Smart Financial Planning

Below is a look at the performance of key ETFs across various asset classes in April, year-to-date, and year-over-year from Bespoke Investment Group. You can see that the S&P 500 (SPY) fell more than 4% in April, while mid-caps and small-caps fell even more.

At the sector level, Real Estate (XLRE), Technology (XLK), and Health Care (XLV) all fell more than 5%. Meanwhile, Utilities (XLU) was the only sector that was up.

Outside of the US, China (MCHI) and Hong Kong (EWH) actually bounced back while the rest of the world took a breather. Commodities ETFs either rose or only fell slightly, while Treasury and other fixed-income ETFs were solidly in the red.

Bespoke's daily newsletter offers some great info!

How does Medicaid work for LTC patients?

This week’s blog post explains how Medicaid works in relation to long-term care (LTC) services.

This example shows the financial effect on Susan when her husband needs care beyond what she can now physically and emotionally provide (after 4 years of caring for Frank at home).

Simply CLICK the button below to read the post.

It’s a quick and educational read. And feel free to share this with those you care about.

all the best… Mark

How Medicaid Works for LTC - Retirement Income Planning | Mark J. Orr, CFP RICP Medicaid is a joint program with the federal government and is run by each state (the rules are generally similar but do vary by state). Below is an example from the CLTC course (a 600+ page textbook to pass the test) to earn the “Certified in Long-Term Care” designation. By the way, it does not...

This chart shows the SEVEN stocks have accounted for 71.8% of the S&P 500 index gains for the year as of last Friday!

By the way, the Dow Jones Industrial Avg. is only up 5.3% YTD, while those 7 NASDAQ stocks have helped propel that index to a 35.7% gain for 2023.

According to this chart, the U.S. economy has been in the midst of a recession for 188 months since the summer of 1929. That means we’ve been in a recession roughly 16% of the time over the past ninety-plus years.

Which conversely means 84% of the time, the economy is not in a recession and is thus in an expansion.

Will the Fed drive us into the next recession or engineer a safe landing?