– Notable: Price of eggs, oil demand, builder cancellations
– Company Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon
– On Our Minds: Not Out of the Woods Yet

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– Notable: Holiday song streaming, cash trends, end of an era for Boeing
– Company Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Home Depot, Visa, ConocoPhillips, Nestlé S.A.
– On Our Minds: World Cup Economics

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– Notable: Fed rate hikes, retail theft rates, year-over-year loan originations
– Company Highlights: Canadian National Railway, Keurig Dr. Pepper, Johnson & Johnson
– On Our Minds: Pension fund impacts

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In this newsletter edition we cover the following:
– Staying Invested Part II
– Leading Economic Indicators
– IoT and Data Usage
– Revocable Trusts
– Assisted Living
– Recommended Read: The Good Life

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In our spring newsletter, we emphasized the importance of staying invested over the long term by (1) illustrating the outsized impact of the stock market’s best days and (2) explaining how staying invested increases the likelihood of positive returns. While our analysis last spring focused on the broader implications of a long-term strategy, the strategy only works if the security you are holding is a quality company with durable, competitive advantages that drive success in both strong and weak markets.

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Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth has traditionally signaled that an economy is in a recession. However, in the US, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is responsible for officially designating recessions. The NBER’s analysis relies on three criteria related to economic trends: depth, diffusion, and duration.

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Over the last decade, we have seen the proliferation of “smart” devices—devices that collect our data and track our usage patterns to enhance our overall experience. There are smart mobile phones, TVs, speakers, and cars, as well as smaller everyday items like toothbrushes, vacuums, and coffee brewers. You may be wondering how all of these products became smart, seemingly overnight. What changed?

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A revocable trust is an estate planning tool designed to manage and protect a grantor’s assets during his or her lifetime. The flexibility and privacy the revocable trust provides makes it an appropriate vehicle for many people. Unlike an irrevocable trust, a revocable trust can be amended, or revoked entirely, at any time during the grantor’s life because the assets remain a part of the grantor’s estate.

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Deciding whether assisted living is right for you or a loved one is no small task. The considerations surrounding a move to assisted living are extensive, and the choices and tradeoffs to be made can be overwhelming. The very first step in the process is to evaluate what kinds of services you need today and to consider what level of care you may need in the future. Some facilities may be able to meet both needs, while others may not.

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What actually makes for a happy life, a fulfilling life—a good life? Robert Waldinger (a friend of LBA) and his colleague Marc Schulz, directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development and leaders of the world’s longest scientific study on happiness, share the surprising answer to this question in their forthcoming book, The Good Life…

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