Oil prices have dropped roughly 22.55% since their peak in April, spurning the idea that the global oil supply is weakening as a result of a combination of a lack of demand from China and an excess in production, according to experts.

U.S. fixed income markets experienced a very interesting third quarter. In August, the fixed income (bond) market experienced one of their strongest months of the year. Long-dated U.S. Treasuries, investment grade corporates, and U.S. high yield bonds outperformed for the month, extending year-to-date gains for these top-performing fixed income sectors. The strong performance up to that point in time was the favorable news on the inflation front, which helps longer-dated securities, and the expectation that the Federal reserve was to cut interest rates in September’s meeting.

Inflation getting you down? Worried about the future or the macro economic climate? A lot of Americans are turning to an old fashioned response… Homesteading. One answer to the growing inflation concerns is homesteading and urban-homesteading, also known as self-sufficiency.

Playing the markets month to month, however, is risky business, especially considering that not all stocks performed poorly in September and that there’s no guarantee that those that did will be the ones to recover in October. Of the big seven tech giants, only Meta and Tesla were able to finish out September in the green, while Apple and Nvidia dropped about 10%, driving down their respective indices.

The arrival of ChatGPT has certainly been disruptive from a media standpoint and quite a boon to self-help websites. Every other article seems to revolve around the “five or ten best ways for ChatGPT to help you…”. And while many of these tips may be surprisingly helpful, they don’t exactly show us how to predict the future of artificial intelligence (AI), given the little we’ve seen so far. Then there is the financial question: how will AI affect our economy and how do we expose our portfolios to this new phenomenon?

Planning ahead isn’t what one would consider a virtue of the average human being. Our ancestors had to institutionalize the very concept of sacrificing for the future in ancient religious rituals, but apart from that, we humans like to consume and keep moving.

Every year teaches us a new lesson. What did 2022 teach us? “Bigger” doesn’t always mean “better”.

2023 has arrive and there are already influencers, investors, and commentators sharing their goals and their secrets to keeping them throughout the year, while on the other hand, there are people who are simply exhausted with the past three years, who don’t want to have goals or maintain them.

While I thoroughly sympathize with the latter of that group, I must admit that from a financial sense, the former remains correct in that setting achievable goals that can be reasonably attained is still the best route to success.

But one question we have been hearing at the Emergent office is, if the stock market doesn’t go up, how can we achieve financial goals?

June saw the largest 12-month increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers since 1981, a whopping 9.1%. Most of this rise is a result of gasoline, housing, and food, but the question is does the increase in prices for these goods disproportionately affect lower income households?

Health is difficult to measure in most fields, especially in economics. Economists frequently disagree on which measures to point to when they refer to a “healthy economy” or a “healthy market.”

Presumably, consumption would increase when children go off to college or leave the home and begin to live on their own, providing for themselves. It’s a theory that makes sense just by intuition, but savings, however, do not seem to increase. So the question is, why not?

Recession: that word has been on everyone’s mind the past few months, and even more-so the past week. Are we in one or no? There is only one correct answer to that question.

Reaching our sunset years can often be intimidating, and we often ponder what that will entail or look like. Most of us have at least some hazy vision of what our retirement will be like, what sort of hobbies will entertain us in the future or what places we’ll visit after long years of dreaming and saving. The conventional view of the financial planning industry is that our expenses will decrease as we get older and enter retirement, but how true is that?

At Emergent, we’ve talking many times about “weathering the storm”. As we move further into 2022, that storm might be fast approaching, and it’s time to be prepared…

When should one start thinking about their financial future? When they are nearing retirement, somewhere around 60 years old? How about around 50? Maybe 40? There is no definitive age one should begin thinking about financial planning, but there is the old adage: “Better sooner than later”. And for many Americans, it is becoming one that should be followed.

We all know what happens during times of rising inflation or pending recession: our televisions become inundated with gold commercials. It would seem like gold would be a great bet given the current state of the world, yet is that the case this time around?

Financial plans are holistic, they aren’t simply retirement analyses. After all, as we’ve discussed many times on this blog and on our podcast, Today y Mañana, everything from your estate planning to your risk management can be a part of it. There are plenty of reasons to talk to your financial advisor about more than just your financial plan, here we’ve highlighted the 3 most important ones.