Stock Market | Crawford • Ashwood Financial

Inflation is a critical factor in personal finance that can significantly affect your purchasing power over time, particularly as you plan for retirement. As prices rise, the same amount of money will buy fewer goods and services in the future. This blog post will explore how inflation impacts your savings and investments and provide strategies to mitigate its effects, including a calculation on how retirees can maintain their retirement income needs over a period of 20 years. What is Inflation? Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power. Central…

The month of October saw a very strong upswing on the major market indexes. This does not change the fact that 2022 has been an emotional time for investors. It’s always uncomfortable to live through these kinds of extended market downturns. During these periods of discomfort, it can be helpful to reflect on the past as means to help frame the eventual path forward. Keeping focused on your long-term goals is important during these uncertain times. During these kinds of markets, I remind my clients that these are not uncharted waters. Over the past 60+ years, equity markets have seen…

2022 has been the year of market volatility and understandably an uncomfortable time for investors. The “statement shock” can be worrying for many people when they see their investments worth less than they were three or six months ago. Most of my clients are experienced when it comes to the ups and downs, but nevertheless, it is a time of many questions about what you should do when markets are down. Every time it happens it feels like it’s different this time. The reasons may be different, but the response should be the same. First, I want to summarize the…

A few things have contributed to the rocky start to the year in equity markets, after a generally steady climb back from the March 2020 “crash”. Chief Investment Strategist from Dynamic Funds Myles Zyblock shares a quick and easy to understand update on the volatility we’ve seen over the first few weeks of 2022, and what we can keep in mind moving forward in equity markets. Click here to read the short article (1-2 minute read). As we often say, market volatility provides great opportunity for our portfolio managers to take advantage of these dips to reposition their portfolios and…

Well, we’ve climbed steadily back up, so where does the market goes from here? This is a question I have been getting a lot recently. We witnessed a huge decline in the stock market last March, and a record-breaking recovery back from that downturn. World markets are again at all-time highs, which understandably will raise questions about how it can possibly continue. When is the next crash? I have been listening to top portfolio managers, economists, and market strategists speak about the past year, and the outlook moving forward. The outlook is still very bullish on stocks. There has been…

To say 2020 has been an interesting year would be a massive understatement. Although in many ways it has been uncomfortable, it has also given us some time and space to take stock. And from my perspective as an ‘older adult’, yes ok, a senior citizen, the times of most discomfort provide the biggest lessons in our lives. When viewed with a curious mind we can find all kinds of useful learning opportunities through these times of COVID-19. Here are some things that have not changed but perhaps we needed to be reminded of: Obvious personal reminders are that our…

We’d like to share some comments on the upcoming U.S. Presidential Election—and the continuing effects of the current pandemic. It is so easy to get stirred up by the media that focuses only on the current and short-term view (which let’s face it has been rather dismal lately), and totally miss the long view. Calmer heads are looking past these short-term uncertainties however, and they are seeing opportunities for positive change in a variety of ways. We don’t profess to be experts in U.S. politics, so we won’t be calling the election here. The fact is anything could happen on…

It’s been a little while since we updated you on the state of the markets. COVID-19 surely caused the global markets to plunge back in March. It was relatively short-lived, and the market bottomed on March 23rd. Since then, markets have rebounded quite nicely already (about 50% up from the bottom) overall. The markets are driven by emotions, and uncertainty brings those emotions high, and causes reactions in either direction. This is what we call volatility – the ups and downs of the stock market. There is no doubt that some sectors were hard hit. With travel at a standstill…

I think that we are all feeling various levels of unease at present; from slightly off kilter to all-out anxiety. Watching the numbers of new infections of COVID-19 every day certainly doesn’t help, nor do the wild swings in markets help calm us. We are living in a world where we are bombarded with daily news and it can be exhausting trying to keep up with it all. As we talk to many of our clients, we find that everyone’s approach to coping is different. Some people are glued to their TVs and radios, others are choosing to use this…

It has been a couple of difficult weeks for global markets. Volatility is soaring. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11th. It is now spreading quickly across the United States. The selling pressure last week is comparable to some of the worst selloffs in market history: 1929- 1932, 1987 and 2008. At times like these, investors can easily get lost in the headlines. As stewards of your capital, our primary job is to make sense of it all, keep the right perspective and, importantly, avoid big mistakes. Often that means keeping things simple. At present and looking ahead, what…

Category Archives: Stock Market

The Impact of Inflation on Savings and Investments

Market Update

Market Update

Market Commentary

Market Update

Goodbye 2020

What in the World?!

Market Update

Thoughts for Difficult Times

Keeping The Right Perspective