Blog

The only thing nice about August, 2013 was the weather. It was another month, like June, where both stocks and bonds were down. Everyone lost money. The worries from August can be boiled down to one reason: September. September promises to be eventful for four reasons: the Federal Reserve, the polit...

Prepare to be underwhelmed! With interest rates having risen substantially over the past few months, I wondered to myself if banks had similarly begun increasing the rates they are offering on CDs to customers. The answer can be found in a brief listing of CD's, culled from a search this morning:...

Last Friday Nasdaq halted trading for stocks listed on its exchange. The problem persisted for a few hours and caused a firestorm of news and complaints. I heard many people on TV and the internet take up the torch exclaiming how "The markets are broken," or "High-frequency trading is destroying the...

In my past career as a journalist I would constantly have to remind myself that just because I sat in a newsroom digesting the daily deluge of news, others were not. It was unfair to expect everyone to have the same knowledge of the day's happenings simply because I'd sat through three newscasts. Th...

I thought this was safe!?!? Recently, this has been a common reaction of folks opening their monthly statements to see drops in their account values, despite owning investments they believed to be safe. Yes, I am talking about bonds - and more specifically, the idea of what a "bond" is. Wanting t...

It has been the conversation piece du jour - the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester this week. Whether at Wegman's, strolling down Park Ave, or conversing with clients in meetings, golf's final major is on the minds of many in our area. Play starts Thursday and culminates with th...

I find working with young investors to be an extremely rewarding part of my job. It's exciting when a person in their 20's comes in and tells me they are done with school, beginning their career and want to start saving right away. Often they have begun already. They are putting into their 401(k) th...

Saving and paying for college is a major source of stress around this time of year. The cost of both private and public schools certainly isn't going down. Many parents of college-aged children are receiving tuition bills in the mail, no doubt eager to shell out the big bucks for classes, room and b...

I have received four different offers to open new credit cards as of Wednesday of this week. Lucky me. I can't say that I am surprised by this as credit card debt in America has risen to new levels, again. The good news here is that we are doing a better job at paying the debt down in a timely fashi...

Our clients have a wide variety of investment goals. Some are looking to preserve wealth and generate income, others are looking for steady growth, while a few enjoy speculation. Regardless of their goals, no one likes to lose money. Although volatility is inevitable, and most investors understand t...