Announcing: New Name, Renewed Sense Of Purpose

The Financial LIFE Planning Weekly is now The...

Financial life planning is the means, but Net Worthwhile® is the end. That’s why, starting this week, this newsletter has a new name—and a renewed sense of purpose.

For years, the Financial LIFE Planning (FLiP) Weekly has explored the intersection of money and life—yet the question is begged: “To what end?”

The end, of course, is up to you. It’s the culmination of your life experiences, the beliefs and values shaped along the way, the people you do life with, the work you do that doesn’t feel like work, the causes that get you out of bed in the morning, the hobbies that suck you willingly down a rabbit hole of exploration, the adventures that expand your perspective, the leisure that sets your mind at ease, and the deployment of our resources that brings it all to life.

All that and more is Net Worthwhile®, the ultimate goal of financial life planning. So while the shift in tone and topics will be slight, we’re casting a vision for an even more purpose-oriented weekly discussion that will now be known as The Net Worthwhile® Weekly.

Thanks for joining us!

Tim

Tim Maurer, CFP®, RLP®

Chief Advisory Officer

SIGNATUREFD

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In this Net Worthwhile® Weekly you'll find:

• Financial LIFE Planning:

  • What Is Your Net Worthwhile®?

• Bonus Podcast:

  • Do Headlines Matter?

• Quote O' The Week:

  • Howard Thurman

• Weekly Market Update:

  • Zoom Out

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Financial LIFE Planning

What Is Your Net Worthwhile®?

Ultimately, it is yours to define, as it will be different for each person. Still, I thought you might appreciate hearing Doug Liptak’s definition, as the co-founder of our firm and a major part of the inspiration for this concept.

As Doug puts it, “Net Worthwhile® is being intentional and purposeful about the life you want to live—and activating your wealth in pursuit of that vision.”

However, one important thing to note is that when Doug says “wealth,” he doesn’t just mean your money. We define wealth with a handy acronym, TIMER:

• Time – Our scarcest resource

• Influence – Our most fragile resource

• Money – Our goal fuel

• Energy – Our health and wellness

• Relationships – Our nearest and dearest

One of the more counterintuitive insights I’ve gained in a career working with clients and advisors is this: The more money someone has, the more important the other four resources tend to become.

And that makes sense, right? Because no matter how much money someone has, they can’t create more time (although they can “buy back” time already allotted). You can buy PR—and even brand yourself an influencer—but you can’t buy true influence. If you don’t make good decisions regarding health and wellness, no amount of riches can buy you another day of life.

And relationships? To paraphrase the late philosopher Tim Keller: Even if the remainder of your world is crazy or uncertain, if your key relationships are strong, you go out into the world in strength; and if everything else in your world is great, but your relationships are weak, you go out into the world in weakness.

You see, money and life are inextricably intertwined because every financial decision we make sends ripples through our lives, and most of the choices we make in life have financial implications.

Net Worthwhile®, therefore, is not just the point at which money and life intersect—it’s the deeper discernment of our life’s purpose and the deliberate deployment of our wealth in pursuit of that purpose.

So, what is your Net Worthwhile®? I’d love to know.

And if you need some more ideas as this concept comes to life, you can click HERE to see a host of Net Worthwhile® moments and stories from clients and fans.

This new name reflects the true spirit of what we’re building together—lives of purpose, fueled by every dimension of wealth. I hope you’ll continue walking with us on the journey each week as we explore what makes a life truly Net Worthwhile®.

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Bonus Podcast

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Quote O' The Week

From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mentor:

Howard Thurman

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

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Weekly Market Update

A second straight up week for most markets:

• + 2.92% .SPX (500 U.S. large companies)

• + 2.48% IWD (U.S. large value companies)

• + 3.28% IWM (U.S. small companies)

• + 2.77% IWN (U.S. small value companies)

• + 1.77% EFV (International value companies)

• + 2.37% SCZ (International small companies)

• - 0.42% VGIT (U.S. intermediate-term Treasury bonds

Zoom Out

Contributed by Tony Welch, CFA®, CFP®, CMT, Chief Investment Officer, SignatureFD

The chart below is likely familiar to you. It plots the S&P 500 Index since 1960. The chart does not include reinvested dividends, which would show an even greater upside bias throughout time. What is different about the chart below is that it has previous “crisis events” overlaid. Some of those include COVID, a government shutdown, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and many more.

The point is that these major market-moving events happen with relatively high frequency, yet a zoomed-out view makes most of them look like a blip along the path. In today’s world of 24/7 news, social media, and AI chatbots, it's easy to get caught up in the short term. Having a long term perspective in that sort of world can essentially be an investing superpower. While most are fixated on daily gyrations, often resulting in portfolio churning, which can be detrimental to returns, you can be narrowly focused on the long-term goal.

The Message from Our Indicators

The past week was full of impactful economic data on the labor market, gross domestic product (GDP), consumer income and expenditures, consumer confidence, and more. Our summary of the data is that there appeared to be some front running of tariffs in consumer expenditures, but the underlying trends point to a slowing, but still growing, economy. GDP did show a contraction of -0.3% on an annualized basis, but that was primarily due to a surge in imports. Real final sales to domestic purchasers, which essentially strips out trade from the GDP calculation, grew at a 2.3% rate. That still represents a slowing in growth but is not as alarming as the negative GDP print would imply.

Other data corroborates the surge in imports, such as consumer spending, which climbed 0.7% in March. Much of the growth in expenditures came in vehicle purchases, which makes sense as autos are one of the most tariff-sensitive areas. Initial jobless claims came in a bit higher than expected, while payroll processor, ADP, showed a slowing in job creation. On Friday, the official BLS employment situation report showed an adequate addition of 177,000 jobs. There was some weakness in the details, though. For instance, permanent job losses rose to a new cycle high. Our read of the data deluge is that the economy is slowing, and recession risks have risen. But the package of information shows a slowing expansion for now.

The stock market has been in rally mode, mainly taking cues from shifts in rhetoric around trade. The pause of the reciprocal tariffs helped to spark the rally, and reports of discussions with various countries have helped extend it. That tells us that market participants believe that if trade uncertainty is lifted, the economy can avoid a recession and corporate profits can continue to expand. That part is important because valuations are not yet cheap.

Thus far, the Q1 earnings reports have generally been encouraging. Of the 326 S&P 500 companies that have reported, the earnings growth rate has been 15.7% on sales growth of 4.2%. That implies that there was profit margin expansion in Q1. Companies may have some wiggle room to absorb some of the tariff impact and maintain solid fundamentals. If they do, then that would blunt the impact on inflation borne by the consumer. Regardless, corporate fundamentals appear to have been solid in the first quarter.

All told, we continue to expect market trends to ebb and flow with changes in policy in upcoming weeks and months. The underlying economic trends are slowing but not yet recessionary. We believe portfolios should remain balanced and diversified in 2025.

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Balanced and diversified—just like your Sunday!

Tim