Hi Peggy,

I hope you had a relaxing and fun 4th of July despite the seriousness of all the challenges in the world now. Those who know me even a little bit, know that I would never claim to know what the markets are going to do next, so forgive me for the "clickbait" subject line.  

Here are some articles (scroll below) to help put the current downturn and the threats of a recession and inflation in perspective so you can make the right decisions and feel better as we navigate this current volatile market:

1. Three Crucial Lessons for Weathering the Stock Market’s Storm

2. History Shows that Stock Gains Can Add Up after Big Declines

3. Light at the End of the Inflation Tunnel?

4. Are We Headed for a Recession?

5. Demystifying Systematic Fixed Income Investing

6. Are SMAs the Future of Personalized Investing?

"Wonky alert", these papers are gems in really explaining the essential things to know about each topic.  Peruse them and you will be rewarded with great insight. To answer the question "what to do?", everyone is different but many have common concerns.  The best answer depends on many things, especially what is unique and most important to you. 

The market is always changing and adapting and so are we. We are committed to continuous learning and applying lessons learned.  We have been investigating strategies that can help improve client outcomes: everything from cash holdings,  all the asset classes,  tax strategies, communication, and direct indexing, too. 

I have been getting questions about  ESG funds’ performance given how much the energy stocks’ rise has been in the news since the invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. 

It has not had a big impact on the portfolios for two reasons, energy stocks are only about 5% of the benchmark weighting and are only ~3.5% of the portfolio.  The biggest asset class decline has come from US large growth, rather than from only the holdings with higher ESG measures. I was surprised but happy about that. If you would like to see the Morningstar comparison, please let me know and I will send it to you. 

Down markets have a silver lining for clients with taxable accounts – tax loss harvesting (to increase your cost basis to minimize the tax impact on future gains) and Roth Conversions. If you are converting annually already, and if you convert when account values are lower like now, that means you will experience lower taxes on the conversion, and then when the market rises and your holdings are in your Roth account, you will pay zero taxes on those gains when withdrawn.  It is all about execution and controlling what you can control - always. 

If you are interested in more information on these or other topics, please let me know. 

Enjoy your summer of 2022. 

Positively preparing for whatever unfolds, 

Peggy 

Peggy McGillin, CFP

Journey Wealth Partners