There’s a saying on Wall Street that when the Fed raises interest rates, something breaks.

The Latin American debt crisis of 1982, the 1987 stock market crash, the failure of Long Term Capital Management in 1998, the 2000 dot-com crash and the subprime mortgage debacle of 2007 all followed periods of rising rates, and generally marked the end of Fed tightening cycles.

Hello and Happy New Year!

As always, we like to share with you our outlook for the coming year. We ended 2022 pretty much where we started: cautious, conservative and committed to protecting our customers’ assets while looking for opportunities. Looking ahead to 2023, we expect a challenging, volatile first half, followed by a stronger second half if the Fed can get inflation under control. As such, we will maintain our defensive investment posture, looking for opportunities to put more of our client’s cash to work ahead of an upturn in the markets.

After the stock market hit record highs at the end of 2021, we entered 2022 on a cautious note. We believed the Federal Reserve had not done enough to rein in inflation, hitting 40-year highs as rising demand from U.S. consumers – who make up two-thirds of the economy and have record-high net worth – crashed into inventory shortages caused by supply-chain and labor-market disruptions.

But we hadn’t fully anticipated the events that would pose even greater risks to the market in the first quarter, including a new surge in Covid-19 cases from the Omicron variant, the Russian attack on Ukraine, and skyrocketing oil prices.

We hope the new year finds you and your family safe, healthy, and well. Each January, we like to take a look at the year ahead, so please join us as we share our investment outlook for 2022.

Each day, our core goal is to safeguard and build our clients’ wealth (what we call protecting the castle), while achieving strong investment returns. But every year is different, and this one may be a little more so. As the Fed tightens monetary policy and drains liquidity, there will be volatility in the fixed income and equity markets. And with that volatility comes many opportunities.

Hello and Happy New Year!

As we look back on 2020, it goes without saying that this year has been like no other. The challenges faced were universal, but there were bright spots as well. As the markets were extremely volatile, we are proud of how we were able to navigate through this period, and we feel our experience helped us finish 2020 with strong results once again, despite the unusually chaotic year. As your fiduciary and Registered Investment Advisor (RIA), we take an enormous amount of pride in the confidence you have shown in us. From everyone at Nollenberger McCullough Investment Advisors, thank you for your trust!

Dear Friends,

As someone who has been managing portfolios for over 45 years,

I have seen many different kinds of markets, some strong, some weak. I like to believe our successful investing experience helps when times are difficult, such as now. Our experience also helps us identify special opportunities. We view markets like the weather, sometimes it is great to be outdoors and at other times it is most prudent to be out of the storm, and to be well protected from the elements. We believe it is imperative to protect the moat around your castle, or in this case, the monies in your portfolio.  

Dear Friends,

In times like this, we are reminded that the most important things in life are our health, our family, our friends and our clients. I trust and hope you are managing as best possible during this challenging time.

I have had the opportunity to talk to many clients and friends recently about COVID 19, the financial markets, real estate and COVID’s overall effect on the U.S. and world economies.

Dear Friend,

With non-stop news about the coronavirus, the markets over the last two weeks have become very volatile, surging and retreating. After very strong gains in the markets in 2019 and early 2020, the Dow Jones and S&P 500 are currently both down about 14% over the last two weeks.

Recent trends have shown that the fear of a stock market decline is causing wealthy investors to maintain higher cash levels than they have in the past. On average, those with at least $1 million in investable assets were 75% invested, with the remaining 25% held in cash. Our experience is that many of the "wealthy" have a longer term view than others.

You have probably changed jobs multiple times throughout your career. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average worker in America changes jobs every 4.6 years. Gen Xers have almost twice as many job changes as Baby Boomers and Millennials are job-hoppers, pure and simple. In this Insight for 2019, we review whether or not to consolidate 401k and IRA accounts.

You have probably changed jobs multiple times throughout your career. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average worker in America changes jobs every 4.6 years. Gen Xers have almost twice as many job changes as Baby Boomers and Millennials are job-hoppers, pure and simple. In this Insight for 2019, we review whether or not to consolidate 401k and IRA accounts.

You have probably changed jobs multiple times throughout your career. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average worker in America changes jobs every 4.6 years. Gen Xers have almost twice as many job changes as Baby Boomers and Millennials are job-hoppers, pure and simple. In this Insight for 2019, we review whether or not to consolidate 401k and IRA accounts.