Just when it looked like stocks might be bouncing back from a dismal first half of the year, everything turned negative again. As this chart from Morningstar shows, stocks were up almost 15% at one point in the third quarter, only to finish September back in the red. Almost every category of stocks fell in the quarter, with large-cap US stocks down 5%, small-cap US stocks down 2%, international developed market stocks down 9%, and international emerging markets stocks down 10%.

Summer is generally a slow time for tax news as Congress goes on recess and accountants take a break between the major spring and fall tax deadlines. However, some important news items came out over the past few months and we wanted to provide a quick summary of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Student Loan Forgiveness Plan and more...

After two years of strong returns in the markets, the poor results of 2022 should not come as a complete surprise. We know markets cannot go up forever and bear markets are unavoidable that occur on average about every four years. Unfortunately, no matter how normal they might be, bear markets are still painful to live through. Nobody enjoys seeing their hard-earned dollars decline in value and this year almost everyone has seen their portfolio value decline. Things have been bleak in the investment world this year, but it always helps to look for the silver lining. Let’s look at this year’s good, bad and ugly, but we’ll start with the ugly!

This year is the first time since the early 80’s that we have seen a surge in inflation and we can see it everywhere. The first place most people notice it is at the gas pump, where the national average price of a gallon of gas recently hit $5 for the first time ever. Let’s look at how we got here, where we might go next, and any actions you should take.

While we were busy preparing tax returns and tax extension calculations over the past couple of months, there were some notable updates on tax legislation. The proposed regulations for the original SECURE Act were released with a major surprise for beneficiaries of IRA accounts. The proposed SECURE Act 2.0 is in the news again after finally being passed by the House of Representatives. In local news, Maryland announced a retirement tax package that includes a state tax credit for some retirees.

There was a lot of bad news in the first quarter of 2022. We saw another peak in COVID cases with the omicron variant in January. In February, Russia invaded Ukraine and continues its unprovoked assault on the country. Stocks and bonds were both down on the quarter and inflation continued to shoot higher. With all this doom and gloom it might be hard to find anything positive, but there are some bright spots...