&P 500 vs. sitting in cash for the last 30 years.

More

Home Equity Line of Credit: An Unexpected Safety Net for Storm Season

Hurricane season in Southwest and Central Florida can be unpredictable and we’ve certainly had our share of storms recently. The sight of snapped off trees and blue tarped roofs has become all too familiar with locals. We can't stop Mother Nature from doing her thing, but we can take a proactive approach to protecting what is typically one's most valuable asset - our home.

More

Chart of the Day: Corrections are Loud, Recoveries are Quiet

Today’s Chart of the Day is provided by my colleague and fellow Portfolio Manager Angie Parsons. The chart, prepared by YCharts, shows the “Bull Market” (when the market is up 20%) and “Bear Market” (when the market is down 20%) and highlights the duration of each.

More

Chart of the Day: Worst Except for All Others

Today’s Chart of the Day from Visual Capitalist ranks the poorest 10% and richest 10% daily personal incomes in various countries.

More

A Case for Not Waiting for Interest Rates to Drop

There has been much debate about whether the rising loan interest rates over the last five years (in some cases almost by 200%) are the primary driver of the real estate affordability problem. However, as shown in the chart above from Bloomberg, today’s rates are nearly identical to the 35-year average, shown as the dotted red line, and are lower than they were 30 years ago.

More

Chart of the Day: Average Inheritance

Today’s Chart of the Day is the Average Inheritance by Age Group from a University of Pennsylvania survey of individuals who have received an inheritance.

More

Chart of the Day: 30% of the Time

Today’s Chart of the Day is from Vanguard and shows that, since 1980, the stock market has traded in the 10%-20% down range, aka Correction Territory, 30% of the time.

More

Chart of the Day: Really Bad Timing May Not Be as Bad as You Think

Today’s Chart of the Day is from Mark Peterson with BlackRock. The chart, going back to 1926, shows the returns if you had been invested on the day when each of the eight worst major events occurred, and then experienced the subsequent stock markets.

The average return since 1926 is 10.4%. Keeping that in mind, the worst was the 2000 tech bubble burst which still resulted in a 7.7% return, and the highest was the 2020 COVID pandemic which had a return of 14.3%.  

Even if one experienced one (or several) of the eight worst events in history, the ranges of returns are not that different than you would expect during less chaotic times. My advice is to ignore the noise, buy good investments, hold steady and repeat.   

More

Chart of the Day: 14% Downturns

Today’s Chart of the Day from OneDigital shows the return of the S&P 500 each calendar year since 1980 as well as the maximum drawdown during the year.

More

10 Estate Planning Errors That Cost Time, Money, and Your Sanity

Estate planning often gets put on the back burner. Like the all-too-familiar ritual of tax filing procrastination, many of us recognize its importance, yet we continually delay—telling ourselves we’ll get to it when life slows down. But when "later" becomes too late, the consequences can be severe. Families enter drawn-out probate battles, assets get trapped in legal limbo, or loved ones become burdened with unexpected tax consequences and decision-making stress.

More

Chart of the Day: Who Do We Owe?

More

Chart of the Day: Types of Fraud

Today’s Chart of the Day is from Visual Capitalist detailing and ranking common types of fraud. The report suggests losses are half a trillion dollars annually, which works out to $1,500 per adult in the US.

More

Teaching Children About Money: A Guide for Every Age

Teaching children about money from an early age helps them develop valuable financial habits that will last a lifetime. The lessons you teach should become more detailed and practical as they get older. The Financial Resources page on the Crews Bank & Trust website has several linked teaching sites for children (Resources) based on age to help get the conversation started.

More

Chart of the Day - Trust in Media is 'None at All'

Today’s Chart of the Day is from Gallup and shows the change in American’s Trust in Mass Media from 1972 to 2024. The choice of “None at all” went from a low of 5% in 1972 to the high of 36% in 2024, beating out “Great deal/Fair amount,” which fell from a peak of 68% to its lowest of 31%. 

The article suggests this coincides with the 1980 start of the 24-hour news cycle, further fueled by additional news channels in the 1990s, then the invention of social media in early 2000’s, culminating with the rise of smart phones in the early 2010’s. 

Where do we go from here? We are probably stuck in a three-way split between the categories until a new technology is invented. 

More

Chart of the Day: Darkest Before the Light

Today’s Chart of the Day is a classic one provided by Vanguard and was recently updated to reflect 2024 performance. It highlights the best and worst days going back to 1980, and notes that often the best “up” days are right after the worst “down” days.

More