Investing vs. Gambling – What are the Odds?

It has been said, “If investing feels like gambling, you are doing it wrong.” If you have avoided investing (or have anxiety around it) feeling like “it’s just a gamble” let Kelly Eldridge dispel you of this concern in this A$AP Finance episode where she shares that with the proper context, and time horizon the…

Fed Pause Pivot? & Stock Earnings: Jumping Over a Lowered Bar

Some attribute the BULL & BEAR Wall Street colloquialism to a brutal pastime of mid-nineteenth century California… taken from the Santa Cruz State Park website – “Prior to the mid-1860s, the spectacle of brutal bear and bull fights were enjoyed on the Sabbath after church services.” After Church… WHAT!?!?! Anyway… the debate between the “bulls”…

Banking & Real Estate – Will it Matter for Markets?

“It’s not nearly as bad as it was in 2008, but trouble happens to banking just like trouble happens everywhere else. In the good times you get into bad habits… When bad times come they lose too much.” – Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, speaking on regional banks exposure to commercial real estate.…

The Debt Ceiling: What Happened Last Time?

As we come to the close of April, Chris Beard, CFP & Jesse Hansford, CFP chew through three primary topics on this week’s Random Gleanings: 1. Home Prices broke their 7 month streak of declines by seeing price increases in February 2. Inflation… what if it stays higher for longer? 3. Debt Ceiling Debate… what…

Bear Market Rally or New Bull Market??

After a “washout” period like 2022, the difficulty of any advance for the stock market is in determining whether it is the start of a new and sustainable (secular) bull market or just a head fake to the upside amid a secular bear market. The latest Random Gleanings discussion between Professional Planning & Wealth partners…

The S&P FIVE… hundred: Mega-Cap Tech & Everything Else

This week in Random Gleanings Chris Beard & Jesse Hansford discuss how the weighting of the largest five companies (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Amazon & NVIDIA) account for ALL – actually MORE THAN ALL – of the return in the S&P 500 so far this year. This means the aggregate return of the remaining 495…

SVB Saga: A Risk Management FAIL

Discussion this week on the Random Gleanings centered on the news of the week – the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. We’d guess that books will come out on the myriad causes of this bank failure (the second largest bank to fail in American history) pointing fingers at the Federal Reserve, Venture Capitalists and the Tech…

Protect Your Credit: FREEZE IT!

In this month’s A$AP, Chris shares a personal story from a friend of his who was a victim of identity theft and through that experience learned how to protect himself through freezing his credit.  Questions? Send your questions to us at info@proplanwealth.com