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Dear Clients and Friends,
As we reflect on the first half of 2023, it's hard to ignore the roller coaster ride that the financial markets have taken us on. The year started off strong, with most U.S. domestic indicators recording a positive month in January. However, as soon as February hit, markets took a turn for the worse and remained sour until mid-March, when the major indices turned positive once more, nearly retracing the January high by the end of the quarter.
Despite this volatility, our clients have been well served by maintaining a disciplined, goal-based investment philosophy focused on low-cost, tax-efficient, diversified market exposure. Looking ahead, we face an unusual degree of uncertainty on the investment horizon, with rising interest rates, inflationary pressures, and geopolitical risk factors all contributing to uncertainty.
Despite this uncertainty, we are committed to providing you with proactive and comprehensive financial planning and investment management. That's why we're excited to announce our renewed focus on improving our client experience and integrating our planning philosophy into the five tenets of lifestyle, growth, protection, legacy, and tax. We look forward to sharing more about these improvements with you in the coming months.
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns. We're here to help guide you through whatever challenges lie ahead.
Ashley Murphy
Founder, Principal
Areté Wealth Strategists
Major stock market indices made significant gains in the first half of the year due to improving inflation, slowing Fed rate hikes, the absence of a recession, a more stable banking sector, and a strong rally in tech stocks. The S&P 500 has climbed 16.9% with reinvested dividends this year, while the Nasdaq and Dow have returned 32.3% and 4.9%, respectively.
It’s been a wonderful and life-changing past two and a half years here in Brisbane. In this time we’ve lived and executed on many of the cross-border financial challenges our clients face. This has included running a business from abroad, managing real estate from overseas, dealing with different education and immigration systems, and more.Our experiences have strengthened our ability to provide proactive and comprehensive financial planning and investment management to our clients. As we move back to the U.S., we're excited to focus on improving our client experience as I will be better aligned on time zones with many wholesalers and service providers.
As I mentioned in the last quarterly newsletter, I qualified for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships by finishing in the top 25% of the Tour De Brisbane back at the beginning of April. The invite arrived shortly after and it took a few weeks for me to deicde that I would actually go. Throughout my life, I’ve had good aerobic fitness but have never been sufficiently motivated to lose weight and really get in shape - this is that 'kick in the pants' opportunity, and I plan to be on the start line knowing I did everything I could to be prepared. Nevertheless, my goal is to simply finish in the top 50%!
We pay close attention to our client experience and feedback. Two improvements we’re pleased to announce include;
Notion Client Portal: The migration of our client portal/meeting notes from Wrike to Notion. The new Notion portal will provide a simpler way of accessing meeting notes, and recommendations.
File Sharing updates: We’ve shortlisted two providers Truss and Sidedrawer as secure, easy to use file sharing solutions.
Sunsetting of FileThis: On July 2nd, FileThis notified customers they’ll be discontinuing their statement aggregation service.
July 26th: Q2 2023 Investment performance major financial events so far in 2023
Sept 20th: How a goal based investment philosophy works to keep you on track during volatile and unpredictable times like now
July 18th: Living Between Two Countries - Reflections and Lessons Learned from our 2.5 Year U.S./Australia Trip
Aug 15th: High Net Worth Divorces Across Borders - Considerations
Sept 19th: Income Taxes Explained - United States vs Australia
Please keep an eye out for the registration emails closer to the date.
5 Retirement Account Planning Tips for Same-Sex Couples
Same-sex couples that have not married also may be seeking more information as to how the complex rules, both federal and state, work for their accounts. Good advice is essential.
Faulty Forecasts
Individuals with advanced economic degrees and economists that are employed (sometimes at astronomical salaries) at the big brokerage firms have inside data that tells them where the economy is going. Right? After all, their views are routinely sought out and published by the major news outlets, so they must know SOMETHING that we don’t know.
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Recession Returns
What if somebody could tell you the exact date when the next recession will begin, so you could get out of the market and wait it out. Wouldn’t that be great?
Spending in the Golden Years
The normal retirement planning models say that when we retire, we will spend the same amount of money out of our retirement portfolios each year on living expenses, travel, eating out, etc., with that total amount only rising each year as inflation makes all of those things incrementally more expensive.
Retirement roundup of the latest articles and top sources to guide your smooth transition.
Retiring in Australia? Pre-Move Finacial Planning
Estate Planning Considerations for the American in Australia
Our Process - The Wealth Summit Pathway
If you’ve been pleased with the work we’ve accomplished together and have a friend or someone you care about facing similar challenges, please make an introduction. We guide all prospective clients through our Wealth Summit Pathway (WSP). The WSP is a well-defined process for onboarding a new client that aims to understand someone's most deeply held values, goals and understand their relationship to money. If we’re not the right firm to help them, we will do our best to find them the right advisor.
"Please let us know if we might be of assistance.
Have a wonderful rest of your day,"
Ashley Murphy, GFP (USA/AUS) CFP® AIF®
Areté Wealth Strategists, LLC.
Access our comprehensive, unbiased financial guides here.
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