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Most people cannot live on Social Security or a pension alone. Investing and saving for the future in retirement accounts, like 401ks or IRAs, is key to funding a long and happy retirement. But this begs the question of what should you be invested in? In the news, we hear a lot about the outperformance of certain tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft. Does it still make sense to diversify in today's investment environment? We believe the answer is a resounding yes, and the most recent quarter helps exemplify that fact.

This year has felt so long you may have forgotten, but at the end of March the Federal government passed the CARES Act which provided a slew of various benefits to assist individuals and businesses during the pandemic. Since then, there has been continuous talk of additional support being administered with no meaningful progress . . . until now. In the final days of 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriates Act of 2021, which includes additional coronavirus support, and in the eleventh hour was signed by the President. As before, there are many questions swirling about what sort of benefits individuals and businesses may see. Here are some of the key highlights of the additional support, and changes, from the recently passed bill.

We all know that college is expensive. We also know that the last thing on a child's mind is how they are going to pay for college, 5, 10, or 15+ years from now. To help the funding hurdle many parents and grandparents use 529 college savings plan accounts to help pay for this, possibly quite large, future expense. Although to a child, a contribution to a college savings plan isn't as fun or exciting as a hot new toy, but we adults know that saving a little for the future can go a long way.

Having an investment strategy is a key part to any comprehensive financial plan. At a high-level, this includes setting a target mix of stocks vs. bonds for your portfolio. But how often should you be rebalancing back to your targets when things inevitably drift higher or lower? Especially during an incredibly volatile year like 2020 where we've seen precipitous stock market drops followed by record highs later in the year - should you look to rebalance every week, month, or annually? How far off from the targets do you have to be to warrant a rebalance?

This year has been a challenging year financially for many Americans. With businesses closing, layoffs soaring, and many pay cuts implemented, if you weren't impacted you almost certainly know someone who was. It seems like a century ago, but to address some of these struggles Congress passed the CARES Act in late March to provide some much needed assistance to struggling families and businesses. There is still a chance for Congress to pass additional support before the end of the year, but as the days go by without any progress, this is appearing less and less likely.

It's just about the time of year when many people begin to experience the holiday rush. Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away, and Christmas a mere four weeks after that! During this time, many people will be excited for the upcoming days off from work and the time to reconnect with friends and family (although it may be digitally this year).