13 minute read
Mixology
TIPSY TEMPTATIONS
Glassware:
Irish coffee Glass
Method:
Combine all ingredients into a crock-pot, stir to integrate (until all sugar is dissolved), bring to desired heat and serve. Or, combine all ingredients into a saucepot, bring to a simmer and keep over low heat. Garnish, serve and enjoy.
Ingredients:
(Serves 2) 1 oz. Turbinado Sugar 1 oz. Lime Juice ½ Cup Whiskey (Bourbon or Rye) ¼ Cup All Spice Liqueur 1 ¼ Cup Apple Cider 1 Pinch Ground White Pepper Garnish: Apple Slices and Grated Nutmeg
Don’t let 2020 keep you down. It’s been a tough year, but 2021 is just above the horizon. Sometimes it is The Simple Things in life that help ease the worries. This cocktail goes all in with simplicity. First, we start with a seasonal favorite – whiskey. Bourbon for those that want something a touch softer and rye for those that like a more hint earth and spice. Next, Allspice liqueur, often known as Allspice dram, is a perfect fall and winter pair. Rich, herbaceous, and not too sweet, it’s the perfect accomplice to the center stage whiskey. Citrus and sugar round out the ensemble cast. However, this is 2020, and with the year it’s been, even a simple drink needs to be kicked up a notch. Hot apple cider does the trick. Warming and rich, slightly sweet with the full flavor of childhood and favored desserts, the apple cider provides a classic charm. And just to give 2020 that extra little kick…a pinch of white pepper adds to a long finish. Raise a glass to The Simple Things and keep it headed towards 2021.
Method:
Make tea separately and bring to desired temperature. Combine all ingredients, including garnish and except for the tea, in a coffee mug. Pour hot tea over the rest of the cocktail and stir till honey is fully mixed. Serve and enjoy. *Note: There are many tea options besides Hibiscus. Passion Fruit, Peach, Citrus, Lavender, etc. can all be substituted per taste.
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. White Whiskey (Moonshine) .75 oz. Apricot Liqueur 2 oz. Cranberry Juice 4 oz. Hibiscus Tea 1 Dash Angostura Bitters .25 oz. Honey Garnish: Cherry, ½ Orange Slice, 1 piece Star Anise
As someone famous once said, “No matter how bad the day, the sun will rise again tomorrow.” For 2020, that has been our forward-looking motto. For the Rise and Shine cocktail, we start with moonshine as the base spirit, changing things up considerably. A really good white whisky (moonshine) feels like a velvet cushion and has a long finish of confection and citrus. They are also not expensive. In this drink, seasonal flavors of cranberry juice and apricot liquor pair seamlessly with the natural nuances of the moonshine. Bitters, honey, fruit, and botanicals join together in setting a harmonious tone. The hot tea plays the blender, but not the foil, and fuses all of the ingredients together to flesh out this potent yet much welcomed potable. Keep the shine of the day bright, and make sure to Rise and Shine with the occasion as we look towards 2021.
Method:
Combine cinnamon sticks, clove, cardamom and peppercorns in a tea bag or tie in cheesecloth. Combine the rest of the ingredients into a saucepan, stir to integrate until all sugar is dissolved, bring to desired heat. Garnish, serve and enjoy.
Ingredients:
(Serves 4) 1 Bottle Dry Red Wine (equal to 3 cups or approx. 24 oz.) ½ Cup Brandy ¼ Cup Orange Juice ¼ Cup Brown Sugar 1 tsp. Ground Ginger 4 Cinnamon Sticks 3 Whole Clove 2 Cardamom Pod 1 tbsp. Pink Peppercorns ½ tsp. Black Peppercorns.
Holiday season is always about friends and family. 2020 is, of course, the exact type of year to keep up with those who we treasure the most. Sometimes, however, we can’t see them and that is when a classic cocktail becomes the friend that we all need. Like a good friend, a classic Mulled Wine is warm, comforting, enjoyable and dependable. The combination of red wine with a little sugar and spice tends to make everything nice. This mulled wine keeps true to tradition and utilizes a dry red, such as a Cabernet, and the classic elements of a strong, a weak, a sour and a sweet (historical parts of a punch). 2020 takes just a little bit more, so we up the game John and Trevor style. Some extra baking spice, in cardamom, brings depth, adding to the cinnamon and clove. A little pepper spice with black and pink peppercorn kicks up the flavor to almost a spicy level (true John and Trevor style). Warm up the nights and the cheer with a JEH Signature “J&T Mulled Wine” and raise a glass and toast with a wink to 2021.
MONEY & FINANCE
MONEY SENSE
PLANNING STRATEGIES During the Pandemic
2020 has been quite a year. It started off well; the market was hitting record numbers, unemployment was low and the economy was booming. Then the virus hit. The market dropped 30% by the end of March. Restaurants, hotels, entertainment and virtually all travel slowed or shut down. Many cities and states closed all non-essential businesses and people that still had jobs were working from home. The world had suddenly changed and will probably never be the same again.
Now we are in mid-August and the stock market has almost fully recovered. The Dow went from 29,551 in February to 18,591 in March. That was a very frightening time for people with all types of investments in the market. 401K’s saw their values drop by 38% if they were in index funds. Some people got scared and pulled their money out near the bottom, which turned out to be a mistake. As of August 14, the Dow is at 27,900. It was a very violent drop and a very fast recovery, so far. We are still not out of the pandemic and there is no vaccine yet. This can potentially harm the market again, but if businesses start up again and get back to normal and unemployment starts to improve, we can potentially get through this. I am not making any predictions either way.
The point that I want to make is that historically, it has been better to stay in the stock market for the long term rather than panic when the market drops. If you look at any chart of any index, you will see periods of volatility and usually a recovery at some point. As the warning goes, past performance is no guarantee of future performance and thus can not be guaranteed in any way.
Think of the person that got out of the market near the bottom at 19,000. They lost the upside that we just had. The percentage gain that they lost from 19,000 to 27,900 is 46.84%. If they wanted to get back in to try to get the 46.8% growth that they lost, the market would have to go to 40,968. That is possible, but I would not count on that for several years. The best thing that someone can do that got out of the market at the low point is to wait for a drop to get back in and buy, if and when it gets low. The worst thing that they can do is to buy in while the market is high and then panic and sell if the market drops. Buy high, sell low is very dangerous and can ruin you financially.
We recommend that you develop a financial plan with a qualified financial advisor and have your goals spelled out. We have found that people with a written plan usually have the big picture in front of them and do not let their emotions get the best of them when the market moves in the wrong direction. When you have a plan, you can also have a family index number which gives you a target percentage of return to shoot for each year.
Another strategy that you can look at is what is called the bucketing approach. The strategy uses 3-4 buckets of money.
Bucket 1 is for your safe money and usually has 1 year of income put away in a very safe place like a bank account. Bucket 2 is for your mid-range expenses for 1 to 5 years. This would be invested in moderate risk places, CD’s, bonds, dividend and preferred stocks. Bucket 3 would be for you longer term stocks and riskier assets.
The theory behind this approach is that you can spend bucket 1 if the market is dropping so you don’t need to touch bucket 3 or even 2. By not touching (selling) assets in bucket 3 or 2, you are not locking in your losses when the market is going down and have time to let the market recover. You can move funds back to bucket 1 if the market comes back and replace the safe money that you needed to spend. I hope this helps to give you a good overview of how the market has performed so far this year. I would be happy to help you develop a financial plan so you can set up strategies that will help you with your portfolio and give you a workable strategy. Please feel free to email me at marcs@equityplanning.com and we can discuss your particular situation.
Equity Planning Inc. 7910 Woodmont Ave. , Suite 900, Bethesda, MD 20814
Securities offered through Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through CWM, LLC, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC is under separate ownership from any other named entity.
The views stated in this letter are not necessarily the opinion of Cetera Advisor Networks LLC and should not be construed directly or indirectly as an offer to buy or sell any securities mentioned herein. Due to volatility within the markets mentioned, opinions are subject to change with notice. Information is based on sources believed to be reliable; however, their accuracy or completeness cannot be guaranteed. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a price-weighted average of 30 U.S. blue-chip stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ. The index covers all industries except transportation, real estate and utilities.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
YOUR BEST SELF
Going ‘All In’
Having been fascinated with nutrition, health and fitness for the best part of three decades, I am conditioned to celebrate weight loss as a win. We all are. Diet culture, and the pressure to be as lean as social media models appear to be, (even though the use of a good filter and a variety of poses can take pounds off,) has led many to live a life of constant comparisons and the obsession of seeing the number on the scale go down. While being significantly overweight is absolutely not healthy, the constant pursuit of weight loss can be equally damaging to our health.
I recently began working with a private nutrition client who at the age of 32 wanted nothing more than to start a family. She contacted me because after years of maintaining a slender physique, her body was no longer functioning as a healthy female’s body should. Without action, the prospects of being able to start that dream family were dim. She wanted to gain weight. She needed to gain weight. I admit that, at first, I had to re-read her email. I have never been asked by a woman to help them gain weight. Just think about that, in three years of nutrition coaching and working with hundreds of clients, never once have I coached a woman through weight gain.
As I did some research focused on weight gain for reproductive health, I came across this concept of going “All In”. If you do a quick search on YouTube, you will quickly find a wealth of stories sharing experiences of going all in. It is a fascinating concept, one that goes completely against the grain of the diet culture and celebration of weight loss that we are so accustomed to. All in basically means letting go of any and all diet restrictions and eating freely. Most of the women I studied during this research went from super restrictive caloric intakes of 1000-1200 calories per day, to upwards of 2500 and in some cases 5000 calories per day. The goal of this new eating philosophy is primarily to gain weight to get the body functioning as it should and be hormonally healthy once again. But in the process, it can also reset metabolism.
One very inspiring journey featured a former bikini pro-star who was suffering from extreme hunger after many years of super strict dieting. She decided to go all in for a whole year and had some truly fascinating results. Over the first six months she gained around 40 pounds and despite all of the eating, the extreme hunger persisted. But then something shifted. Her metabolism stabilized, the extreme hunger began to diminish, and she rediscovered intuitive eating. Her body was finally able to recognize when she was actually hungry and when she had reached fullness. Over the next six months, about half of the weight she gained fell off even though she was still eating more than double what she had as a bikini competitor. Most importantly, her reproductive health was restored, and she actually loved her new body.
Relationships with food are extremely delicate. For women, in particular, there is a lot of emotion wrapped up in eating and physical appearance. So, for a brief moment, I felt intimidated by the task of helping my new client gain weight. We began the journey by reframing the ‘weight loss win’. A lower number on the scale now represented a move away from her ultimate goal of having a family. Conversely, a higher number showed progress towards restoring health, the very foundation behind this drive to gain weight. We made sure to eliminate any sense of urgency or put a time frame on “I need to be pregnant by…” and instead, made sure to celebrate every small win, be it increased energy, getting a compliment or actually, enjoying a meal out with zero guilt. There is no one size fits all “at this weight you should be healthy,” it is a very personal and individual journey.
It took about three weeks before we saw any real weight gain. Then three weeks after that, she had gained about six pounds. We revisited the reframing of the weight gain many times and then, as she reached around an eight-pound weight gain, she actually discovered that not only had she enjoyed eating for the first time in many years, she actually loved how her body looked. Even in progress pictures I could see how she stood taller and felt prouder of the skin she was inhabiting. After almost three months and a little over ten pounds of weight gain, her body responded just as we hoped. She is now in a happy, healthy place ready to start her dream family.
I watched another friend of mine share her story over social media of years battling stress fractures and other health issues, believing that they were all associated with over training. It turns out that what she needed was to go through her own “All In” process, and, after gaining weight, she too is back to being healthy and happy and appreciating her body for all that it can do rather than just what it looks like.
The journey from frail to fierce is not an easy one but an important one. Health should always be your number one priority. Going ‘all in’ requires strength and determination, and not everyone will understand the process. But, if you can relate to any part of this article, then maybe it’s worth doing a little investigation into what going all in could look like for you.
