2017 Benchmark Market Return Data

February 25, 2017News
Benchmark Annualized Market Returns 2017 Investment Annuity presents 2016's market returns for stocks, bonds, Real Estate, and International marketsThe Data We've taken a look at market return totals for the last year, and we want to share them here today. We wanted to make this information available to our long-term annuity investors, as our work [...]

Oregon’s GDP Grows at Healthy Pace into Late 2016

February 10, 2017News
Oregon Economy Grows in Latter Half of 2016 New BEA data shows Oregon growing slightly faster than the national average into Q3 of 2016 The Data The U.S. Bureau of Economics (BEA) tracks and reports the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of each state quarterly. Investors and economists are probably more concerned with the percentage that [...]

Art As Investment

February 10, 2017News
Is Art an Investment? We take a look at a frequently asked question from an investor's perspectiveThe Idea "So, is art really an investment?" It's a question we get all of the time. As a financial planning firm with roots in Bohemian leaning Portland, Oregon, it makes sense that local investors would have this in mind. [...]

Student & Car Loan Credit Expands in 2016

February 8, 2017News
Student & Car Loans Expand Again in 2016 Car and student debt have expanded since 2010, continuing their growth trend into 2017The Index Car and student loans are interesting because they represent substantial family balance sheet debts that aside from mortgages and credit card debt. A home mortgage can actually be a leveraged investment in [...]

U.S. Top Imports from Largest Trade Partners

February 7, 2017News
Our Top Imports from Our Largest Trade Partners With talks of "tariffs" and trade deals, we look at the top imports from our largest trade partnersThe Data Discussions of policy have ramped up in economic and finance circles as a new administration has begun in the United States. While taxes and regulatory regime are often [...]

Portland Real Estate Continues Expansion in November 2016

January 31, 2017News
Portland, Oregon Real Estate Continues Expansion Portland Real Estate outperformed National Real Estate once again in November of 2016 according to the latest data from Standard & Poor'sThe Index The Case-Shiller Index is the product of researchers Karl Case and Robert Shiller. The data in the index is maintained by Standard and Poor's (aka "S&P"), [...]