Flourish Insights

Episode 31: What is the Real Unemployment Rate? The coronavirus crisis has led to millions of lost jobs, and millions more workers who have jobs but who aren’t making as much today as they were a year ago. Official numbers state that the unemployment rate is at 6%, but that is misleading because it doesn’t count underemployed, marginally attached, and discouraged workers. In this episode, Jay Plui...

Episode 30: Inflation: Too Hot, Too Cold, or Just Right? Inflation means a general increase in prices and a fall in the purchasing power of money. We have not truly experienced high inflation in the U.S. since the 1970s when an oil embargo by OPEC caused prices at the pump that some families couldn’t afford. However, three current factors are leading many to wonder whether the U.S. economy is abou...

Episode 29: What is Happening in the ESG World? We’ve discussed the growing field of ESG investments in prior podcasts, and this week we’re examining the broader trends that could be supportive of Environmental, Social, and Governance investments in the U.S. and beyond. We’ll dig into the largest-ever annual decline in global carbon emissions and the $200 billion price tag for wildfires, floods an...

Episode 28: Does Stock Picking Work? When you think of success stories like Tesla and Apple, it can be tempting to try your hand at individual stock picking. However, the risks outweigh the rewards. For every Tesla there is an Enron, and for every Apple there is a WorldCom. For stock picking to work, you have to make two well-timed decisions: when to buy and when to sell. The chances of getting bo...

Episode 27: Wall Street - The Reality Behind the Bad Reputation Wall Street has a wide variety of definitions, some positive and some negative, but what do all the shades of gray really mean? It’s a physical location in downtown New York and the home of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and it has become a catch-all term for all things investments, but there’s more to the story. In this episode,...

Episode 26: GameStop - The Difference Between Investing and Trading At Flourish, we build client portfolio allocations and use a mixture of mutual funds and ETFs to accomplish long-term goals. Taking a long-term approach like ours, based on upside potential over time, is called investing. Trading, conversely, focuses on making money in the near-term by capitalizing on price changes, upcoming annou...

Episode 25: Are We In a Market Bubble? We witnessed a surprisingly strong stock market rally in 2020, following a strong year in 2019, which has led many people to wonder whether we are in a market bubble - the term used to describe an overvalued stock market. While some data points say it’s possible, our perspective at Flourish is that we have a fairly-valued market, with some areas that could be...

Episode 24: The Key Objectives for the Federal Reserve Also known as the Fed, the Federal Reserve was established in 1913 to act as the central banking system for the United States after a series of financial crises at the beginning of the century. It is an independent organization that reports to Congress for oversight, and it’s three key objectives are to stabilize prices, maximize employment, a...

Episode 23: The K-Shaped Recovery A K-shaped recovery describes the situation where performance for different parts of the economy goes in different directions. In this case, one part goes up while another part goes down, diverging like the arms of the letter K. Currently, the vertical line of the K is the starting point - when the U.S. economy shut down in March 2020 due to COVID. Since then, we’...

Episode #22: Expectations for 2021 Based on the record-breaking year we experienced in 2020, and the mass distribution of COVID-19 vaccines expected for the coming months, we are cautiously optimistic for the economy and the stock market in 2021. Economic predictions include a moderate recovery in the first half of the year, with a bigger upswing in late 2021. This would lead to economic growth ra...

Episode 21: Reflections on 2020 This past year was one for the record books, both for the stock market and for the greater economy. The year began fairly well, with the S&P 500 hitting a record high on February 19. COVID concerns soon impacted the market and the S&P dropped 34%, bottoming out on March 23. State and Federal officials soon initiated the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection...

Episode 20: What is a TINA Market? As we move into 2021, we may be in for a TINA market, which stands for “There is No Alternative” and refers to a market where stocks offer better returns than other asset classes. If we end up with a TINA market for the next several years, it may have the effect of creating unrealistic valuations over time because people buy stocks simply because there is no alte...

Episode #19: The Investment Impact of Vaccines Vaccines are now being deployed in the United States and around the world, and it’s important to consider what this might mean for the economy and investors. They have already been receiving the benefits for the past three months, and these market gains reflect a prediction that we should have a broad recovery in 2021. This expected return to “normal”...

Episode #18: The Energy Sector The energy sector represented nearly one-third of the S&P index in the 1980s, but now it is less than 2% and 2020 may be a decisive turning point for energy sector stocks. Forty years ago, the energy sector represented nearly one-third of the S&P index, and it remained at 15% in the 1990s. Now, however, there are zero energy sector stocks in the top 25 of the...

Episode #17: The Small Cap Recovery Small cap companies, which are public companies with market capitalizations under $2 billion - and as low as $300 million - make up a large portion of the U.S. stock market. The Russell 2000, which is the primary benchmark for small cap companies, is showing a strong recovery in Q4. The Russell is up 23% in October and November, as opposed to the S&P 500, wh...

Why Emerging Markets? Having a diversified investment portfolio includes meaningful exposure to Emerging Markets because they support higher expected long-term returns. Emerging Markets represent 13% of the global economy and frequently have the highest economic growth rates. It’s important for a diversified investment portfolio to include meaningful exposure to Emerging Markets because they suppo...

Episode #15: Post-Election Markets The make-up of our federal government won’t be finalized for several weeks, but the notion of a divided government often leads to a “goldilocks” scenario of strong economic growth. Although the make-up of our government will not be finalized for a few more weeks, we can already begin to identify important economic and investment themes for the next few years. If...

Episode #14: Active Versus Passive Investing   Picking active fund managers means you’re betting against statistical odds - and paying higher fees in the process.    When it comes to your portfolio, you have two choices. Active management is when an investment manager has discretion to buy and sell stocks and bonds they believe will do best, beating other managers and existing benchmarks, while pa...

Episode #13: Home Bias & Poor Diversification Beware your investing biases and don’t forget to double-check your mutual fund holdings. In this week’s episode, Director of Investments, Jay Pluimer discusses the dangers of investor bias and lack of diversification in your portfolio. Home Bias means that investors tend to invest more heavily in Domestic Stocks and Bonds. Doing so can lead to miss...

Episode #12: Why Should I have Bonds Now? Historically, there have been two reasons to own bonds: risk reduction, and a combination of income and price appreciation. What’s different right now? We’re currently in a unique environment, where it’s important to adjust your expectations related to owning bonds and to change your approach to investment management in order to reach your goals. Always ch...

Episode #: Fiscal Stimulus and Market Movements Fiscal stimulus is an economic game-changer, and it can impact the stock market in several ways. The Federal Reserve has been very aggressive during the coronavirus pandemic, providing monetary stimulus to support banks, bonds, money market funds and even stocks. More recently, stock market levels dropped when talks of another stimulus bill slowed. A...

Episode #10: How to Invest in ESG If you’d like to get started investing in ESG in order to create a more values-focused portfolio, there are many opportunities available to you. At Flourish Wealth Management, we help our clients identify the themes most important to them and build a customized portfolio to match. You can get started today by taking our ESG survey. Always check back next week for...

Episode #9: What is ESG? This investment strategy allows you to align your values with your dollars, while influencing corporate behavior, too. Investing isn’t all about dollars and cents - it’s about your values, too. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance investing, and it allows investors to create a virtuous cycle by building a portfolio that serves their social goals, while also...

Episode 8: Growth vs. Value Growth stocks - companies that have the potential to grow revenues at a rate that is much higher than the market - have been driving the post-COVID rally in 2020. Value stocks trade at prices below their fundamentals and have performed well historically. Understanding the difference between these two styles of stocks, and knowing their performance over time, will help y...

Episode #7: The Dangers of Stock Concentration September saw an unexpected drop for tech stocks, leading to a market correction. The Nasdaq 100, the index which best represents the technology sector, dropped by 10 percent in just three trading days. Interestingly, there was no specific reason for this market correction. However, this highlights the potential dangers of stock concentration. Always...