Blog

What’s on our mind? You can read about it in our blog. Whether it’s ideas from the industry or emerging trends, you can read about it here. And once in a while, we may throw in a movie review or some other surprise. So keep checking in. We’re glad to have you reading along.

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Beyond the Forecast: Why the Architected Life Outperforms the Optimized PortfolioThe Relic of the Leather BinderFor decades, the pinnacle of financial advisory was the delivery of a thick, leather-bound binder. Stuffed with hundreds of...

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Even smart investors can make poor decisions when emotions take over. A trusted advisor helps you stay disciplined, avoid costly mistakes, and make thoughtful choices—especially when markets test your instincts.

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Every week brings a new headline. Tariffs. Trade Wars, Interest rates. Elections. Earnings. War. Recession fears one day, “soft landing” the next. Boom talk. Bust talk. Back again. It’s not that any of it is unimportant. It’s that not...

Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Eli swung hard—and missed. Again. He looked at me, frustrated.“I’m just not good at this,” he said. I wanted to jump in with reassurance: You’re strong, smart, coordinated. You’ve got this. And all of that is true. But I paused—because...

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Josh Goulding draws a parallel between portfolio rebalancing in investing and personal life alignment. Just as portfolios need small, thoughtful adjustments to stay on track with long-term goals, our lives also require periodic rebalancing.

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Wednesday, April 30, 2025

The Discipline Dividend By Josh Goulding Most of the best financial decisions I’ve seen didn’t feel brilliant at the time. They felt… boring. They weren’t driven by market timing or bold predictions. They came from people who simply...

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Stocks ended the week roughly where they began as investors digested a mixed set of new economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.12%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 slipped 0.16%. The Nasdaq Composite index fell...

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Concerns that the Fed may raise interest rates soured investor sentiment, sending stocks lower in a holiday-shortened trading week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.75%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 declined 1.29%....

Wednesday, May 24, 2023

Stocks rallied last week, propelled by growing optimism over reaching a deal on raising the debt ceiling and avoiding a technical debt default by the U.S.The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.38% higher, while the Standard &...

Friday, May 5, 2023

Financial markets can be challenging to understand. And when markets enter a “bad news is good news” cycle, it becomes even more challenging to follow along.Stock prices rallied at the end of April after the Commerce...

Friday, April 14, 2023

Stocks ended a shortened week of trading mixed amid revived recession fears on Wall Street triggered by weak economic data.The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.63%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 slipped 0.10%. The Nasdaq...

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

The stock market can provide some head-scratching moments, which is why I like Warren Buffet’s quote, “...don’t watch the market closely.”Stocks have been strong this year, and they rallied sharply before...

Monday, November 21, 2022

The stock market edged lower last week as it digested a crosscurrent of conflicting economic data and contrasting comments from Fed officials.The Dow Jones Industrial Average was flat (-0.01%), while the Standard & Poor’s 500...

Monday, October 24, 2022

A positive start to a new earnings season and late-week hopes for a near-term easing in Fed rate hikes lifted investors’ spirits and powered stocks to gains for the week.The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 4.89%, while the...

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Wall Street is always searching for a hero to embrace or a villain to blame. And right now, Fed Chair Jerome Powell is the villain.After the September Fed meeting, Powell said interest rates may be heading higher for longer than...

Thursday, October 13, 2022

A powerful two-day stock rebound cemented a positive week for investors as a new trading month began.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.99%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 added 1.51%. The Nasdaq Composite index increased 0...

Monday, October 3, 2022

Rising recession fears and uncertainty in the bond and currency markets sent stocks to new 2022 lows last week.The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 2.92%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 slumped 2.91%. The Nasdaq Composite...

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

If you’ve felt like stock prices were a little more volatile in 2022 than in recent years, your “spidey senses” are right on the money.The S&P 500 has posted 81 daily moves of at least 1% through August. Of those...

Monday, September 12, 2022

In a holiday-shortened week of trading, stocks posted healthy gains despite more tough talk on monetary policy from Fed officials.The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.66%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 3.65%. The...

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

With inflation hovering near 40-year highs, some investors are looking for alternative ways to weather the storm. For many, a Series I Savings Bond is just the ticket. I Bonds give investors a rate of return plus inflation protection...

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Have you heard? The Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law on Tuesday, August 16. While the $430 billion package includes many provisions, I thought I’d highlight three key areas where you may benefit the most.Tax credits...

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

A comprehensive sell-off on Friday following comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell drove stocks to losses for the week.The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 4.22%, while the Standard & Poor's 500 dropped 4.04%. The Nasdaq Composite...

Monday, August 22, 2022

Stocks tumbled on Friday, sending stocks to a weekly loss after an otherwise quiet August week of trading.The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped -0.16%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 lost 1.21%. The Nasdaq Composite index...

Thursday, December 2, 2021

The characteristic that distinguishes 4J Wealth in our industry is our continuous focus on providing clients with comprehensive financial advice. At the root of comprehensive advice is a deep understanding of all the moving parts of...

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Several clients have recently asked about an impending major market correction and whether we should make their portfolio significantly more conservative. Markets move quickly in both directions, but generally move down more quickly...

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Check out 4J's Josh Goulding's Contribution to this RedFin Blog! https://www.redfin.com/blog/tips-for-becoming-a-homeowner-in-2021/

Friday, September 18, 2020

Every year feels the same when invested in the stock market. You get lulled to sleep as the market ebbs and flows but gradually goes up over the months. It is easy to forget the level of uncertainty and risk that lay dormant when...

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The last week has been the first period of significant volatility after the bear market crash in March, it is natural to wonder whether this is the beginning of a more severe market correction. Given the recent outperformance of...

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

2020 serves as an opportunity for retirees to examine their portfolios and ensure they are forward looking in a post COVID world. Here is Josh's piece published in U.S. News & World Report on how to take advantage of tax opportunities...

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

The rapid adoption of eCommerce, Zoom and other digital technologies has accelerated during COVID-19 in an unprecedented way. At 4J Wealth Management, we are conducting virtually all of our client meetings via Zoom, and clients who...

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

The Ballooning Federal Debt and its implications: Many clients have been asking excellent questions about the implications of the government debt ballooning and its impact on the currency, economy and market as a whole. Obviously, debt...

Friday, January 10, 2020

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act was signed into law on December 20, 2019 and creates the broadest implications to retirement account laws since the Pension Protection Act in 2006. The SECURE Act...

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Taxes are a form of expense just like any fee, and they eat into your investment return. Mutual fund investors should be aware of taxes implications of the fund they are buying into.

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Josh wrote this Letter to the Editor in the Wall Street Journal about his experience providing important retirement planning guidance to teachers.

Monday, October 7, 2019

Risk averse investors need to have a strategy in place to manage their investment portfolio during a variety of market conditions. This contribution aims to help risk averse investors manage their emotions through volatile markets.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

The most recent period of market volatility was accentuated by yesterday’s 3% loss in the S&P 500 due to fears that signs of a recession are beginning to appear. Let’s talk about what it was that unnerved the market: the...

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

After a rough year-end in 2018, with the S&P 500 declining almost 20% intra-4th quarter, 2019 has been a complete reversal with the S&P 500 positive 21.0% year-to- date. It is easy and natural during these times to get comfortable,...

Monday, April 29, 2019

Last week, the S&P 500 hit new record highs, fully recovering from last year's market pullback. This market rebound took four months which, coincidentally, is exactly the historical average for bounce-backs after market corrections....

Monday, April 22, 2019

As we approach the tenth anniversary of the end of the global financial crisis, it shouldn't be a surprise that global growth has begun to slow. While the economies of many countries are still healthy, especially here in the U.S.,...

Friday, March 1, 2019

Having recently read Malcolm Gladwell's book, 'David and Goliath' I was reminded of how often we assume being an outsider necessarily means being disadvantaged in some way. Yet, on occasion, this lack of formal inclusion does provide a...

Thursday, January 31, 2019

In 1970, an economist by the name of Eugene Fama wrote an article entitled "Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work”. Fama sought to prove that capital markets (stocks and bonds) always trade at a price...

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Happy New Year and greetings from 4J Wealth Management! We are thrilled to report that 97% of clients followed us from our previous firm. The vast majority (80+%) did so within the first 30 days. We were and continue to be overwhelmed...

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

The #S&P 500 ended positive today 2.30%, and the #Dow Jones was positive by 2.44% or 604 points. We believe today was indicative of the type of market we are in. #Jerome Powell spoke today at the Economic Club of New York at 12 PM...

Monday, November 12, 2018

One approach to solving a problem is to boil the issue down to its simplest component parts. We are so busy in our daily lives running on a treadmill that we rarely stop to think about what is most important. When it comes to what we...

Friday, November 2, 2018

Many investors are programmed to think first and foremost about dividends. The question we receive from so many retirees is 'what is the dividend yield?' Many people come to us with portfolios comprised of many high yielding individual...

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

When we construct or review a portfolio with a client, one of the critical inputs is correctly identifying his/her risk tolerance. Risk tolerance is comprised of two things: ability to take risk and the willingness to take risk....

Friday, October 26, 2018

I was recently emailed by a client with an attachment to an article written by investment professionals about the importance of market timing as it pertains to protecting the value of your portfolio. The article further attempted to...

Thursday, October 25, 2018

As a financial advisor, when markets correct, I often say to myself "if the market would just act rationally, or start to rise again, then...I would be less stressed, relieved etc..." Upon reflection, I realized people's attitudes...

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Given the recent heightened market volatility, it is important to not to let emotion/panic drive decision making. If you are checking your portfolio value during times like these, it can make sticking with the long-term plan more...