Another year has closed, and we are excited to move forward into 2022 with you. Financially we had another fantastic year and that enables our clients to fulfill their financial plans and goals, our main purpose here at Blue Summit.
In a year where we all continued to deal with the many impacts of Covid-19, social unrest, supply chain uncertainty and inflation, it is important to point out humanity’s successes. While the 24 hour news cycle tells us the world is falling apart on a daily basis, if you take a yearly or decade view of humanity’s achievements it becomes apparent that the improvements outweigh the negatives. These are two of our favorite charts:
If you are interested in more of these long term trends check out the wonderful visuals here
What good sources of information have you all enjoyed lately?
One important topic that we have been hearing about a lot lately is inflation. While it has persisted over the last few quarters and long enough to surpass the prior “transitory” characterization, we do believe these recent high levels are due to the significant transitions in our economy that took place between December 2019 and now. It is important to remember that inflation figures are always given in a 12 month trailing time period, so future inflation figures will ease as today’s prices eventually become the new starting point. Even with low inflation, the purchasing power of your dollars declines every single year, that is one reason we so strongly believe in the investment of real assets at an appropriate level for your situation.
Since our firm’s mission is Sustainable and Responsible Investing, we also wanted to include a couple SRI stories from 2021 here as well:
Academic research shows that ESG Shareholder Engagement reduces risk. Since numerous Mutual Fund companies in Blue Summit portfolios are active in shareholder engagement, this benefits most of our clientele.
Climate and ESG are front and center for the SEC. Some compelling evidence here with Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee’s speech from mid March. They also announced an SRI/ESG Task Force to identify and penalize ESG related misconduct i.e. greenwashing.
Looking ahead to 2022 we have the following events and themes Blue Summit is monitoring closely:
Fed Reserve monetary policy plan – including interest rate increases
Supply chain and employment
Domestic Real Estate
Inflation
US Midterm elections in the fall
Geopolitical conflicts including Russia and China
And some other interesting subjects you may want to consider discussing with us:
Renewable energy and the transition away from fossil fuels
The increased popularity of impact investing
Cryptocurrency, is this on your radar? We can help
What other topics are you interested in hearing more about as we move into 2022?
Let us know at service@bluesummitwealth.com
Personal Updates:
Allen and his wife Rachel have been enjoying watching their son Anders grow into a mobile toddler and are excited to welcome a baby girl to the family in April 2022.
Robert and his partner Kyra have been enjoying the ride with their son Shiloh, now 4-months old. They can’t wait until he can join them on hikes and their paddleboards!
Judy continues to embrace being a Grandmother with her two grandsons and competed in four gravel bike races in the Western US, winning her age group in two of the four.
Veronica and Silvia – Have enjoyed spending more time with their families. They truly appreciate being in touch with all of you.
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