Hello friends!

We hope everyone was able to have fun in the snow last week, and we also hope that the forecasts some people have for the mid-Atlantic getting several feet of snow next week are way off!

Before we get started, we wanted to let you know that we will be hosting an estate planning workshop that will be held via Zoom on March 8, at either noon or 7:30 PM. Please vote by replying to this email to let us know what time you would prefer to attend.

Overall, the S&P 500 continues to trend upwards and is up over 20% in the last 12 months. This is despite a tech sell-off early this month. The bond market is feeling the effect of inflation and has retreated. We are keeping your portfolios balanced with stocks and bonds.

Also relating to the economy is the rate at which people are having to stay home from work because they have COVID. With around 650,000 new cases per day in the US, not counting positive results from at-home tests that aren’t being reported, we’re at twice the positive rate of last winter’s surge. About 5 million workers (3% of the labor force) couldn’t report to work last week because of COVID, which has damaging effects on healthcare and education. And for people without paid sick leave, it can be harder to manage staying home even with COVID, which only hastens its spread. We hope you and your loved ones are safe and able to get your booster vaccines to keep you that way.

The past couple of weeks have also seen a different kind of chill: it’s Polar Plunge season! A way to raise money for the Special Olympics, the Polar Plunge is when people go swimming in January (often New Year’s Day) despite the cold. The swimmers are sponsored, and the waters are cold! The first Polar Plunge happened in 1904.

We got curious about the cold water swimming capacities of polar bears versus humans, so we looked it up. The longest recorded swim of a polar bear was 9.67 days (427 miles); the longest ice swim of a human was 2.33 miles (one hour, four minutes, 30 seconds — much longer than we’d like to be in ice water!). David Vencl holds the record as of just last year for deepest dive under the ice at 266 feet, which beats the deepest recorded polar bear dive, around 164 feet. It all sounds a bit too chilly for us!

If any of you decide to do a Polar Plunge next year, send us pics!

That’s it for us this week. We hope everyone is having a terrific start to the new year.

How We Help

We know that for a lot of you, peace of mind comes with ensuring your loved ones are protected. Many of us and you have disabled loved ones who need extra consideration when you plan your savings and your estate. We can set up trusts that protect the assets your loved one uses while still allowing them to qualify for federal assistance. If you have questions about how to set up this sort of trust, please reach out to Todd or Patrick.

Advisory Services offered through Obsidian Personal Planning Solutions, LLC. Securities are offered through Triad Advisors, member FINRA/SIPC. Obsidian Personal Planning Solutions, LLC, and Obsidian Personal Planning Solutions, Inc, are not affiliated with Triad Advisors.