Left Brain Thinking

0:00 Intro 2:24 What Are Your Goals? 5:10 Hidden Costs of Rental Ownership 6:55 Pros of Real Estate Investing 8:00 Cons of Real Estate Investing Should you invest in real estate? As advisors, this is one of the most frequently asked questions we hear from clients and other investors. Most important when answering this question is really understanding your goals: are you looking for cash flow? pric...

0:00 Intro 1:34 Market Recap 2:56 Topic 1: Earnings Review -- Things Have Been Changing 6:22 Topic 2: Practical Ways to Respond to the Market Correction We are smack dab in the middle of the earnings season. Results so far have been mixed and we've seen a few extreme negative reactions. What has us somewhat concerned is the state of the consumer. Having read earnings results from McDonalds (MCD),...

0:00 Intro 1:15 Market Recap 3:01 Topic 1: Earnings Season -- The Antidote for the Macro Malaise? 8:52 Topic 2: A Tax-Efficient Income Strategy It's been some time since we've heard any substantial news about companies and their microeconomics. That's about to change, as we move into earnings season. Markets have struggled over the past few weeks, as investors look away from business fundamentals...

0:00 Intro 2:19 Market Recap 4:25 Topic 1: Winners and Losers in 2024 8:31 Topic 2: Previewing the Rest of 2024 The first quarter of the year is now in the books and, boy, did it fly by! After a strong 2023, we have seen an excellent start to the year in markets, with both the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite up double digits. In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Rese...

0:00 Intro 2:18 Market Recap 4:36 Topic 1: Bitcoin "Mooning" but It's Not the Only Growth Engine 7:19 Topic 2: Ways to Take Advantage of the Bull Market Bitcoin has been dominating the news in recent weeks and with good reason: it's been up more than 60% in the first few months of 2024. But we can't help but notice other trends that are driving huge returns in the conventional stock market -- Arti...

0:00 Intro 2:19 Market Recap 3:43 Topic 1: Giving the Bull Market Some Context 9:50 Topic 2: Action Steps for Investors in Early 2024 We continue to see evidence that the US stock market is in bull territory. This week we dive deeper into the data of 2024's first two months as we look to see what are the true drivers of the bull market thus far. At the same time, even though we are moving swiftly...

0:00 Intro 2:16 Market Recap 5:00 Personal Finance Corner: IRAs and Roth Conversions 6:16 Topic 1: NASDAQ 1990s -- A History Lesson 11:18 Topic 2: Earnings Season -- Trends Are Emerging Earnings season is coming to a close and a conclusion is emerging -- we are looking at the early stages of a bull market! In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress get...

The beginning of the year is the best time to make adjustments to your financial plan. This week we wanted to cover some of the most simple, yet effective techniques that we often recommend to clients. In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress discuss some key moves you can make with your retirement accounts at the beginning of the year. We also do a...

0:00 Intro  2:20 Market Recap 4:39 Topic 1: Putting the Macro Behind Us (For Good) 7:59 Topic 2: What Makes Us Optimistic for 2024 The investing year of 2023 has been a rollercoaster, but we look to be ending the year out on a positive note. Interest rates and inflation have dominated the conversation, but with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's press conference this week, it seems evident t...

Investor sentiment has been weak in the second half of 2023, but things have certainly changed for the better in November. Interest rates seem to have topped and we are moving toward the time for the traditional "Santa Claus rally". In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress take a look back on the last three years in the market, which have been challe...

0:00 Intro  0:56 Who Needs an Estate Plan? 1:35 Mistake #1: Not Defining Your Goals 4:23 Mistake #2: Not Getting Beneficiaries Right 5:42 "Five by Five" Power in a Trust 8:11 Mistake #3: Not Considering Your Liabilities 9:57 Mistake #4: Not Updating Your Estate Plan 11:01 Mistake #5 : Going it Along (and Procrastinating!) When you ultimately pass away, do you want to determine who receives your as...

0:00 Intro 2:19 Market Recap 5:03 Topic 1: How to Respond to Global Crises 8:45 Topic 2: Earnings Season is Finally Here! 15:05 Bonus Topic: End of Year Tax Management We continue to experience jittery markets in the month of October, with two major stories continuing to dominate the headlines -- rising interest rates and the raging conflict in Israel and the Gaza Strip. In this week's Jarvis® Upd...

September is closing out in markets just the way it started -- poorly. This week, we examine the various reasons why investors appear to be on edge. It should come as little surprise that interest rates are at the heart of the angst. In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress discuss some of the green shoots we do see in the markets, including the reem...

This week our CEO Noland Langford sat down with an old friend of the show, Chuck Jaffe, for a good old-fashioned stock talk. Noland starts out the show giving a review of 2023 year-to-date, noting the top-heavy nature of the market over the past 9 months. He mentions that he is looking for opportunities in small and mid-cap stocks, both of which have underperformed in 2023. Noland discussed some o...

This week we switch gears from our usual market recap videos to bring you the latest in our Fundamentals of Investing series, discussing a topic that is relevant to literally all families -- Life Insurance. Most of us know Life Insurance is an essential building block of a comprehensive financial plan, but there are so many options and potential pitfalls that going it alone is a dangerous strategy...

The first few weeks of August have been fairly dismal across markets. But we saw some quite impressive earnings reports out of a few AI-related names this week in Nvidia (NVDA), Splunk (SPLK), and Snowflake (SNOW). This got us to thinking we should share part of the discipline of long-term investing with our followers. Just because stock prices are down temporarily, doesn't mean that we should kne...

Markets were positively buoyant in the first 7 months of the year, with the S&P 500 gaining roughly 17% on the way to August 1. But in the last couple weeks we have seen a slight correction across the market. With that in mind, along with the inflation data, as well as the rising interest rate environment, we are starting to hear concerns from investors that perhaps the bull market could be over b...

Tax day was just 3 months ago, but we think now is the time to start thinking about how to be tax-efficient for next year! In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress, cover our three favorite tax strategies for investors, along with a fourth bonus strategy that is one of Noland's favorites! Before we get to taxes, we cover the improving market conditio...

We've been as out front as anyone stating our view that we are in the early days of a bull market. This week we cover one of the biggest turnaround sectors of 2023 -- travel. Whether it be airlines, cruise lines, hotels, or anything tangentially related to travel, it seems to be working. Strength in a consumer sector like travel has us asking: "What Recession?" In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO N...

It's certainly been a tough road the last 18 months, but finally we see the clouds beginning to part in markets. We have seen great strength in the growth areas of the market, sure, but things are beginning to widen out and we are ready to make that the call that we are finally back into bull market territory! In this week's Jarvis® Update, CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress...

Boy, are we glad to put the debt ceiling fiasco behind us! Markets have started to gain steam, both from the resolution of the debt ceiling, but even more because of the continued emergence of AI as an investment theme. In this week's Jarvis® Update, we cover the new market dynamic we seem to be seeing, especially in the world's largest growth stocks. From there, CEO Noland Langford and Director o...

Markets are starting to heat up as earnings season slowly winds down. In this week's Jarvis® Update, we answer the question that is on many investors' minds as things start to firm up in the financial markets: Is it time to shift from defense to offense? CEO Noland Langford and Director of Research, Brian Dress, answer that question in the affirmative, as they cover the market events of the past w...

An awful lot happened over the past week in the markets. The week started with another banking wind down in First Republic Bank. But by the end of the week, markets showed excellent resilience, especially after a very strong Friday. In this week's Jarvis® Update, we briefly cover the macroeconomic events of the banking crisis and this week's Federal Reserve rate hike announcement. From there, CEO...

This week's market action was pretty boring. But after a volatile first three months of the year, we are actually happy to see calmer waters in the stock market seas! All the major indexes were up at least a fraction of a percent this week, with the small cap Russell 2000 index showing outperformance and gaining more than 2% in value over the last week. What's more, we saw the VIX (the volatility...

The first quarter in the markets has been anything but dull. We've seen volatility in interest rates, Federal Reserve rate hikes, and a mini-banking crisis, but we've still weathered the storm. We are as optimistic as ever, but also with the understanding the prices may not move up in a straight line from here. The opportunities both in growth stocks and in fixed rate securities are still plentifu...