April showers bring May flowers! With spring storm season upon us, that little saying is a good reminder to look at the positive side of things.
Here is our new Friday Focus email with a little of everything for you, including some Friday Fun.
Market Update
After President Trump announced Iran had agreed to hold ceasefire talks last Tuesday — mere hours before his deadline where he threatened to attack and destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges — markets took off. The Dow was up 1,325 points on Wednesday, its best day since April of last year, while oil retreated.
All of this is fluid, so be mindful that we have gone this far with all this volatility and the Dow and S&P 500 are close to their all-time highs. It may sound crazy, but we may be talking about new records in a matter of weeks.
The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting were a non-event as the market soared with the announcement of the ceasefire last Wednesday.The inflation number is wholly reversible if we see oil continue to decline. The problem is how soon we’ll see that reflected in consumer prices, which move quickly upward but have a notorious reputation for taking their sweet time coming down. For the first time in a while, markets took notice of economic reports instead of oil and the Iran conflict to close out the week.
In The News
Tech Stocks Powered Retirement Portfolios For Years. Now AI Is Crashing The Party
This Forbes article highlights:
· Retirement portfolios are heavily concentrated in technology stocks, which have historically driven strong market returns since the 2008 crisis.
· The artificial intelligence boom is now upending software valuations as new AI tools threaten to replace existing SaaS products.
· The “Magnificent 7” tech giants have lost an average of 11% this year due to market pullbacks and skepticism over high AI spending.
· Investors are particularly worried about “sequence-of-returns risk,” where market drops early in retirement can permanently damage a nest egg’s ability to recover.
· Experts, including the creator of the “4% Rule,” warn that retirees cannot afford to be passive investors when tech dominance begins to shift.
This article highlights what we have been talking about for a while now; our last State of the Union addressed many of these issues.
We are seeing overweighting in many portfolios to the Mag 7. Most individuals don’t realize this because all they see is the funds they are in. However, many of these funds hold the same companies, which leads to high correlation and often to overweighting in certain companies or sectors.
When you combine this with the more passive strategies that most firms and retirement plans use, it leads to high sequence-of-returns risk. If this isn’t addressed and risk isn’t managed, retirement plans could be permanently damaged, as the article highlights.
But there is hope! Our team is well aware of all this and does not passively sit by and see what happens. We use risk management tools to ensure your retirement is safe!
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out, and if you have portfolios not managed by our team, then let us do a risk assessment for you, which will show if your portfolio is overweighed and how the sequence of return risk could affect you.
Survey Says…
Northwestern Mutual’s 2026 Planning & Progress Study found that…
- Americans who work with a financial advisor plan to retire at age 63.7 — nearly two and a half years earlier than those without one (age 66.1).
- 74% of people with an advisor believe they will be financially prepared for retirement. Among those without one? Just 43%.
- Only 50% of Americans say they feel financially secure right now — meaning the anxiety is real, the need is real, and the market for what you do has never been bigger.
That is why we are here, why we do what we do – so you can retire when you want, and do what you want with financial confidence knowing your plan is secure!
Just for Fun
Dad Joke of the Week:
Why don’t eggs tell jokes? They’d crack each other up.
Say What?
World’s oldest known tortoise still very much alive despite rumor to the contrary reports on April Fools’ Day of the death of the world’s oldest living land animal — a 193-year-old tortoise called Jonathan — were greatly exaggerated. Jonathan is still kicking — albeit slowly — on the island of St. Helena.
“It was a hoax,” Anne Dillon, head of communications on the island, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I can just assure you that he is very much alive.”
This Week in History
1775 – American Revolution begins at Battle of Lexington
1861 – First Blood is shed in the American Civil War
1897 – The First Boston Marathon is held
1933 – FDR suspends the Gold Standard for U.S. currency
2016 – Legendary musician Prince passes away at 57
What Did it Cost? (Laundry Detergent)
1975 – $0.99
2005 – $1.98
2025 – $7.49
Have a great weekend!
Live Your Dream!
Michelle Bertram
www.CreatingYourDreamRetirement.com
608-987-1511
Click here to schedule a time on my calendar