The First Health is Wealth

I understand many of you are going through some major changes in your daily lives.  I use the principal of “plan for the worst, hope for the best.”  Hopefully these aren’t the worst of times for you, but your own personal financial situation could be hurt from recent events and it might be time for a financial checkup.  I am here to support and want you to know I’m available to visit with you virtually or over the phone.  As a convenient way to set a time check my calendar.

With the current state of the market and events, I wanted to provide a few items you could consider for our visit:

• Review your emergency fund – 3-6 months of expenses available in cash.  Don’t have that?  We can visit other options
• Tax loss harvesting opportunities – with the recent market selloff, some of you may be able to create a tax benefit with some changes to your investments
• The Roth IRA – either through contributions, conversions, or the back-door Roth conversion, this type of IRA makes even more sense to move money into now

As the owner of HWM and a single dad, I am spending countless hours every day making sure the health of my family as well as the health of each of your portfolios stays protected. These are scary times; the combination of public health and financial risk can cause emotional stress for all of us. We are reprioritizing our lives and finding out what really matters. In the short term, there will continue to be large swings in the market both up and down. It is my top priority to work together with you to maximize and leverage these changes as opportunities.

How will we know when this drop will be over?
Many of you have been considering moving to cash and to wait this out. With all the uncertainties with the coronavirus and a possible recession, the decision to sell may feel like the right one for a short time. But doing that will make it more difficult down the road to move back in. There is never a wrong time for the right allocation. Over the long-term stocks have and should outperform other types of investments. If you don’t need all of your money in the next several years, I would recommend we sit tight and ride out this storm.

What am I doing now for your investments?
From an investment perspective, HWM has been defensively investing your money for the past year in anticipation of an economic slowdown. No one could have predicted our current events, but the investment mix has held up slightly better than the overall market. Going forward, we plan to move small amounts into areas we expect to rally in the recovery. While continuing to maintain a defensive stance, we are closely watching policy decisions and events that will make some areas more attractive than others.

“The First Wealth is Health”
As I continue to remind my kids, these will be moments we look back on years from now. Toilet paper running out on store shelves. The canals in Venice being so clean you can see the fish. Trying to figure out activities at home for the Nth day. In the rear-view mirror, this time in our history may not look pretty, but we should always be looking ahead. We will get through this event. The global economy will recover as will the markets. With the right plan so too will your portfolio. Please let me know when we can set up a time to look over where you’re going financially by focusing on the future.

Bud