Welcome! Bridget Sullivan Mermel and John Scherer talk introduce themselves and talk about why they started the channel, Friends Talk Financial Planning.

When the stock market goes down, we can immediately think--I don't like this. Someone must be to blame! We proceed, finding a blame-worth party. Bridget Sullivan Mermel and John Scherer take contrarian positions in this episode. First, is the stock market really bad? We talk through how we tell clients to judge the stock market. Second, who is to blame? Surely, the politicians, either Democrats or Republicans, are at fault here. One party must be better than the other

Investing in (safe) bonds: that's the strategy that rich people and people who are nearing or at retirement share. By the end of this video, you'll know what types of bonds to buy and what account to buy them in. If you're looking for bond funds and ETFs, we'll detail the three top items to look at when researching bond funds. We are asked often, but probably not often enough, what are the best bonds to buy? How do you buy them? Where should you buy them? It can be confu

How Long Will It Take Stock Market to Recover? How long will the bear market last? When will the downturn be over? Bridget Sullivan Mermel and John Scherer, both financial planners, turn to data for some answers. First, they talk through recent research discussed by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz in Don't Trust Your Gut and apply it to the area of the stock market. We remember we had pain, but we don't remember the intensity or the duration. So, asking the question: how long t

Recession-proof your money to help you reduce the fear of a recession. Make sure you're prepared. Do you want to make sure that you’ll be prepared if there’s a recession? We discuss everything you need to know. By the end of this episode, you’ll know what determines if we’re in a recession, what factors might be driving us to a recession, and what to do to prepare so that you can, dare I say it, make lemonade out of the recession lemons. One of the big ideas in rece

Millions of people around the world will watch the Super Bowl but few will think about lessons they can take from the game to apply to their money and financial planning. But if you think about it, the planning that the teams do for the Super Bowl can give some valuable lessons for handling your money and financial planning. Here's Bridget's firm website: www.sullivanmermel.com John's firm website: www.trinfin.com For advisors around the US: www.acplanners.org Tha

There is never a shortage of stock market predictions, but have any of those actually given insight into what is going to happen in any given investment market in the coming year? We take a look at how investment market predictions from the beginning of 2021 actually turned out in this episode of Friends Talk Financial Planning and also take a look at the reliability of market predictions over time. Here's Bridget's firm website: www.sullivanmermel.com John's firm webs

Invest, gamble, or speculate. John's going to Vegas. Is that to gamble? Invest? something in between? In this episode of Friends Talk Financial Planning, we talk about the key differences between gambling and speculating. These include evaluating: John evaluates: What are your odds? Who is the "house?" How random is the outcome? Bridget thinks more in terms of a continuum with investing on one end and gambling on the other. John may invest in an index fund, speculate

There is a lot of news about stock market predictions for 2022, find out our outlook for 2022 and learn market predictions are worth your attention on this episode of Friends Talk Financial Planning. Here's Bridget's firm website: www.sullivanmermel.com John's firm website: www.trinfin.com For advisors around the US: www.acplanners.org Thanks for watching and please subscribe! TRANSCRIPT: John: This is the time of the year when predictions come out for what's g

The Omicron variant is coming. Should you change your financial planning to adjust for the latest variant? Are you worried about your investment portfolio because of the latest news? The stock market seems to be worried about Omicron, should you be worried about your money now? Look. It’s not a matter of if the market is going down. At some point, the stock market will take a big dip—10, 20 or 30%. Something will happen. It could be Omicron or something else. You nee

Inflation is high; we discuss the strategy we both use to help clients understand and plan for it. We haven't seen inflation figures like this in 30 years. Before figuring out your investment strategy, the first step is to look at the underlying emotions evoked by talk of inflation. The #1 question to ask yourself is: what is it that I’m ACTUALLY afraid of? a. …of being dumb with my money? b. …of not being able to afford things in the future? c. …of running out of money

We don’t know when the stock market will crash, but we do know that eventually it will go down. It may stay down for two to three years. How do you prepare? In this episode we talk about John’s lifeboat drill. When you go on a cruise, one of the first activities is to talk and think through what do if you need a lifeboat. Then, if there’s an emergency, you know how to act and don’t panic. The stock market is going to go down. We just don’t know when. We talk about how

Stock market up or down—should I sell? Financial planners are often are asked, “The stock market is at an all time high. Should I sell?” Or conversely, “The market is down, should I sell?” John Scherer CFP® and Bridget Sullivan Mermel CFP® CPA have different approaches on how they talk through this with clients and other people. John—uses a metaphor of farmer. John explains how thinking like a farmer with crops in the field and food in the pantry can help you with deal

With Reddit, Gamestop, Koss, Citadel, and Robinhood all involved—how do you sort it out? What does it mean for your investing? Bridget Sullivan Mermel CFP® CPA and John Scherer CFP ® talk about what they recommend that investors do. TRANSCRIPT Gamestop, Robinhood, and Your Money John : It's in the news. Everybody's talking about the short squeeze and what's going on in the market. What do you do about that stuff? Find out today on this episode of Friends Talk Financial Pl

Wondering what the stock market is going to do this year? John Scherer CFP(R) and Bridget Sullivan Mermel CFP(R) CPA discuss John's predictions. We cover: How to think about the stock market How does the stock market's performance influence your life? Should you just take your 401(k) and head to Vegas? Join us for what we tell our clients and ourselves about what the stock market will do this year. TRANSCRIPT Market Predictions 2021 John: If you just knew what the stock ma

CPA and CFP(R) Bridget Sullivan Mermel talks with CFP John Scherer about what they tell clients who are interested in buying silver and gold. With silver at all time highs and gold holding strong, more people are interested in the topic than ever! Also see Bridget's article on the topic here . TRANSCRIPT Gold and Silver: Is it Time to Buy? John: Gold and silver have been up over 50% the last two years. Does that mean we should invest in that? That's going to be our topic t

How do elections effect the stock market? What should you do with your investments? Certified Financial PlannersTM Bridget Sullivan Mermel and John Scherer discuss how to think through this emotional time. TRANSCRIPT Stock market and election--does it matter? Bridget: Hi. We're going to talk about how much the upcoming election matters for your investments. My name is Bridget Sullivan Mermel, and I'm a fee-only financial planner in Chicago, Illinois. John: And I'm John Sc

I got an email from Nate, a client, linking to a story about the stock market’s climb. “Is it time to sell?” he asked me. “The stock...

Even before Brexit passed, I got questions if it still makes sense to include international stocks in our portfolios. So I asked one...

USA Today says that stocks are at all-time highs. So is it a good time to sell? Well…probably not. Here’s why. Let’s take a closer look...

Dear Bridget, Recently I’ve read reports that the both the California and Chicago teachers pension funds are either reviewing or...