Mid-Year Update

From a health, economic, and social perspective, the first half of 2020 has been difficult. No way to really sugarcoat it. Personally, we’re fortunate that all team members and their families are healthy. We hope the same for you and your families.

We find it important to reflect on the past during difficult times. According to Hans Rosling’s excellent book Factfulness, the world continues to be a better place than at any other time in history on all relevant metrics – crime, poverty, wealth, medical care, life expectancy, etc. Despite this pandemic, we continue to believe progress will be made and ingenuity and innovation will drive us forward.

The financial markets have recovered substantially from the bottom on March 23rd. As we wrote in early April, the markets have historically been a leading indicator for a general economic recovery. We certainly hope this history holds, and the economic recovery occurs as swiftly as the financial market recovery. Although, uncertainty continues to rule the day and any short-term economic or market forecasts are a fool’s errand. We believe a longer-term perspective and a disciplined investment and financial planning process remain the standard for success.

Our goal throughout this period is to provide constant education and perspective during this difficult time through weekend reading, interviews, newsletters, and regular calls and Zoom meetings. We hope you have found this valuable.

As a mid-year update, we conducted an interview with an economist on Vanguard’s Investment Strategy Group – Jonathan Petersen. Jonathan discusses several topics, including the recent fiscal and monetary stimulus and Vanguard’s long-term market outlook. We hope you enjoy. Have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend.

https://youtu.be/pwKw6mWpETo