COMMENTARY

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman demonstrated this with his loss aversion theory, showing that people feel the pain of losing money more than they enjoy gains. The natural instinct is to flee the market when it starts to plummet, just as greed prompts people to jump back in when stocks are skyrocketing. Both can have negative impacts. 

By Matt Ahrens, CIMA®​ and Scott Schaeffer​

Qualified Charitable Distributions 

A Qualified Charitable Distribution, or “QCD” is a direct transfer of funds from your IRA custodian, payable to a qualified charity. QCDs can be counted toward satisfying your required minimum distributions (RMDs) for the year so long as certain rules are met.

By Tony Moeller, CPA

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose to new records earlier this week. Helping spur this was news that the U.S. economy (GDP – gross domestic product) grew at a strong rate (3.2%) in the first quarter. This was more than economists forecasted, partially due to a boost in U.S. exports, falling imports, and inflation remaining contained.

Renewed confidence in the U.S. economy has helped markets rebound from last year’s slide, and the following are some of the reasons why we are seeing stocks and bonds perform well thus far in 2019.