The Woodward Financial Advisors Blog

We recently had the opportunity to know exactly where to hit the machine when a client recently approached us with a goal of making a significant charitable contribution in 2020, with the hope and expectation of making the same contribution for as long as they are able in subsequent years. After determining that they could do this without jeopardizing their other spending goals, we set about figuring out the best way to make their gift this year.

These days, reading a newspaper feels like looking into some alternate reality where things make very little sense. When you take rising COVID-19 cases with a level of social unrest we haven’t seen for half a century, and top if off with shockingly bad economic news, you get a pretty universally ugly picture. Although we’ve never had an economic and public health crisis exactly like this, it doesn’t mean we can’t look to history to help us answer a few key questions.

To be clear, we don’t expect folks to react indifferently to the political and ideological roller coaster that is an election year. We simply caution letting those viewpoints infiltrate your investment decision-making process. Time has shown this to be a losing strategy.

Both the ancient Greeks and modern behavioral scientists seem to agree that one of the paths to greater happiness could be to just not look.

As investors, we want to have our cake and eat it, too: we ideally only want gains and would like to avoid all decreases in value. How great it would be to have a portfolio that could simultaneously accomplish both things? Sadly, we know that’s impossible. A better tactic would be to spend some time trying to find our own personal FOMO-JOMO nexus point.

You’re never too old to share what you did over the summer, be it a trip to a dude ranch, international travel, taking your first-born on college visits, or welcoming new members into your family (both humans and animals). While we usually write about financial planning and investment-related topics, we thought it would be fun to share a little bit about what we were all up to outside of the office. Read on to learn about our 2019 summer adventures!