TEAM MODERNIST ON the Portland Business Journal, Around Town, and Pet Shop Boys

Fall is here, and we are feeling ready for cool weather, pumpkin pies, and our busy season! This month, we are sharing our recent Portland Business Journal feature, a recommendation for the upcoming arts season and, of course, a song that’s really about financial planning.

Modernist in the news

Georgia with hat in background.jpeg

Last month, Modernist was featured in the Portland Business Journal’s ‘Strategies’ section. As avid readers of the paper, we were quite thrilled. Here’s a highlight:

More than most Certified Financial Planners (CFP), Georgia Lee Hussey likes to get a feel for her client. The former installation sculpturist is president of Modernist Financial, which is carving out a niche by helping Portland’s creative contingent embrace its growing affluence.

Click here to read the full piece!

P.S. In addition to the full-page feature, we also made PBJ’s list of largest women-owned businesses in Oregon & SW Washington at #59. As a two-year-old firm, we’ll take it!

Songs that are really about financial planning

All this media attention has us reminiscing about our beginnings, back when Modernist was just a glint in Georgia’s eye! For a tongue-in-cheek, and very catchy, take on startup business plans, click below to watch Pet Shop Boys’ video for their 1986 songOpportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money).

Around town

The beginning of a new art season is always exciting, but it can also put a bit of strain on one’s calendar - if you’d like to slow things down and re-center, you may want to check out Portland Art Museum’s meditation tour. It’s held every few weeks and the next one is on September 21st at 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm. You can find the details here!

Portfolio perspectives

This month our Investment Committee shared some thoughts on two cognitive biases that frequently plague investors - the gambler’s fallacy and the hot hand fallacy. The first leads investors to overestimate the likelihood of trend reversals, while the second leads them to overestimate the likelihood of trend continuation. While the two may seem counter to each other, they are both representative of the difficulties individual investors face in correctly predicting market performance.

We have seen investors fall prey to both of these fallacies in the face of our current eight-year-old bull market. This apparent “streak” gets interpreted as either a sign of an imminent stock market dip or a never-ending growth opportunity, when it is, in fact, neither. Historically, the S&P 500 has a 3 to 1 shot of producing positive annual returns, but it is virtually impossible to predict the return in any given year.

Understanding these cognitive fallacies may help investors keep from making unnecessary changes to their long-term investment plans.Check out the full piece here!

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FROM OUR INVESTMENT COMMITTEE | Q3 2017 IN PERSPECTIVE

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PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL | Portland Firm Redefines the 'Art' of Modern Financial Planning