Billionaires are wealthier than they’ve ever been, while average people are feeling generally lousy about their financial situation. That’s the K-Shaped economy. But there’s a cure for the K-Shaped blues: own the assets.

The many factors still driving up the price of gold are still in force, whether the price of gold is at an all-time high or whether it has just declined by 10 percent in a matter of hours. The question is, does gold still belong in diversified portfolios?

I’m just as guilty as anyone else of having too many accounts. But a bloat of accounts—credit cards, bank accounts, loans, brokerage and retirement accounts—makes it very hard to get a clear picture of your finances. So allow me to make a brief pitch for simplifying your financial life.

Risk is always top of mind for us as we think about managing portfolios, but in this update, we wanted to discuss one principle of how we implement risk management in your portfolios. We actively manage risk in portfolios with measured, incremental changes. Here’s how some of our recent portfolio decisions played out in 2025.

I think it’s past the time to seek something greater than integrity alone from financial professionals. Trustworthiness is now the baseline, not the end goal. In an industry that has become more transparent, investors can look beyond character alone and look for real value—expertise, communication, alignment of incentives, and the ability to meet their specific needs.

Sometimes the smartest investment you can make has nothing to do with your portfolio …

We can’t know what the future holds, but we know we’ve seen tremendous growth in the last few years, and we know that prices are now revealing a changing mindset. This information is useful in the context of a financial plan.

This year’s tax bill includes what the administration calls “No Tax on Social Security.” It’s not an explicit removal of taxes on Social Security payments, but it does provide an additional deduction for seniors under certain income limits. We explore it here.

One of the signature provisions in the recently passed tax bill is the so-called “no tax on tips and overtime.” While there are some limitations, this change could deliver meaningful benefits for workers who earn much of their income from tips or overtime pay.

The modest 2026 COLA may barely offset rising Medicare premiums. But for those still in the workforce, rising wages are the real story. Let’s take deeper look at what determines your standard of living in retirement—the AWI or the COLA.

One unfortunate drawback of our tech-enabled world is that scams are increasingly common. Seniors are often targeted because they have savings and may hesitate to report fraud. According to the National Council on Aging, here are some of the most common scams targeting retirees today.

Do mortgage rates always go down when the Federal Reserve (the “Fed”) cuts interest rates? And even if mortgage rates decline, should we expect home values to rise as a result? To find out, I spoke with Eric Steuernagle, owner of Fairground Real Estate in Great Barrington (MA) and a housing expert.