At Apprise Wealth Management, we want to help people make better decisions about money. We also read constantly and like sharing some of our favorite commentaries each week.
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Here are this week’s articles as well as a brief description of each:
1. Is Your Child Headed to College? The Importance of Having a Financial Power of Attorney and Health Care Directive in Place Before They Go! Mid-to-late August can be an emotional time for families. If you have college-age children, it often means it is time for them to leave for school. The start of freshman year is particularly tough. This week our second son, Daniel, will be starting college. We’ve already been through this process once as our oldest son, Joshua, graduated in May. That doesn’t make it any easier though. Daniel’s everyday presence in our home will be missed by his parents and his other siblings. Beyond the emotional aspect of having your child leave the nest is the realization that at age 18, your child is legally an adult. If something happens while they are at school, and you don’t have a Financial Power of Attorney and a Medical Power of Attorney in place, you won’t be able to easily access your child’s financial information or be involved in making any medical decisions about your child.
2. Exercise Makes You Happier Than Money, According to Yale and Oxford Research. Many of us know the benefits of exercise are both physical and mental. According to this study, those who exercise regularly tend to feel bad less frequently than those who do not. The researchers also found physically active people feel just as good as those who don’t do sports and earn around $25,000 more per year. The study also found that three-to-five training sessions per week is the ideal activity level. Most likely because of their social aspects, the positive effect of team sports – which involve socializing – was also greater.
3. How Checking Performance Might Hurt Your Performance. If you’re saving money for the long-term, the market’s short-term ups and downs shouldn’t matter as much. When markets get volatile, investing can be stressful. You may want to reduce your market-related anxieties. Focusing on recent performance can increase stress and lower returns. This article from Betterment shows that when customers log in more frequently, they:
· Change their allocations
· Turn off auto-deposits
· Quit investing entirely
Such behaviors are unlikely to lead to better returns. In fact, they can make them worse.
4. How Interstitial Journaling Can Help You Focus Your Day and Work Smarter. Do you use to-do lists to manage projects? This article discusses a way to make them even better – making short journal entries between tasks. The goal is to help you focus and work smarter. Interstitial journaling helps you build a strategic narrative around your workflow as you go. It also helps keep you from being distracted by what you were working on and be more strategic about what you are working on.
5. Investors Are Worrying About a Recession – Here’s Why Young People Shouldn’t Panic. Last week economic news about interest rates spooked investors and caused the market to drop. If your investment time horizon is long, and you are decades from retirement, your investments have plenty of time to recover from a recession’s effects on the market. In fact, for younger investors, a recession can be a welcome event. After all, they don’t have that much invested in the market, so their savings won’t fall that much. They also have lots of time to recover. Instead, if you keep contributing to your 401(k) each week, you’re purchasing investments at lower prices during a market downturn.
We hope you find the above posts valuable.If you would like to talk to us about financial topics including your investments, creating a financial plan, saving for college, or saving for your retirement, please complete our contact form, and we will be in touch. We can schedule a call, a virtual meeting via Zoom, or a meeting at Apprise Wealth Management’s office in Northern Baltimore County.
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Phil Weiss founded Apprise Wealth Management. He started his financial services career in 1987 working as a tax professional for Deloitte & Touche. For the past 25+ years, he has worked extensively in the areas of financial planning and investment management. Phil is both a CFA charterholder and a CPA.
Located just north of Baltimore, Apprise works with clients face-to-face locally and can also work virtually regardless of location.
