Opinion, Investing
Shaun Melby, CFP®
Election 2020: The Aftermath and Where We Go ...

The United States has elected Joe Biden to be its next President. Despite there being a last-ditch effort by President Trump to muddy the waters with claims of massive voter fraud, the country is beginning to move ahead. The S&P 500 has rallied 6.04% as of the morning of this writing (November 18th) from the day after Election Day (November 4th) and is pricing in a smooth transition of power. This transition of power is what separates the United States of America from other countries in the world and is the backbone of what makes our country so strong. President Trump has displayed that he has no intentions to concede, and will fight the results of the election until he has extinguished every option. This uncertainty may provide some market volatility in the short term, but I expect that volatility to be short-lived.

Election 2020: The Aftermath and Where We Go From Here
Finance 101
Shaun Melby, CFP®
What Does It Take To Have $1,000,000?

As Regis Philbin once asked, “Who wants to be a millionaire?”

 You’re might be saying to yourself “I do, but I don’t want to go on a game show to do it.”

 With a combination of patience, persistence, and self-control…you too can be a millionaire without having to answer any multiple-choice questions.

Here’s how you can do it.

What Does It Take To Have $1,000,000?
Opinion
Shaun Melby, CFP®
2020 Mid-Year Review

We are halfway through 2020 and it feels like we are at a crossroads. The first 6 months of 2020 have been a whirlwind, to say the least.

Strictly speaking of the stock market, we saw the S&P 500 decline by an unprecedented fall of -33.92% in the span of a few weeks quickly followed by a slingshot rebound in the market of 44.47%. At the halfway point of the year, the S&P 500 was down -4.84% as of the close on June 30th. With everything that has happened this year, being down -4.84% feels pretty good.

2020 Mid-Year Review
About
Shaun Melby, CFP®
Father’s Day Firsts

This post isn’t going to have much to do with personal finances at all. I tell my clients that financial planning is really planning for when life happens. Well, life happened to me in the past year. I was born on Father’s Day in 1985 so it’s always been a holiday I had a connection with, yet I never gave much thought to it and what Father’s Day actually meant until now (unfortunately, in my family, we didn’t pay much attention to “Father’s Day” in its own right-- even though my Dad was one of the best).

Father’s Day Firsts
Investing, Opinion
Shaun Melby, CFP®
The S&P 500 Is Up Almost 28% Since March ...

COVID-19 and the call to flatten the curve has wreaked absolute havoc on the United States economy. GDP shrank -4.8% in the 1st Quarter of 2020 and the 2nd Quarter is looking to have a large contraction with an even larger recovery in the 3rd Quarter. Total first-time unemployment claims since mid-March have grown to 36.5 million, which represents a 22.4% unemployment rate. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high of 3,386.15 on February 19th and closed at a low of 2,237.40 nearly a month later on March 23rd. That means the S&P 500 fell by -33.92%. Since the end of WW2, over the past 75 years, there have only been four instances where the S&P 500 fell greater – assuming the worst is now over. This was, by all means, an epic drawdown in the market. However, had we not social distanced the economic repercussions would have been even worse.


That is the bad news.

The S&P 500 Is Up Almost 28% Since March 23rd – Now What?

Opinion

You Are Not A Lottery Ticket

You Are Not A Lottery Ticket

I recently finished “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel. I’m a few years late to it being released, but it has left quite an impact on my outlook. While the book delves into the mindset necessary to build a successful startup, there is one specific chapter in the book that struck a chord with me.

Chapter 6 is titled “You Are Not A Lottery Ticket” and the entire time I was reading it I could not stop thinking about how applicable this notion is to personal finances. I don’t want this post to turn into a full on book report, so I will briefly summarize what Peter states.

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The Uber IPO – Should You Invest In Uber?

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The Uber IPO – Should You Invest In Uber?

As you likely have heard, Uber is having its IPO (Initial Public Offering) on Friday, May 10th in what is being hailed as the largest IPO in history. There is a ton of excitement and hype surrounding the IPO. It’s even likely that you have bought into some of this excitement. After all, you have probably used the service and heard of the people who are going to make a killing because they invested in Uber during the early stages. But is this something you should invest in?