Our Insights

The summer of 2024 is here, and the commotion you see on the near horizon is this year's election season, almost upon us. I am reminded of the old French saying, which loosely translates to, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Need proof? Think of the words to Bob Dylan’s song from nearly 60 years ago, where he sang, “Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call. Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall. For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled. The battle outside ragin' will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a-changin'”.

I was listening to a podcast not too long ago, and one of the hosts cited a study that said that most twenty-year-olds today would live to be 100 or more years old. With advances in technology and medical science, many of these experts believe that it is very likely. Of course, we all recognize that aging brings many physical changes and challenges. The need for a strong healthcare plan to navigate those “golden” years has never been more important.

The arrival of the new year brings with it a sense of change, of new vistas to explore and new friends to meet. It is a time of optimism and renewal, a time to look forward with a sense of hope. In the song Feeling Good by Nina Simone, she sings, “Birds flying high, you know how I feel. Sun in the sky, you know how I feel. Breeze driftin’ on by, you know how I feel. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me”.

When George Harrison wrote the song Taxman, he did so to protest a progressive income tax imposed in the United Kingdom which saw the Beatles, who were amongst the highest earners in the country, required to pay a whopping 95% “supertax.” This led to the lyric where they sing, "There's one for you, nineteen for me." Fortunately, the income taxes in our country (and many of the individual states) have not risen that high. However, it is always a good idea to be aware of what your tax liabilities are, and, more importantly, what you can do to legally minimize those costs.

The stormy economic forecasts seem to mirror the very wet winter we experienced in California this year, which makes me think of the song Umbrella by Rihanna, where she sings, “...Now that it's raining more than ever, know that we'll still have each other. You can stand under my umbrella, you can stand under my umbrella”.