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Bristlecone Blog

USE THE SEARCH BOX OR CLICK ON THE CATEGORIES BELOW TO BROWSE our latest personal finance updates & market commentaries

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Feeling Stressed by the Market?

We are experiencing our first broad-based drop in stock markets for many years. Just last week, the drop in the S&P 500 from its September high surpassed 10%. Moreover, US large company stocks are actually one of the better performing stock asset classes, with declines in foreign stocks and smaller company stocks nearing or even exceeding 20% now. Following on the heels of a calm 2017 (when the S&P 500 rose each and every month), this downturn feels like a genuine shock.

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Reiterating Why Diversification Matters

You’ve heard us repeat it regularly: although the keys to reaching your financial goals are very simple, implementation is not necessarily easy. The most important rules are: spend less than you earn, invest your savings regularly, keep your investment expenses low, and diversify your portfolio. Today, we’ll focus on this last rule, and consider the recent outperformance of U.S. stocks versus foreign stocks and bonds.

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Just keep swimming

Dory, a character created by Pixar Animation and played by Ellen DeGeneres in the movie Finding Nemo, is a wide-eyed, blue tang fish who suffers from short-term memory loss. At one point in the movie, she finds herself lost and gets out of trouble by not panicking and telling herself to just keep swimming.

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Benchmarks and Bitcoins

As 2017 comes to a close, investors have much to be thankful for. At the time of this writing, US stocks are up more than 20%, international and emerging markets stocks up even more in the 25% to 30% range, and bond funds are also in positive territory with low to mid-single digits returns year-to-date.

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