Dreams of stopping work, or doing only fulfilling work, 15 years before their parents did are colliding with the realities of amassing enough money to do so.
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After a tumultuous 2022 where stocks and bonds lost double digits, 2023 opened with a bang in risk assets. On the hopes that the Federal Reserve will soon be done raising interest rates as inflation data is cooling, investors moved into risk assets in a big way. The S&P500 gained 6.28% while the tech-heavy NASDAQ soared 10.67%. The worst sectors of the 2022 market saw the biggest gains. The communications services sector (+14.5%), which includes companies like Google, Facebook, and Disney was the worst sector of the S&P500 as it lost 39.9% last year. Consumer discretionary stocks (Amazon, Tesla, Home Depot etc.) were the best performers of the month, snapping back from a 37% loss in 2022 to a 15% gain in January. The market seems to be betting that inflation is under control and the looming economic recession may be mild or avoided.
Bond yields fell in January as investors prepare for the next several Federal Reserve meetings. The decrease in bond yields pushed the Bloomberg Barclays Aggregate Bond Index to return 3.08% during the month after falling 13% last year. Company layoffs have become a common headline as corporations prepare for a slowdown. Leaner companies are a biproduct of the difficult periods of an economic cycle. Higher unemployment rates typically accompany recessions, so the layoffs were not unexpected. Cheap debt allowed corporations to spend in many areas as opposed to their best ideas.
International markets gained around 8% during the month. Mexican stocks were the best performer, up 17% on increased tourism. As the Chinese economy begins to re-open, Merrill Lynch expects “revenge spending” where couped up citizens spend heavily on durable goods, travel and leisure. The ongoing conflict in the Ukraine should keep energy markets concerned, but the recent drop in energy prices has been a boost for consumers and businesses across the globe.
2023 will most likely be another volatile year in the stock market as the economy and spending slow. Whether we end up in a recession is still up for debate, but the hope is that any correction is short-lived. It is unclear if we have reached the bottom of the stock market just yet (stocks tend to turn around before the economy does). Bonds could do well this year if the Fed gets inflation under control without further significant interest rate hikes and a deep recession is avoided. Long-term investors should continue to focus on portfolio diversification.
Sources: Morningstar Direct, Wall Street Journal, First Trust, Merrill Lynch
Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs for short, have exploded in the three decades since they were hrst introduced, but do they belong in your retirement portfolio?
The SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY, -O.27%, the hrst exchange-traded fund, was introduced in January 19 93 and has since become an extremely popular investment choice. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF had $6.5 million in assets at its birth, according to State Street Global Advisors. It now has almost $357 billion. There are more than 3,000 ETFs with almost $6 trillion in assets in the United States, according to the New York Stock Exchange. The average daily value of ETF transactions is $149 billion across 2.3 billion daily trades.
Hand-picking investments for retirement portfolios isn’t for everyone. In order to do so, investors should research the choices available in their plans, and understand the best mix of stocks, bonds and other investment options that suit their needs and goals. For example, a younger investor just starting her career may prefer a portfolio primarily in equities, while that same person may want to slowly shift toward conservative assets as she gets older and closer to retirement.
That’s why target-date funds are a useful tool for retirement savers. These funds are tied to an estimated retirement year, and automatically change asset allocation to become conservative over time. Target-date funds may be too generic for some investors, but can work well for an investor stil learning
But for those who want to be more active in their retirement investments, ETFs could make sense. They are easily accessible and often come with lower fees. They do trade throughout the day, unlike a mutual fund which trades at closing, but they’re similar in that they’re “funds of funds.” There are thousands of options, including funds that are linked to indexes, beliefs (such as religions, antigun policies or ESG), and bonds.
ETFs can be a novice-friendly investment choice – and they may even be target-date funds.
There are hve key factors to consider, said Christopher Lyman, a certihed hnancial planner at Allied Financial Advisors: Performance, and how it compares to other investments in the same investment sector; process, which is the fund’s investment strategy; people, specihcally the ones managing the fund; price, and how it compares to other choices in the same category; and portfolio, which would be the companies within that fund.
