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About JTheus

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So far JTheus has created 191 blog entries.

Inflation: the good, the bad and the truth

By |2022-10-18T13:56:38+00:00October 17, 2022|Financial Market, Income Taxes, Retirement Income Planning, Tax Planning, Theus Wealth Advisors, Uncategorized|

Recently, a number of folks have asked me:  So… we know you’re a pretty optimistic person. But what’s the most bearish or worst-case scenario for the stock market right now? There is a lot of bad news despite the media attempting to paint things in a good light. In truth, you have to balance being optimistic with being realistic. I’m a long-term optimist with an understanding that things can and will get really bad on occasion. See history. It’s just how things work when humans [...]

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Why People Make Dumb Financial Decisions on Purpose

By |2022-09-14T01:17:12+00:00September 12, 2022|Uncategorized|

Do people really make dumb decisions.... on purpose?! That would actually be called 'cognitive dissonance'. And certainly, people can often work against their own best interests because they follow the wrong information, based on biases. However, the topic we're addressing today has to do with the fact that financial decisions are personal. As in, each of us has unique goals, concerns or interests. What might be okay for me, might be too risky for you because the perception of risk is also personal and experiential. Ben Carlson does [...]

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If you have a Federal Employee TSP – Watch This Video

By |2022-09-10T22:45:30+00:00September 10, 2022|Investment Management, Retirement Income Planning, Uncategorized|

Do You Know How Your TSP Dollars Are Being Invested? What is Blackrock you ask? In January 2022, West Virginia Republican State Treasurer Riley Moore announced that the state would no longer be using BlackRock Inc. for banking transactions due to the company’s involvement in China and its policies related to coal and natural gas. Well, in June 2021, Tucker Carlson exposed how BlackRock and other investment firms like it, are "killing the dream of home ownership." Journalist Pedro Gonzalez reiterated [...]

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The best non-financial reason to delay retirement

By |2022-09-10T19:49:34+00:00August 2, 2022|Retirement Income Planning|

You’ve probably heard a number of good reasons to continue working longer than you may have to. The most prominent are financial. For example, qualifying for higher Social Security benefits. Every year you delay claiming your benefits from age 62 to 70, your monthly check can increase by about 8%. By continuing to work past what’s commonly regarded as retirement age, you can also maintain the continuity of your peak earning years’ income. And of course, by delaying retirement you delay withdrawing from your retirement savings, [...]

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How long will high inflation last and what should you do about it?

By |2022-09-10T19:49:34+00:00July 26, 2022|Financial Market|

Most people understand that inflation is when prices go up. To be more precise, the International Monetary Fund defines it this way: "Inflation is the rate of increase in prices over a given period of time. Inflation is typically a broad measure, such as the overall increase in prices or the increase in the cost of living in a country (emphasis added)." While many measures of economic activity can seem abstract and far removed from everyday life, inflation affects all of us in ways we can't ignore. American [...]

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A stock picker asks: Is it really worth all the work?

By |2022-09-10T19:49:35+00:00July 5, 2022|Financial Market|

When it comes to stocks, it’s easy to have a short memory. Everybody seems focused on what’s happening today and the near future. What are the pundits saying about this week? What are the forecasters predicting for the next quarter? Back in 2020, after the market shook off the shock of the pandemic, it came roaring back and major indexes like the S&P 500 ended the year at record levels. Going into 2021, stocks like Nordstrom and Peloton didn’t just recover, but reached new highs. For [...]

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Don’t Let Them Get Inside Your Head

By |2022-09-10T19:49:35+00:00June 20, 2022|Financial Market|

We talk about this all the time: the media has a powerful influence on its audience, and more times than not, what they choose to report on does not line up with what matters most. This disconnect can pose real risk to investors. The chart below is from an article that compares the difference between causes of death in the U.S. to what is most reported in the news1. It’s meant to question whether there is a disconnect between what we see in the news and what is reality. [...]

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Exchange Traded Funds: What are they and should I invest in one?

By |2022-09-10T19:49:35+00:00June 14, 2022|Investment Management|

Since the earliest days of trading goods, humans have looked for ways to decrease risk by sharing a cut of the profits. For example, it wasn’t seen as wise to invest all your capital in a single ship. If it sank, you’d lose everything. So, you’d invest in several ships, hoping that at least a few of them would make it back. To better facilitate this “insurance” against total failure, merchants came up with the ingenious idea of a joint-stock company. Not only did this allow [...]

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Why “buying the dip” is not a foolproof investing strategy

By |2022-09-10T19:49:35+00:00June 7, 2022|Financial Market|

On its face the strategy of “buying the dip” seems much more measured than merely trying to identify low-cost stocks that are destined to become the next Apple. But it’s still a risky strategy. Just like it sounds, to buy the dip is to purchase stocks that are temporarily undervalued. For example, Pitney Bowes, Paypal, and Meta (formerly Facebook) are all well-known, category-leading companies whose share prices have recently experienced a significant decline. Buying the dip would mean purchasing them at a discount (their current low [...]

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Securing A Future

By |2022-09-10T19:49:36+00:00May 31, 2022|Retirement Income Planning|

If you don't keep up with financial news, you may have missed this story about a new bill The House has recently passed. It's called Secure 2.0, and, as the name implies, the goal is to help secure a better retirement for US citizens. As luck would have it, the Senate is also on the case and has its version of the bill in the works (Retirement Security and Savings Act). There's a similar end game, with some differences. For example, both plans: Allow some part-time [...]

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