Hi friends!

Before we even get into the small talk this week, we need to correct a typo from last week’s newsletter. What we should have said was “in the last two and a half months, mortgage rates have gone up so much that a $450,000 loan is now costing $500 more per month or more because of the jump in the interest rates.” We regret the error.

Okay, with that out of the way, it’s the beginning of Memorial Day Weekend! We hope you have something fun planned, and that we don’t get yet another rainy weekend. This week we’ll talk about what’s happening with the North American companies pulling out of Russia, what to do with cash you might have set aside for investment purposes, and some facts about Memorial Day that you might not have known.

In the three months since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a long list of North American companies have left the Russian market (you can see a list of companies from all over the world here). Some companies are taking a hit, while others haven’t noticed much change. But the good news about losses is that they could be planned for and anticipated, so they weren’t a surprise to the C-suite.

There are also benefits to leaving Russia, and costs associated with staying. The Washington Post found that companies that have left Russia have dramatically outperformed those that didn’t in the stock market, with the level of stock market success correlating with the extent to which companies have exited the country.

Russian citizens are certainly feeling the effects, because companies leaving means job loss for them. This will likely have long-term effects in Russia, like excluding the massive country from the global supply chain, and contributing to poverty among regular Russian citizens who largely do not support the invasion of Ukraine. Whether that puts any pressure on Vladimir Putin to change course remains to be seen.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, if you have extra cash at the moment but haven’t quite gotten to it, it might be a good idea to consider dollar cost averaging into the markets because equities are on sale for long term investors.

Dollar cost averaging (DCA), also known as the constant dollar plan, is a strategy in which an investor divides the total amount to be invested across periodic purchase of a target asset to reduce the effects of volatility on the purchase. Purchasing happens at regular intervals regardless of the asset’s price. This means that investors don’t have to time the market to purchase equities at the best prices. Interested in giving it a try? Let us know and we’ll talk you through how it would work for your portfolio.

While you’re planning your cookout this weekend–and we hope it’s a great one!–here are some interesting facts about Memorial Day for you to share with your friends:

• The early form of the holiday originated in the years after the Civil War, but it was called Decoration Day. General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic, called for a national day of observance in 1868: “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he said. For the next century, Northern states would recognize the day on the last Monday in May, while Southern states honored the Confederate dead on different days.
• Logan said he chose the date because it was a rare day that did not hold any special significance in the Civil War, but historians also believe it was because it’s a time when flowers across the nation would be in bloom.
• Over time, the day also came to honor the fallen in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. In fact, because of the continued tragedy of war, many veterans groups pushed for decades to create a federal holiday out of it as a way to ensure that it honored those lost to the wars.
• In 1968, 100 years after General Logan’s speech, the federal government passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which meant that every state would observe Memorial Day on the last Monday in May. The change went into effect in 1971.

That’s it for us this week. Enjoy your long weekend, and we’ll be back in your inboxes next Friday.

How We Help:

A married couple we work with are going to inherit a significant and complicated estate consisting of multiple real estate properties, stocks and bonds, and they want to know whether they should accept the inheritance, disclaim part of the inheritance, and how will all of that fit into their tax planning and their own personal financial plan. And they are charitable and have a goal to leave a legacy not only to their kids but also multiple charities. Our process is beginning with the Lifestyle Protector Program with a focus on their inheritance, their estate plan, and how to manage the impending inheritance to achieve their goals.

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.