Our Weekend Word

The Olympics in Tokyo this year have all eyes on Japan, bringing the island nation’s culture into the global spotlight.

One of the amazing things about Japanese culture has always been their devotion to process and discipline. It seems that there is a well-thought-out, agreed upon way to do almost everything in life from running a business to folding laundry. Fortunately for our financial lives, this includes a Japanese method of budgeting called “Kakeibo”.  

A joint account may seem like a quick and easy way to be able to help out a parent or grandparent with their finances or work toward a common goal with a significant other. Despite the convenience, however, joint ownership of assets can have some pretty serious pitfalls if you chose this route in the wrong situation. Here are some of the most common situations where joint ownership can hurt more than it helps.

Whether or not people can get their hands on fireworks this year, I’m sure we’ll find an appropriate way to celebrate in the U.S. of A. These issues in the global supply chain, however, may not be so easy to work around.

As consumers we’re conditioned to look at one side of the equation when we go to buy things, what’s it gonna cost me. A couple percent increase in the cost of some staple items can cost a household hundreds or thousands of dollars more per year to live the same way. That cost is affected not only by prices, but by many other factors as products make their way to the consumers.

After a few months of being trapped at home last year, Americans were moving in droves. The second half of last year saw the busiest months for the U.S. housing market in a decade. With historically low mortgage rates, a global building supply shortage, and high motivation to move, demand for existing homes was insatiable. We know what happens to prices when demand goes up and supply is fixed. The latest report from the National Association of Realtors shows a 19.1% increase in the median home sale price from a year ago. That is the highest yearly increase since the ’08 housing bubble. 

2021 has been an interesting year for investors so far and the stock market is feeling eerily similar to every day life. Things are going pretty well, but trusting that to continue still seems like a bad idea.

Despite the pandemic we saw existing home sales reach levels higher than they have since 2007.  The median sale price of those homes increased to their highest level yet, almost 15% over 2019 prices.  So, as we revel in the fact our homes have increased exponentially, and those new happy homeowners enjoy their purchase there is always that pesky thing lurking around the corner… property tax reassessments.

On March 17, 2021, the IRS announced that the federal income tax filing deadline for the 2020 tax year has been extended from April 15 to May 17.

I love learning more about the advancements in today’s technology, and the applications they might have. But lately it feels like we're reaching an inflection point where tech (especially software) is evolving faster than we can keep up.  We’ve talked in the past about how subscriptions are the new business model due to reoccurring revenue,  or how all of your iTunes music or Google Movies aren’t really yours. But now we are entering a whole new era, and one I just can’t quite comprehend.

2020 is a year I am sure we would all soon like to forget, but the ramifications of the last 15 months will be felt for years if not decades.  Last year the pandemic brought economies across the globe to a screeching halt and sent markets into a tailspin.   In an attempt to stem the bleeding central banks worldwide issued stimulus in unprecedented ways.  Wes reassured Mike and I last year that the Fed was throwing everything they had at it and doing so faster than they had back in ’08-’09.  Well, it worked, in March we ended the longest expansion in history to enter the shortest recession in history.  In hindsight it might have worked too well. I doubt many of us in March would have expected to see markets rebound from -30% to +16% just 9 months later, but here we are.