Author: Jesse Steffy

The Name is Bond, I-bond

Over the last few months, personal finance news has been encouraging readers to purchase I-bonds. Much like a certain British spy they can be really attractive, but are not without some risk. So, what is an I-bond? I-bonds, or more...

Can One-Size Fit All in Company Retirement Plans?

Workplace retirement plans play a leading role in helping Americans reach retirement goals. But you don’t have to look far to find reports on the “retirement savings gap.”  In fact, to close the gap, legislation is being discussed requiring employers...

Has Covid Improved Employee Relations?

In a National Association of Plan Advisors (NAPA) study 85% of employers offering a financial wellness program do so to “enhance the overall employee experience” according to Alight…Yawn! While we agree financial wellness programs do enhance the overall employee experience,...

5 Steps to Protect Yourself After a Data Breach

Imagine returning from a weeklong vacation to find your house unlocked.  If you’re like me, your first thought would be, “oh no, did someone enter and steal anything?” Unfortunately, we do not get the same visual “cues” when our financial...

Bitcoin and Related Cryptocurrencies

  By  Erik W. Laymon, MBA Originally Published: 12/20/2017 Updated: 2/24/2021   Definition of Bitcoin Bitcoin is a digital currency that is sometimes referred to as digital gold. Indeed, it shares many features of gold, which is partially why Bitcoin...

So, what’s our game plan?

The stock market has always recovered from every crash, no matter how bad the bear market or recession actually was.  Even though the stock market recently dropped -39.4% in just 24 days, it is our belief that this year’s “COVID...

Decade in Review

By Erik W. Laymon With 2020 well underway, we took a few minutes to review what happened over the last 10 years.  Align Wealth Strategies is presenting our Decade In Review. US Unemployment and Job Market: Unemployment dropped from 9.7%...

Yet Another Reason To Diversify

Almost everybody is familiar with the business cycle.  Our economy expands and contracts.  Before many contractions, the yield curve inverts, which basically means investors are accepting lower investment returns over the long term, due to economic concerns over the short...