Revisiting I-Bonds
I-Bonds were a fantastic investment opportunity in 2022 as inflation rates were the highest we had seen in decades. I-Bonds purchased from May 1st through October 31st of 2022 earned a return of 9.62% (annualized) for the first six months. Since then, rates on I-Bonds purchased during that period in 2022 have been much more […]
Cash Management In A Declining Interest Rate Environment
Over the last two years, interest rates have risen at a historic clip. As a result, Rockbridge has dedicated moretime helping clients manage cash reserves to take advantage of the current market environment. In previous years, “high yield” savings accounts were (and some still are) paying less than 1%. Now, it is easy to find […]
Maintaining Equity Exposure in the Current Interest Rate Environment
In today’s interest rate environment, some investors are tempted to lock in “guaranteed” returns through fixed income instruments yielding 5% or more. However, investing solely in fixed income would be a mistake for most long-term investors. Discussed below are a few reasons why that is the case: Higher Long-Term Returns Over the past 90 years, […]
The Fed Has Been Busy
The Federal Reserve has significantly altered their guidance in the last few months. The biggest change is the increase in the expected number of rate hikes this year. In December, the Fed was expecting three rate hikes in 2022. Three weeks ago, they increased that forecast to 7, and the market is now expecting 8. […]
Bonds are down on the year and that is ok
Most of our clients hold bonds and most of those bonds have “lost value” in the first three months of the year. That does not mean any of the bonds have defaulted. In fact, almost no bonds have defaulted in 2021. Rather, interest rates have risen causing the value of existing bonds to drop. It […]
The market fools experts yet again (an interest rate story)
In the last year, interest rates have fallen dramatically. At the end of the 3rd quarter in 2018, the yield on a 10-year note from the U.S. Government was 3.05% and today it stands at 1.68%. This decline in interest rates is unusual, but not unprecedented. Given the vast resources of the world’s largest money […]
Market commentary – october 2019
Stock Markets It was generally an off quarter for stocks, except for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). The year-to-date numbers look good. Recent periods show variability among individual markets as well as within various time periods – REITs continue to do well, no doubt reflecting declining interest rates. One theme running throughout the past ten […]
Revisiting bond returns
Most people think of bonds like Certificates of Deposit (CDs). You loan someone money, they give you interest each year, and then at the end of the contract you get back the full amount you initially lent. Over that time, your return should be whatever the interest rate was and if you think of it […]
Market commentary – april 2019
Stock Markets Stocks rebounded nicely. Tech stocks (FANGs – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) after leading the way down in last year’s fourth quarter (off 22%) led stocks back up (up 23%). A global stock portfolio earned about 12% this quarter and domestic stocks continued in the forefront. Looking past this quarter, non-domestic markets have fallen […]
Market commentary – april 2019
Stock Markets Stocks rebounded nicely. Tech stocks (FANGs – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) after leading the way down in last year’s fourth quarter (off 22%) led stocks back up (up 23%). A global stock portfolio earned about 12% this quarter and domestic stocks continued in the forefront. Looking past this quarter, non-domestic markets have fallen […]
