Citadel Financial Planning

Made some great connections and learned a lot at the LPL Focus this week. We hope all of this will serve well to enhance our clients’ experience at Citadel Financial.

Grateful to have made it out for this conference.

The Good Life vibe is strong this week in Nashville!

Day 2 of : The Advisor Success Panel brought together three advisor CEOs to share their journeys:

Mike Bensey, MBA, Good Life Financial Advisors of Orlando
Brenan Volpe CFP®, Citadel Financial Planning in Fuquay-Varina, NC
Brian S. Lethert, CRPC - Spitfire Financial Group in Billings, MT

These seasoned entrepreneurs dove deep into what it truly means to be CEO of your practice - from navigating family dynamics to perfecting planning processes and maximizing time management.

After an eye-popping few months for interest rates through September and October, we've finally seen mortgage rates drop back to the 7% level, the lowest since spring.

The Federal Reserve has indicated that they are done raising interest rates for this cycle, and hinted to cutting rates a few times through 2024.

We're hopeful this will help mortgage rates continue to fall through 2024, which will be a big relief for this stressed housing market.

We are so excited to see our office and event space finishing construction. We couldn't be happier with the finished result. A huge shoutout to all the proud business owners and contractors who put their expertise together and made something we are very proud to call home.

We're moving in furniture this week and hope to be working from the new offices next week.

We’ve seen amazing progress on the office this last month.
Planning to be done with construction by the end of June and moving in early July!

Wednesday's Inflation Data came in slightly better than expected.
The data shows that prices have risen an average of 4.9% compared to 1 year earlier.
While that is still high, it is the lowest rate of increase in 2 years, showing progress on inflation.

Report Highlights:
-Gas prices were down 12.2% on an annual basis.
-The shelter (Housing/Rent Costs) index increased 8.1% over the last year, accounting for over 60 percent of the total increase in core inflation.
-Egg prices fell 1.5% in April after dropping 10.9% in March.
-Last week, the Fed signaled it could pause its hikes, saying it would assess incoming data ahead of its next meeting in June.
-Wednesday's inflation data comes after a strong jobs report last Friday.

Inflation: Consumer prices in April rise at slowest annual rate in 2 years Consumer prices in April showed inflation pressures remain elevated in the US economy while headline prices rose at the slowest annual rate since the period ending April 2021.

Office Construction is coming along. It's been very exciting watching the walls go up, and being able to visualize the space more. Target completion sometime in May, fingers crossed!

A big shout out to our General Contractor Jordan Yelverton with the The Restoration House in Raleigh, NC. He has been making everything happen, and communicating with us every step of the way.
And to my good friend Rich Reagan with Garage Force of Raleigh, who is going to be doing an amazing stained concrete flooring through the whole space for us. We can't wait to see it all come together!

In This Update Brenan Talks Through a Summary Of What Happened With Silicon Valley Bank, The Response From The Markets/Federal Reserve, and The Outlook Moving Forward.

Our goal with these updates is to break down some of the most complicated events going on in the economy or markets, into a simplified review of the facts and outlook.

If you're stressed about the markets, do yourself a favor: turn off the tv and schedule an appointment with your advisor to review your risk level and long term plans.

Planning, organization, and preparation are the answers to financial stress, not letting our emotions get the better of us.

Inflation Data Came Out This Morning Showing Inflation Is Cooling, But Remains Stubbornly High.