NCM Blog

One by one, economists are pulling their recession forecasts; market gurus are now increasing their price targets on tech stocks, and investors are dumping utilities and consumer staples and piling into tech stocks……Never underestimate the power and risk of groupthink on Wall Street!

“Risk and Regret.”— Behavioral scientist, Daniel Kahneman, once said an important part of becoming a good investor is having a well-calibrated sense of your future regret. You need to accurately understand how you’ll feel if things turn out differently than you hoped.

Finally! A state income tax benefit* for those who contribute to New Jersey’s 529 Plan, “NJBEST”. (*Certain income limits apply).... AND we share some helpful 529 planning considerations...

Last Thursday the S&P 500 closed above the threshold that marked its exit from the longest bear market since 1948. To be clear, this was not the worst bear market in terms of percentage declines, but it was the longest in terms of days; this bear market lasted 248 trading days. Now, investors are questioning: “Are we really out of the bear market or is this just a head fake?”

Buffett said, “People are trying to outsmart each other in arenas that you don’t have to play in.” Absolutely. There are so many complicated investments being pushed in the marketplace. If you can’t really understand them, don’t hesitate to just put them in the “too-hard-to-decipher” pile---and move on! There are already plenty of simple investments to choose from to build a solid diversified portfolio to help any investor achieve financial independence.

What can investors do to improve their retirement prospects AND provide a little more peace of mind in retirement? Building an investment strategy with a “dividend growth” focus might be the smartest move any investor could make.