Ep. 284 Launch Financial- Dow Notches On Strong Earnings and Dip in Oil

Um, it’s hard to believe, ’cause last time we recorded with you it was kind of, uh, down in the, in the dumps after the, uh, Fed meeting crash. And, uh, now we have this news th- with the market very excited about it. And then as we talked about in the snaps last week, after we recorded on Wednesday afternoon, the market actually closed up on optimism that I know Ashley wants to talk about, about earnings season, which is great.

Um, and then we’ve also had, uh, a lot of focus on, uh, Treasury yields and its impact on the economy, the consumer, and all the things. So, pause as always to let Ash, uh, get a word in here on, um, how you see it unfolding and what, uh, consumers and investors should be thinking about. Yeah. Lots to unpack. We’ve been seeing lots of geopolitical developments.

The earnings it’s… This week I think we’re seeing, too, like, a lot of earnings from kind of consumers of how they’re spending, some travel, McDonald’s, Under Armour, amongst others. So we’ll see kind of what the consu- how the consumer is feeling in terms of spending and, um, subscriptions as well. So we always like to hear that from you all, um, on how you think inflation, rising prices, and all of that is impacting your wallet from a financial planning perspective.

Um, but been seeing a lot in the tech AI world, um, c- over the last few weeks. And then I think last week, the big, um, kind of talking point amongst everyone was kind of interest rates and saw kind of record highs that we haven’t seen… Well, not record highs, but highs from a really long time. So many years.

Yes. Very long time. And, um, I think that that’s kind of where everyone’s continuing to watch as, like you said, the rest of this inflation data, oil, geopolitical developments, and kind of this tech and AI all continues to unfold. Great. Right. So we had 10-year Treasury yields, uh, we said as you alluded to, highest since 2007, um, going over, uh, obviously 4.7%, down to 4.63 as we recorded that.

Um, a lot of folks in the housing market nervous about what that is gonna do to interest rates, as those are kind of released, uh, probably tomorrow for, uh, last week’s data to see that impact and jump in yields. And as you said, very strong tech earnings, um, from Microsoft, um, and Amazon and, uh, we are approaching kind of all-time highs again, um, which as we said, recorded last Wednesday, the NASDAQ was about 10%, almost in correction mode, and so quite a big turnaround, uh, last two days of course.

Um, Ash, anything else that we want to hit? Um, well, I think from a planning perspective, we always like to touch on kind of items that we’re talking about this time of year. And so blogs that we’ve been posting are a lot of s- m- kind of like smart money moves for 30-year-olds. I think it’s a very pivotal time.

We’ve been working with lots of kind of young professionals in their late 20s and 30s. Um, I think there are a lot of, kind of planning, educational items that you may not know and that can be really impactful at this kind of pivotal time in your career as you’re building, um, and growing your wealth, and maybe starting a family.

Lots of change. And then another thing that we’ve been seeing a lot and talking about with folks is budgeting and kind of tracking that. So- Let us know if that’s something that you need help kind of building. We always say we don’t like to get super too granular with the budget, but knowing what’s coming in every month and knowing what’s coming out, especially from a high level, is extremely important to help you earmark and kind of strategize for your financial goals.

And then we always like to touch on, too, just like service calendar items internally that we have and kind of share those of top of mind items. We wrote a kind of end of July comprehensive checklist, and we’ll be writing kind of an August financial checklist, so definitely check that out. That’ll be coming this week.

But something we are talking about this time of year is reviewing beneficiary designation, something that’s extremely important. Like I said, again, if you’ve had any life changes that you may not be thinking impact your beneficiaries, it might. So it’s always good every once in a while to take a look at that.

Another thing we find is that kind of these held away or old 401Ks from like two jobs ago or kind of just maybe these old accounts or IRAs that you have laying around somewhere, those oftentimes do not have beneficiary designations as well as they’re probably not considered in your global kind of allocation.

So sometimes there are other options that are better to do with those in terms of consolidation and just understanding what you have. So those are just, I think, some top of mind items. Great. It’s- I think that estate planning, what mo- I don’t know what month that is, but should be coming up soon, of review.

So, uh, reviewing all of these things is very important, as Ashley said. I know that a lot of people want to delay ’cause it’s summer, not as fun to think about or talk about. But, um, as Ashley al- always says to every longtime listener of the podcast, July 5th is when the summer’s over, so everyone’s gotta get together.

It’s August 4th. Um, I will say one thing which had me thinking, we’ve talked about this a lot, but single concentration risk and also tax planning around, um, RSUs and, and single concentration risk is very important. We saw mega cap, mega cap names up and down double digit percentages over the last few days, um- Responding to earnings.

So a lot of folks, um, don’t realize, you know, as we have heightened volatility on both directions and whether or not, uh, always good to revisit allocation and, and maybe single stock concentration, and lots of great ideas, uh, along those lines. So, uh, let us know, info@shermanwealth if you have any questions, um, as it relates to that.

And, um, Ash, we’ll give you the final word. This was a great, uh, episode talking about a lot of things. So if you have questions about the markets, the volatility, interest rates I think is huge, um, especially as we plan for the fall, uh, maybe real estate market. So, um, Ash, give you the final word. Yeah. As always, let us know if there’s anything you want us to touch on in future episodes.

We always like hearing from you all. Um, but I think that, can’t believe it’s August, but I think summer is a great time to do this mid-year kind of financial checkup if you haven’t yet. So take a look at that if you need any help and aren’t sure. You know, sometimes we always say finances can be overwhelming, so we try to simplify it, and if you don’t know where to start, we are here and happy to help.

So let us know, info@shermanwealth if you have any questions. As always, you can subscribe to the weekly snaps on the website, and we’ll talk to you guys soon. Talk to you guys soon

All opinions expressed by the hosts and their guests are strictly their own and do not reflect the opinion of Sherman Wealth Management. Clients of Sherman Wealth Management may maintain securities discussed on the podcast. Sherman Wealth Management LLC is a registered investment advisor. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Sherman Wealth and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure.

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