Jeremiah had another baby!
Well Alicia did, but you know what I mean. A happy and healthy baby boy was born on March 20th. Everyone that works with us knows the hard work Jeremiah puts in serving our clients. Now with his hands full (5 kids age 8 and under!!), he’s taking several weeks off so he can focus on serving his family.
We’re so happy for them and their new addition. It’ll certainly be challenging to start again, as my wife and I figured out the last 2.5 years, but the new adventure, new hope, new growth and milestones are so worth it.
Congrats Forristers!
New Additions to the Portfolio
We also have an opportunity to start again in our portfolios. With a fresh downturn this year, we have another chance to add some new companies to the portfolio. The stock market dropped 10% from Feb 19 to March 13 due to the uncertainties from a new administration and the unknowns of new tariffs.
Another advisor in town recently said, “This is a significant decline, but not a major crash. The 10% pullback takes us back to levels we just saw in September of last year. For comparison, the market went down by 24% between January and September of 2022. We barely remember that period today. This period will pass too.”
The tariffs causing much of the concern are not new. Trump has been talking about these for months including on the campaign trail. Because of this we believe he has some time to work out these new policies. However, if the economy suffers, and is still suffering a year from now, he will be pressured to walk them back.
Clive Crook from Bloomberg wrote an article yesterday critical of Trump and his tariffs. He said, “His tariffs aren’t that popular at the outset. Before long they’ll be detested. He’ll get the same blowback over higher prices that plagued the Biden administration, and he’ll have far fewer excuses.”
Below is a tariff “cheat sheet” published by Washington Analysis that helps us keep track of what’s being proposed.
These changes to trade policy are giving the stock market a new reason to be negative. But there’s always some headline lurking that could push the stock market down. The coast is never clear.
Investing requires the fortitude to invest in spite of these risks. Remembering every economic issue we’ve ever dealt with has been worked out in time. Because of this, we’re not running for the hills in fear, we view this as an opportunity to introduce some new additions to the portfolio.
Not long into March we were able to add General Dynamics GD and Berkshire Hathaway BRK-B to the growth stock portfolio. These are large, stable, non-tech related companies that can offset the large number of technology positions in our portfolio.
We’d still like to add Walmart WMT and Schwab SCHW to the portfolio and will do so if/when the market drops more.
We’d also like to start moving our large position in the conservative money market funds into more aggressive stock market funds. This also will depend on the stock market. If it continues to decline this year, we will be more inclined to reallocate the portfolio and try to take advantage of lower stock prices.
With lower stock prices comes the hope and promise of an inevitable rebound that we’ve seen every time the market drops.
Tax Time
As tax season heats up for us and our clients, we welcome any questions or concerns you might have about your finances. We’ve already sent out 1099s from Schwab but if you need another copy, or need anything else, please let us know.
Until next time,
Tim Porter, CFP®