2024: The Year Ahead

Advisors absolutely do not have a crystal ball, so this post isn’t going to tell you what hot stock to buy or whether Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will stay together.  But there are a handful of themes that will play out over the course of the year, and those are important to understand. In […]

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Washington’s New State Capital Gains Tax

After two years of waiting, Washington has a new tax. Last week, the state Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the new 7% tax on capital gains. At issue was whether it was an income tax or an excise tax. HOW THE NEW TAX APPLIES Before you panic, note that the new tax probably doesn’t […]

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Farewell 2022 (Welcome 2023!)

As we start the New Year, it’s hard not to feel like we are living in some kind of Groundhog’s Day hamster wheel, starting this year with so many elements of the last one. War in Europe, virus warnings, threats to democracy and the challenges of new technologies. We have experienced some major setbacks in […]

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Three Wise Moves in the Last Six Days of 2022

If your house is like mine, you have been swept up in the swirl of added activities surrounding the holidays. Yet there are a few other things I would encourage you to add to your year-end list, even if that list is already as long as your arm. Some are directly financial, and others indirect. […]

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Inflation – Is It Behind Us?

Around this time last year, inflation started to rear its ugly head in earnest.  “Transitory” inflation was gaining traction.  Over the next 12 months, prices jumped big time, and the Fed responded with interest rate hikes to slow the economy.  We are seeing signs of the economy cooling: layoffs and some corporate downsizing, and mixed […]

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Inflation and the “Post-Pandemic” Portfolio

Just as we have adjusted to everyday life with a global virus, and worked through waves of Delta, Omicron and BA2, BA4, BA5, our financial lives are beset with old fears about inflation, recession and financial market declines.  We knew that we would not be able to just flip a switch and turn the post-pandemic […]

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Witches! AKA Women With Power

Holidays like Halloween may have pagan roots in harvest festivals as well as in the Christian tradition to honor the dead. Today, that history has morphed into Fall symbols like pumpkins, shafts of wheat and bonfires, and the ghoulish and gory like skeletons, ghosts and the undead.  The holiday fits in today’s gender-fluid world, with […]

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A Cold, Dark Winter: Crisis, Uncertainty, Ukraine

This month’s intended topic was taxes.  We know that the best laid plans will hit one obstacle or another along the way.  But having a plan – and sticking to it – is one of the best countermeasures to uncertainty. And so this week began with an escalating crisis in eastern Europe. With a 24-hour […]

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Start Where You Are: Your Money in 2022

Most of us start a New Year with resolutions: lose weight, exercise more, get organized financially. According to credit bureau Experian, almost 50% of Americans want to save more in the next year – even though for many personal savings soared since Covid-19 hit the US in March 2020. Among New Year goals, more than […]

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Farewell, 2021 (and Good Riddance)

Before we welcome the New Year, let’s take a quick look back at 2021. In my view it has been a terrible year.  In addition to the ongoing and awful pandemic with all its associated economic difficulty, here in Washington state we had a disastrous roll-out of a badly-designed state long-term care plan (the WA […]

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