- Mercer Advisors, Formerly Epstein & White

Navigating Market Volatility: What Retirees Should Know About August’s “Japanese Carry Trade”

In August of 2024, the financial world was abuzz with discussions about the Japanese carry trade and its impact on global markets. For retirees and those nearing retirement, understanding these developments may help you understand why markets are moving, but it's equally important to maintain a focus on long-term financial security rather than reacting to short-term market fluctuations. Regardless, the more you know about why markets are moving, the better you can tell when to change [...]

Rebecca Mack2024-10-24T14:57:31+00:00October 24, 2024|Economy, Stock Market|

What Does a Rolling Recession Mean for Your Retirement?

What Is A Rolling Recession? You may have noticed that the economy after the pandemic has been very up and down. And while there has been talk of a possible recession for a few years now, we have yet to completely enter a recession. A recession is traditionally defined as a consistent, widespread downturn in the economy. [1] And although there have been major market downturns recently, there have also been major rallies. Instead of qualifying [...]

Rebecca Mack2023-03-23T12:59:25+00:00March 20, 2023|Economy, Stock Market|

2 Reasons the Generic 60/40 Portfolio Fails

Starting out your investing journey, you may have been advised to follow the 60/40 allocation strategy. This strategy tells you to put 60% of your portfolio in equities and 40% in bonds or other fixed-income offerings. For decades, this strategy has been revered for its balance, offering high growth potential from stocks and a safety net in bonds.[1] The assumption was that stock and bond markets would not dip at the same time, mitigating risk and [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-12-21T23:33:57+00:00December 21, 2022|Investment Strategies, Stock Market|

Can You Turn Investment Losses into Tax Gains?

When markets take a spill, especially when it comes to your retirement investments, it’s harder to find ways to meet your financial goals. If you were relying on IRA or 401(k) withdrawals to cover your expenses, doing so when markets are down would decrease the lifespan of your savings. And if you’re nearing retirement, market losses may provide cause to push back the time you enter retirement. While all these concerns are legitimate, there is a [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-12-07T16:28:18+00:00November 7, 2022|Investment Strategies, Stock Market, Tax Strategies|

Rediscovering the Value of Yields in Recessions

For decades, the name of the personal finances game has been an asset or equity growth. High-growth tech stocks grew to dominate the market, some of which have grown to be among the largest companies in the world. And if you owned stock in those companies while they made their meteoric rise, your overall wealth may have ballooned in the process. But how confident do you feel with your wealth in those stocks? Would you feel [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-10-28T20:27:56+00:00October 28, 2022|Financial Planning, Investment Strategies, Stock Market|

5 Unique Risks for the Affluent Investor

You may think that as a high net worth individual, or even a millionaire next door, you may have an easy road ahead in maintaining your wealth. But a greater amount of wealth to protect introduces unique challenges that are specific to the size of what they have to protect. Although many investing and wealth-preservation principles apply to anyone – such as developing a tax plan, assessing a portfolio’s risk exposure, and more – there are [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-10-14T00:03:01+00:00October 14, 2022|Investment Strategies, Stock Market|

What Volatility Truly Means

Nowadays, the word “volatility” seems thrown around more than ever. Usually, when it comes to financial talk, “volatility” is used to describe a downward trend. But that’s not what volatility really means! Volatility is technically referring to large up and down swings in the market over short periods of time. It doesn’t just mean a downward trend. The Ups and the Downs It’s important to make sure your financial plan is protected against downward trends. When [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-09-28T16:46:34+00:00September 28, 2022|Financial Planning, Stock Market|

Don’t Succumb to the Fear of Missing Out

If you’ve followed markets or financial news, especially in the past few years, you may have come across the term “fear of missing out,” commonly abbreviated to FOMO. When markets keep going up, FOMO can start to creep in. It can start to feel like you’re leaving gains on the table by not rebalancing your portfolio to include the ultra-high growth assets that saw big jumps. The desire to get as much as you can from [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-08-05T16:29:52+00:00August 5, 2022|Financial Planning, Psychology, Stock Market|

Is Your IRA At Risk In This Market?

During bear markets, we must ask different questions about our money and our assets. It is no longer about which stocks will double over the next twelve months. Instead, it will likely be about how to preserve your portfolio value by investing in stable equities with a consistent yield or profitability to mitigate the risk of steep declines. Regardless, market downturns happen, and if you have an IRA, you might expect to rely on its distributions [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-07-28T19:49:34+00:00July 25, 2022|Economy, Retirement Income, Retirement Planning, Stock Market|

Why We Could See More Inflation and Market Volatility

As we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, what happens somewhere halfway around the world can have a major impact on us. Now, the global economy faces new threats as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including spiking energy prices, inflation, and a volatile market. Know how you could be affected and what strategies you can pursue to help protect your savings. Are You Protected from Market Corrections? We’ve seen market volatility recently and could see [...]

Rebecca Mack2022-04-21T13:13:34+00:00April 21, 2022|Economy, Retirement Income, Stock Market|