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The Stock Market and the Economy are Not the Same Thing . . . Jesse Niederbaumer, Vantage Managing Partner & Advisor Imagine you are walking a dog in a park. You will walk in a straight line from Point A to Point B. The dog will zig and zag on his way from Point A to Point B. As I’m sure you guessed, the human represents the economy and the dog is the stock market. It’s only been 6 weeks since the COVID crisis started in the U.S. In that time, let’s look at what has happened in terms of

Giving Credit When Its Due Andy Meyer, Vantage Financial Partner & Senior Advisor My opinion of a reasonable deal is one where both sides shake hands and agree, but each walk away with similar feelings of dissatisfaction. Sometimes it isn’t easy to put our pride aside and tell another person or group of people that they did a good job. Or thank them for handling a tough situation in the way that they did, even if it was part of their job description. It’s hard not to think about how something could have been better. The Monday morning quarterbacking

Tale of Two Bears I read an article in the Wall Street Journal by Jason Zweig this past weekend that put many things into perspective. The article’s title, “How to Survive a Bear Market,” naturally caught my attention since we’ve encountered the fastest bear market in history. “A bear market is when a market experiences prolonged price declines. It typically describes a condition in which securities prices fall 20% or more from recent highs amid widespread pessimism and negative investor sentiment.” - Investopedia.com This chart shows just how quickly things have escalated. It only took 16 days to reach

“Change is the only thing constant in life.” - Heraclitus Another week (that felt like a month), is almost in the books. How are we all feeling about our current “new normal”? Stir crazy? Yep. Nervous? Yep. Disappointed that your Junior in high school doesn’t have one class where you can help him with his homework? That’s an ego-check for sure. Encouraged? How many of us during these last few weeks would use the word encouraged, hopeful or optimistic? It can be hard to be positive when we are all adjusting to our current situation. This is tough, no

3 Things to Do with Your Investments During Stock Market Volatility 1. Plan - Make sure you know what your financial plan is and what you need your investments to accomplish. For instance, do you have 20 years until retirement? Then you ride out the current volatility. Are you in retirement? You might need some changes to insure income in the short term. Developing a plan helps set your allocation and the risk you should take. Making emotional decisions on your financial picture, especially when there is so much uncertainty, is a tough game to win. 2. Strategize -

It was another Sunday round for the World’s #1 golfer and only 18 trying holes stood between him and his 28th professional win. Prior to the sports hiatus a few weeks ago, Rory McIlroy knew exactly what he needed to do in order to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In his pre-round interview, he confidently talked about his precise game-plan of being patient and not taking unnecessary risks. Mr. McIlroy knew how to execute and for that very reason he was the favorite going into the final round. Although golf is insanely difficult to be any good at, you do get the

What a wild ride it is… As I am typing this, the US now has more than 44,000 cases (we expect this number to go up as more people are tested), our local schools have been closed and businesses have been forced to operate in this new normal. Not that life is ever boring, but this is brand new for all of us.Today, we are all social distancing (or we all should be). Lots of indoor time spent with my wife, 16-year old, 5-year old and our little 4-year-old princess. My wife is teaching school to the kids while I work from