Happy New Year
Happy New Year “May we all come through safe and with Honour”. Winston Churchill
We hope our note finds you and your families doing well. We can’t believe we are already into 2024 and the new year is moving full speed ahead. The last 2 months of the year ended on a high note from a market performance standpoint, which after an up and down year was welcome news.
One of the catalysts to the market performance was the Fed signaling that they are done raising interest rates and are poised to lower rates by as much as 75 basis points in 2024. We would caution that we are not out of the woods with the Fed yet, however this was a promising statement.
As we have been discussing the interest rate hikes have wreaked havoc on asset prices but especially on bond prices. In November and December, we saw rates move down and bond prices moved up. We are cautiously optimistic regarding bond returns for the next years. Our friends at Blackrock put together this interesting chart showing what a historical 2 months it was for bonds.
We are having our investment committee meeting next week and will be looking at making some minor adjustments to our asset allocation models. As we continue to preach a strong financial plan married with good asset allocation produces good long-term outcomes.
A couple housekeeping items:
Just a reminder that contribution limits have changed for retirement accounts. If you are maxing out your workplace retirement account, or IRA’s, or Roth account as an example it is important to review your contributions amounts.
* Catch up provisions for individuals 50 & older.
** Income limits may apply.
It is that time of year to start watching for your tax forms to come in the mail or electronically. With the merger of TD Ameritrade into Schwab it is important to watch for tax forms from both custodians. Some of your accounts will have a tax form from TD Ameritrade and from Charles Schwab for the same account. We have access to all tax forms. If you want to double check if you have received everything please do not hesitate to reach out. We have linked the schedule put out by Schwab on when you should expect to see these forms.