Today, I’m talking about the best thing you can do during a stock market correction. Many people think that you just have to sit tight and do nothing. That’s wrong. You can do something, just as long as you don’t sell you’re stock portfolio, there’s plenty you can do.

The most important thing you can do during a stock market correction, and especially a worse drop of 20%, 30% or more, is rebalance your portfolio to add to stocks.

Some other things you should do: 

• Continue adding to retirement accounts if you’re still working. If you have a stable job and you can afford to increase your contributions, a market downturn is an excellent time to accelerate your savings, and buy on the cheap. 
• Do you have cash lying around. Savings rates are still higher relative to historical norms. With low rates and inflation torching that cash you have in your savings accounts, a downturn is an excellent buying opportunity to selectively put cash to work. 
• Convert money to Roth - take advantage of depressed portfolio values to reduce your tax bill and capitalize on tax free growth when things recover. Putting some real $s to this…If you have 100 shares of a stock to covert to a Roth from a Traditional IRA - you still convert those same 100 shares to a Roth, but $100 shares valued at $80 6 months ago, might be worth only $50-60 today. Same shares converted, but you pay less tax because the value of what you convert over to the Roth is less. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now

Today, I’m talking about the worst thing you can do during a stock market correction. If you listened yesterday, you may be able to easily guess the answer - and that is to sell! 

• No one sells at the top
• No one gets back in at the bottom 

Giving into the temptation to sell during periods of market declines and uncertainty is a recipe for terrible long-term returns. In fact, investors are so bad at this that professionals call it “the dumb money”.

Professional investors, market analyst will often ask - what is the dumb money doing? In other words, what is the day trader or the average individual investor doing right now? It’s actually a contrarian indicator, which means that if the dumb money is buying or selling, histroy shows you should do the opposite. 

The “smart money” on the other hand is what professionals and hedge fund managers are doing. 

Before you get mad a me and say I’m calling you dumb, I’m not! That’s not my phrase…I didn’t come up with it. 

But isn’t it interesting that it’s so common for the average investor to give in to their fear, panic, and hopelessness, that the industry has taken note and created the dumb money label for this phenomenon. 

The smart money - the professional investors - the Warren Buffett types, they’re out there bargain hunting when the stock market is down 10, 20, 30% or more. I’ll talk more about how to be like the smart money crowd tomorrow. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now

Yesterday, I talked about how I think a recession is likely at this point, and why I’m concerned that this current stock market could get worse. With that said, let me share with you why I’m not doing anything about it - at least for right now…

In May of 2020, right around the time that the stock market bottomed out and revered course after the Covid shock, Katherine Roy, Chief Retirement Strategist at JP Morgan said: “Investors crave control and may be tempted to act in a way that we know is likely to hurt their retirement strategy by selling out of the market after a significant loss, locking in those losses, but with every intention of reentering the market when it feels safer, whenever that may be.”

What’s the takeaway? It’s time in the market, not correct market timing that matters most for your long-term returns. Timing the market is such a futile exercise, that if you just refuse to give into the temptation to sell - even if you thing worse things are on the horizon - you’re going to sidestep the trap of thinking you’ll miss the worst of the decline and know when it’s time to get back in. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

---------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now

Yesterday, we talked about important statistics about corrections, and the takeaway there is that corrections (which is a price decline in the stock market of 10% or more) happen about every other year and they’re a normal and healthy part of a well-functioning stock market. 

But what about when that correction is the beginning of a deeper downturn. After all, when we had the financial crisis in 2008, when the tech bubble burst in the early 2000s, and every major stock market meltdown in history started off as a correction. 

So how do you know when it’s just a short-lived drop, or the beginning of much worse to come? I wish I had an answer for this, but I don’t. No one knows. And because we don’t know, our hands are tied. The other frustrating thing about investing is that there are always events happening in the world or with the economy that could seemingly point to worse to come. 

I was surprised how quickly the stock market reversed course during Covid, and I’m actually surprised that the stock market has had its best week since 2020 as I record today’s episode. The war with Ukraine is intensifying and the world is increasingly unstable, Covid is still hanging around, inflation is insane - I just paid over $300 for weekly groceries for our family of 5, which was a first when not shopping at Costco or loading up on wine, and I just paid 5.29 a gallon for gas, and the Fed just increased rates by ¼ percentage point. You would think with all the craziness that the Dow wouldn’t be up 5.5% this week, but you’d be wrong, because that’s exactly what happened. 

I hate to say it, but I am pessimistic about our economy to sidestep a recession at this point. The Fed has been very slow to react to the inflation problem, continuing to insist until recently that’s it’s transitory. 

And they’re stuck now, because if they raise raise ¼ point each meeting this year, it’s too little too late to bring inflation in check anytime soon. 

So I think inflation will continue to be problematic for the average American and businesses alike. And since dollars don’t go quite as far, spending will likely start to slow and that coupled with higher interest rates could be enough to push us into a recession this year. I just don’t think we have enough cushion in the economy - we’re not growing enough right now to absorb the persistent inflation and higher interest rates at the same time. And if we have a recession, it’s probable that the current correction will turn into a full-blown bear market, with the stock market sliding further into the red. 

If I’m right, and you’re in agreement with me, what do you do about it? I’ll turn to that in the coming days. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now

Today, we’re building the foundation by understanding market corrections…what are they? What does a typical market correction look like? And how long do they last? 

• Correction = 10% or more drop in price of the stock market 
• If the correction crosses over the 20% decline threshold, it becomes a bear market. Bear markets are usually longer, and more painful and are often accompanied by a recession as well
• A typical market correction occurs every couple years. The most important point I want to cover today with market corrections is to help you see that they are normal, healthy, and fairly frequent. 
• Sometimes the stock market gets too hot - prices rise too much too fast and stocks can easily become overvalued. Corrections serve to bring stock prices back down to reality, so they are a normal and healthy part of investing.
• A stock market correction can last a few days, weeks, or months, and since WWII, the average correction lasted 4 months, which is actually the time it took for the correction to fully reverse and return to the previous high water mark before the correction began.

Tomorrow I’ll talk more about whether this current correction is likely just a healthy, short-lived correction, or the beginning of worse to come. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now

Earlier this month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average entered correction territory, which is defined as a drop of 10% or more. As I sit down to record today’s episode, the stock market had it’s best week since 2020, so the Dow has recovered quite a bit. Now it’s down 4% this year, the S&P 500 is down 6% this year, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is still down in the double digits with a YTD drop of about 11%.

I’ve also started to receive some emails and calls from clients who are worried about what’s happening out there right now. One email I received the other day from one of the 401k participants in a plan I manage read: “Hey Ashley - I was wondering how I go about putting all of my stocks in a safer investment?  I want to move to wherever I need to in case the market crashes so I don’t lose a ton of money.  Can you help me with this?”

While corrections are a healthy and normal part of typical market cycles, this correction seems more perilous than most I’ve experienced thus far in my 14 year career as a financial advisor. 

Inflation, higher interest rates - either of which could derail the US economy into a full-blown recession - then there’s the war in Ukraine, continued economic dislocations and supply chain issues from Covid, and worst of all, none of these issues seem to be going away anytime soon. 

So this week on the podcast, I’ll share with you my view on these scary and uncertain times, and what I think is the prudent way to act when you’re standing in the fork in the road. Is this just a brief and healthy, normal correction? Or is this the beginning of a full-blown recession and major market downturn - the likes we haven’t seen since the financial crisis in 2008?

I hope what I have to share with you this week will help you make smart and thoughtful decisions with your retirement, and help provide more clarity on how to manage a stock market correction. 

And while I am careful to not lead you astray, personal finance is not an exact science. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for everyone, so I encourage you to disregard anything I say that may not be helpful for you, and to consult your own financial, tax, and legal advisors regarding your own individual situation. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

It’s Sunday, which means...it’s recap time here on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast

It also happens to be my birthday today! I love Italian red wine, titleist prov1 golf balls, and dark chocolate and my address is…

This week the theme was: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One

In case you missed any episodes, here is the order of priority that you’ll want to save in your retirement accounts in 2022:

• HSA
• Workplace retirement savings plan
• Focus on paying down debts like car loans and your mortgage
• Fund your IRA
• Fund any taxable accounts 

The most important takeaway from this week is: There is a specific order in which you’ll want to save in your retirement accounts in 2022, and knowing that order is important for taking full advantage of your employer matches and minimizing your taxes both now and in the future. As with any financial planning recommendation, this order won’t apply to all people in all circumstances but it will apply to most people, so keep that in mind as you’re applying this funding order to your unique situation. 

Tomorrow, come on back, because we’re starting a brand new theme: Stock Market Correction Is Here…What To Do Now

Earlier this month, the Dow Jones Industrial Average entered correction territory, which is defined as a drop of 10% or more. While corrections are a healthy and normal part of typical market cycles, this correction seems more perilous than most I’ve experienced thus far in my 14 year career as a financial advisor. 

Inflation, higher interest rates, the war in Ukraine, continued economic dislocations and supply chain issues from Covid - none of which appear to be going away anytime soon. 

So whether this is just a brief hiccup or the start of worse to come for stocks, I’ll share with you what I share with clients every day on how to weather the current storm that we find ourselves in. 

Thank you so much for listening this week! If this podcast is valuable for you, please share the show with a friend, a neighbor, your brother, or co-worker who is getting close to retirement. Just go to your favorite podcasting app, hit the share icon, then text or email the show link to someone you know who is eyeing retirement. 

Thanks for sharing the love and spreading the word. I hope you have a blessed Sunday. My name is Ashley Micciche, this is the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One

Today, I’m talking about funding the account that should come last in your retirement savings accounts priorities - a taxable account. This could be a joint, trust, or single brokerage account in your name.

The best thing about funding a taxable account is that of all of the investment accounts you can fund for your retirement, it’s the most flexible. There’s no income or funding limits, so if you have a high income, they’re a great way to sock away additional funds for retirement once you max out your HSA, 401k, pay down debts, and fund your IRA - which is what I’ve been talking about so far this week. 

The downside of the taxable account and why it’s last on the list is that it’s taxable. You don’t get any tax breaks on money going into the account like many of the other retirement savings vehicles, and you’ll be taxed every year on dividends, capital gains, and interest that is generated within the account. 

Great for specific savings goals or earmarked funds for other purchases. Beyond the fact that there is no limit to what you can save inside of a taxable account each year, this is where taxable accounts shine the most. 

• Withdrawal restrictions & penalties on 401k, IRA, and HSA accounts
• You can withdraw any amount at any time, and your tax bite is limited to your capital gains from what you sell, which is taxed at lower rates compared to your income tax rate in most cases. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One

Today, I’m talking about funding your IRA in 2022. Surprisingly, for most people this is going to come toward the bottom - after you’ve funded your HSA, your workplace retirement savings plan, and made a dent in your car or mortgage debt for the year. 

Why so low on the priority list? Unlike the HSA and 401k which likely have matching dollars from your employer, the IRA has no additional match benefit and the contribution limits are much lower compared to most retirement plan accounts that you have at work. 

There are some other reasons too - like depending on your income and whether or not you or your spouse are covered by other retirement savings plans - you may not even be able to save in an IRA. 

But if you do make it this far in the retirement savings hierarchy for 2022, here’s what you’ll need to know about funding your IRA:

• Again - eligibility and income limits apply to IRAs, so make sure you’re eligible first
• If your income is below the threshold you’ll most often want to consider funding a Roth IRA first, before funding a traditional IRA
• Max contribution for IRA and Roth IRA in 2022: 
• $6,000 (under 50)
• $1,000 catch up if 50 or older

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

----------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance

The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: Best Retirement Savings Accounts in 2022...And How To Fund Each One

So far this week, we’ve talked about which accounts you’ll want to fund first and prioritize in 2022 - those are your HSA and 401k or other workplace retirement savings plans. Once you’ve check the boxes on those, we can move on to something else entirely, which is paying down debts. 

On Monday, I mentioned that if you don’t have emergency savings or you’re paying 22% on your credit card debt, those areas need to be addressed before you should be adding more to your long-term retirement savings accounts like a HSA or 401k. 

But what do you do if you already have an emergency fund, no high interest debt, you’ve funded your health savings account, and your 401k? 

What I would recommend doing next is focusing on paying down your lower interest rate debts like car loans and your mortgage. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you probably know by now that I’m a big fan of zero debt in retirement. In fact, I think that you’d be much better off focusing on aggressively paying down your mortgage in your final working years, even if it means you don’t save as much in your 401k. So finding the right balance of saving enough and paying down your mortgage is key.

But if you’re on track for your retirement savings, knocking out your other debts is a great next place to maximize your long-term retirement savings, since it will help set you up for lower expenses in retirement. 

You’ll want to focus on debts before saving more in your IRA and taxable accounts, which is what I’ll turn to tomorrow and Saturday. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

---------

>>> Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2DI2LSP

>>> Subscribe on Amazon Alexa: https://amzn.to/2xRKrCs

>>> Visit the podcast page: https://truenorthra.com/podcast/ 

----------

Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance