Blog | Willow Creek Wealth Management

Market Commentary: Fall 2022 – Bad Year for Bonds

October 17, 2022 Willow Creek Wealth Management

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal For investors, it has been a trying year: Both stocks and bonds have been down at the same time, which is not common. It is quite rare for bonds to be down in any material way during periods of stock market decline. To put this into perspective, the […]

Be Smart about Student Loans with an Eye on Future Wealth

September 30, 2022 Dave Homan

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal Last month President Biden announced a plan for student loan relief, which almost immediately erupted into a firestorm of differing opinions on the merit of this move. Some people applauded this as necessary and compassionate help for the millions of people struggling to make payments on loans which […]

Outsmart the Certainty of Death and Taxes: Make a Will

August 31, 2022 Heather Belli

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal Typically, I shy away from the “National this-or-that” Days that make the rounds on social media. Still, one of those recently captured my attention: August has apparently been named National Make-a-Will Month and given my work and experience as a Wealth Advisor, this is a cause I can […]

What’s the Big Deal about Diversification?

July 29, 2022 David Lawrence

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal Diversification. Financial Advisors use this word a lot when describing how the best portfolios are constructed, and it’s one of the keys to a successful investment strategy. The big idea here is that a properly diversified portfolio will mitigate losses because investments react to the same event in […]

Market Commentary: Summer 2022 – Thoughts on Diversification

July 21, 2022 Willow Creek Wealth Management

Diversification. We use this word a lot when we describe how the best portfolios are constructed, and it’s one of the keys to a successful investment strategy. The main idea is that a properly diversified portfolio will mitigate losses because different investments react to the same event in different ways. Our portfolios are comprised of […]

Video: How to be a Successful Investor with Bruce Dzieza

July 7, 2022 Bruce Dzieza

I’ve been in the financial advisory world for almost 40 years. I’ve learned a lot about how markets work, but more important, I’ve observed how successful investors react to market volatility. I’ve experienced many bear markets, where stocks have dropped over 20%. Bottom line – the most successful investors call us to discuss increasing their […]

The Do’s and Don’ts of Handling Market Volatility

July 5, 2022 Mark Keating

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal My Willow Creek colleagues and I recently received some client feedback that every Wealth Advisor dreams of hearing: our client shared that rather than panic during this period of market volatility, she leaned into what she had learned from her advisor over the years, which is to imagine […]

Investor or Speculator? NFTs, FOMO, and One Bored Ape

June 10, 2022 David Lawrence

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal In early April, I was at a dinner party with friends and acquaintances. One of them was a guy I had not seen in over a year, and I asked him what he was up to. He dove into a long explanation of how he quit his job […]

Market Volatility: Six Reasons to Stay Calm

May 23, 2022 Willow Creek Wealth Management

As of market close on Friday, May 20, the benchmark S&P 500 index was down 18% from its highs on January 3, 2022, which is very close to “bear market” territory, meaning a 20% drop (which we actually touched briefly during the day’s volatile trading). The recent losses week after week and the drum beat […]

Seven Critical Questions to Ask a Financial Advisor

May 18, 2022 Jason Gittins

Originally published in North Bay Business Journal When working with a specialist — a doctor, lawyer, auto mechanic or anyone else — asking the right questions is critical in getting your needs met and the best service possible. However, we often don’t know what we don’t know, thus formulating smart questions can be difficult. Here […]