Kids and their Phones | Divorce and Elections

Kids & Phones: The conversation regarding how smartphones affect our children—their attention span, mental health, and futures—is not new. However, Jonathan Haidt published a book titled The Anxious Generation earlier this year, which rekindled the conversation. It’s starting younger, too:

One school district in Oregon banned phones for this coming school year. One mom started an experiment with her kids—one month, phone on lockdown for 23 hours per day, and she would recruit their friends to join. They were allowed a Light Phone that has basic functions. You can read the story of how they faired here. Spoiler alert: the kids recognized they were happier, less tired, looking to do more meaningful things, and more involved with other humans within weeks.

Financial Planning Through Divorce

By Luke Porter | Advisor

Divorce is hard. There is a tumultuous range of emotions and a potent lack of certainty about the future. Furthermore, many practical decisions need to be made. Many of these decisions (especially financial ones) have consequences that far outlive the divorce proceedings.

One of the most important pieces of advice we can give if you or someone you care about are navigating a divorce:

Resist the temptation to make it a win-lose situation.

When negotiations become about punishment, they stop focusing on what’s best for you. Blocking what they want is not the same goal as getting what’s helpful for you. We’ve seen individuals make this mistake and experience the unintended consequences.

Leaving aside the relational aspects for a second (including children), here are a few of the long-term questions we encourage clients to prioritize as they consider their options:

• New Cashflow: In the wake of the divorce, what will my income, expenses, liquidity, and debts look like?
  Long-Term Goals: How does this change my retirement plan or college savings strategy?
• Joint Debts: Would you rather receive less to eliminate or limit joint debts? How can you best protect your future credit score?
• Tax Impact: What assets maximize my tax efficiency? How do I keep more of what I get?
• Estate Plans: What beneficiary changes do I need to make? What assets now look different in my estate plan?

Rely on your team consisting of your lawyer, accountant, advisor, and anyone else sitting at your table. Your job is to think through and prioritize what will be most important to you.

The Election and the Markets: With less than 100 days until the presidential election in November, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

With election uncertainty often comes increased market volatility, but it typically subsides after the election.
Historical market performance widely varies around elections but, on average, is positive regardless of which party takes office.
Market timing based on elections is risky and unlikely to outperform a consistent investment strategy.
Looking at history is a helpful education as we find ourselves in uncertain territory before this election (as with every election). While we can observe market performance around elections from 1928 to the present, it’s important to remember the limitations of data before concluding that historical patterns are likely to play out the same way in future elections.

Notably, despite the tough times that inevitably occur at different points through time, the market delivered positive returns over all presidential terms but three (after the 1928, 1936, and 2004 elections, which all coincided with major economic or geopolitical events). Only four of the 24 election years in the sample saw a market decline. Considering the many other factors facing investors in these times, it’s difficult to assign causality for how the market performed solely to the commander in chief or their party affiliation.

Our advice: stay the course within the context of ongoing financial planning. We will always recommend a long-term view of your investment strategy. It will feel uncomfortable at times, and we are always interested in your questions and conversations but keep in mind that the market has a way of correcting itself with time.

*The views expressed are those of the author as of the date noted, are subject to change based on market and other various conditions. Material discussed is meant to provide general information and it is not to be construed as specific investment, tax or legal advice. Keep in mind that current and historical facts may not be indicative of future results.