John’s little cousin would say that to him quite a bit. He’s still not sure what it means after all these years. Hopefully it’s good. He’s too old to know. You know what else is old? The market. It’s been around longer than anyone reading this. Since its birth it’s been the definition of random – or in other words, patternless. Look at the last forty-five years below. The dots are yearly returns of the market. The lines are the high and low points in that year. Now try to find a pattern. (But don’t try for too long, because …
Patience in Investing: 2024 Update
Well, that was no fun. But you made it! You are now on the other side of 23 months of no new highs, the second longest streak since ‘97. It started at the high on 1/4/22, bottomed out on 9/30/22, and now here we are after a furious 38% run up in global equities from there. By the time we hit that bottom, how often did you hear “this time is different”? Ah, the most dangerous words in investing! Not because they were ever right, but because they have always been wrong. How many dollars were taken out of the …
Frequently “Oaked” Questions
You Asked, So We’ll Answer FOQ: With the election coming, what if (name your candidate) wins? Short: Doesn’t matter. Long: There are endless factors that may influence the market. The president is just one of them. Luckily, it’s one factor that doesn’t seem to matter much. See for yourself: Red or blue, the market has delivered fantastic returns over time. FOQ: What about it being an election year? Aren’t returns wonky? Short: Yes, but in a good way. Long: The market averages about 10% per year. While returns vary wildly from that average, you should never expect more …
Look! It’s Another…
…John! This one is of the Cooney variety (Thankfully – one Noonan is enough). Please help us welcome Great Oak’s newest family member, John Cooney, CFP®. Having grown from a $50 million dollar firm in our humble beginnings to now over $300 million, work is aplenty. Lucky for us, John can handle twice the workload, as he’s not only a financial planning wizard but also a tax extraordinaire. Along with Mark, our other dual threat, we’ve doubled the number of tax professionals, which we suppose now makes it a tax department. Cool. Most impressively, John is an Army veteran, West …