What are you looking for in a financial partner?

I have seen enough mob mentality at work over the last twelve months to last my lifetime. From Portland to Kenosha to Washington, D.C., destructive physical mobs have left a path of devastation and chaos.

It is impossible as individuals to reflect on the actions of a mob without asking ourselves, “What were they thinking?”

The short answer is many of them were likely not thinking.

While most of us hold moral beliefs that would prevent us from ever destroying other people’s lives or property, we also have a natural tendency to go along with a crowd.

Rarely is a new year welcomed with more enthusiasm and less celebration than 2021. Good riddance to 2020, but the only people watching the ball drop in Times Square were security personnel.

My sense is that people are embracing 2021 with such enthusiasm because they fully expect a return to normal by the end of the year (if not sooner). I can certainly understand the appeal of not wearing masks, freely gathering with friends and family, going to a restaurant, attending a baseball game in the summer, and all of the other normal activities that disappeared in 2020.

All of this optimism certainly lifted the financial markets at the end of 2020. However,

On Sunday the President signed into law H.R. 133, The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.” It is a culmination of months of negotiations regarding both COVID-19 relief measures and the federal budget for fiscal year 2021.

If printed, each copy of this 5,593-page piece of legislation would consume 5.5 reams of paper (assuming you printed on both sides) and stand over 11 inches tall. It includes some provisions that will impact financial planning and others that are “just interesting.”