Helpful Tips for Year-end Tax Planning

Year-end tax planning could be especially productive this year because timely action could nail down a host of tax breaks that won’t be around next year unless Congress acts to extend them, which, at the present time, looks doubtful. These include, for individuals: the option to deduct state and local sales and use taxes instead […]

Two things to like

As a financial adviser, I like at least two things about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Both relate to the fact that anyone who is willing and able to pay for health insurance will be able to get it: First, Obamacare will foster entrepreneurship. I hear frequently from people who’d like to start their own […]

Know Your Risks

Risk is the chance that you won’t be able to meet your financial goals or that you’ll have to recalibrate your goals because your investment comes up short. Investors face many forms of risk depending on the kinds of investments they choose. Market, industry, and company risk: General market fluctuations can affect securities trading in […]

Don’t Let Small Numbers Distract You From the Big Picture

Even though it’s all about dollars and cents, the financial industry runs on percentages; dollar signs are few and far between. The use of percentages is an understandable, and helpful, convention when communicating financial information. After all, a headline saying “Company A’s Net Jumps by 16%” is more helpful than one that reads “Company A’s […]

Focus on small business: Aroma Home Cooked Meals

by John S. Davis Part of an occasional series of articles profiling small businesses founded by clients of Mentor Capital. Fond memories of the love and care her mother put into cooking for her Italian-American family set Lynne Kern on a path toward founding her own small business. About 18 months ago Lynne […]

Monthly Market Commentary – July 2013

The markets went through a lot of turmoil in June, as stronger economic reports were offset by fears of the Fed tapering its bond-buying programs. Home prices, employment reports, and auto sales were all better than expected, unlike trade and GDP data. Together with falling business investment and government employment, that leaves the consumer and […]

Money for nothing?

The Wall Street Journal reports today (July 3) on a study that finds an inverse relationship between investment results of pension funds paying high fees and those paying low fees. The 10 state pension funds paying the highest fees had a median five-year annualized return of 1.34%. The 10 paying the lowest fees had an […]

Bond perspective

So the bond market is selling off. No one should be surprised. Market value of the Barclay’s U.S. Aggregate Bond Index was down 3.01% year-to-date through June 25. At the same time, the yield on the index rose 0.78 percentage point – because when prices decline, yields rise. Those who hold bonds of any flavor […]

Chasing your tail

How can you get ahead of the market with all this volatility? Down 165, then up 46, then down 110. I couldn’t decide whether to buy BP on crude oil’s rise, or sell Treasuries after Rusty the Red Panda went missing from the National Zoo. So I I’ll just sit tight and keep my eye […]

John Davis on Focus on Fiduciary

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