The markets have seen some calm this week, clearly reflecting hopes for a resolution to the Iran conflict. Our friends at Commonwealth have some thoughts on this and fundamental market indicators.
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For all our challenges, the US economy continues to be a powerhouse. Even countries with many common traits, like Canada, have not maintained the same level of productivity. In fact, Canada’s performance has been very poor, and this piece does a great job of showing why.
In an interesting contrast, the economy of metro Houston is growing rapidly, with high levels of business investment and worker productivity.
We imagine our realtor friends won’t be surprised that staged homes sell faster and for more money than homes without furniture. The difference is meaningful (10% increase in value) and there are understandable reasons why.
Do you enjoy having a fan to provide some ventilation when you travel? Since most hotels are not equipped with fans, you may like the VENTY. We recently took one on a cruise and it was a great addition. It is battery-powered and charges via USB-C.
Helium is very important, and we knew very little about its industrial use before reading this article. Among the industrial uses are MRI machines, semiconductors, and fiberoptics, among others.
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Q: How much do I need to retire?
A: Okay- this wasn’t an actual question we received this week BUT it is one of the most common questions we get when people find out what we do.
And there is no single answer. As with almost every issue we discuss here, your personal situation will determine how much you need to be ready for retirement.
We have worked with families with significant assets but very modest spending plans. In these scenarios, they have much more than they “need” to sustain their level of spending. This is a happy problem.
In other situations, the resources must work harder to meet the need, with a smaller margin of error. We’re going to talk more about this in the coming weeks.