Recently, a Park + Elm client asked for some advice on handling his finances now that he is a new business owner. Small business owners are in a unique financial position, so we created a 5 step process to follow during your ownership years. Many self-employed investors won't have the same range of assets that a life-long employee would have at retirement, so planning for your eventual exit from the business is also crucial. 1. Think in Percentages: Think about [...]

Don’t try to outguess the market The market’s pricing power works against mutual fund managers who try to outsmart other participants through stock picking or market timing. As evidence, only 17% of US equity mutual funds have survived and outperformed their benchmarks over the past 15 years. Even so, traditional investment approaches strive to beat the market by taking advantage of pricing “mistakes” and attempting to predict the future. Too often, these approaches prove costly [...]

Which is it and what does it mean to you? People say it..."and the dollar is weak, too", without knowing the consequences for their own portfolio. People are still saying it without knowing that the dollar recently reached a 7 year high. The U.S. dollar is used to measure so many things around the world. It's difficult to measure the value of the one thing that measures everything else. The terms "strong" or "weak" in [...]