Sturkie Wealth Management Group

10/15/2026

We are only a few days away... this is on track to be the MOST attended in person client event for our firm.

We visited the Grove today, tested out the AV setup, connected with our guest speaker and are looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday October 20th at 5:30 pm.

10/08/2026

Stocks finished the third quarter mixed. The S&P 500 gained 2.03%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.47%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 2.70%. Halloween is next on the calendar, with U.S. consumers expected to spend \$13.5 billion USD this year and 6.26 million Canadian children in their trick-or-treating years.

Quarterly Market Insights | October 2026 U.S. and Canadian Markets Stocks were mixed in the third quarter as economic, geopolitical, and corporate earnings news pushed the broad market higher while weighing on the Dow Industrials. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 2.03 percent, while the Nasd...

10/02/2026

Next post in this Mind Over Money series - #4: Loss Aversion

You find a $20 bill in an old coat pocket. Nice. You smile, maybe grab a coffee.

Now flip it. You reach for your wallet and realize you lost a $20 somewhere.

Same $20. But the second one stays with you all afternoon.

That's loss aversion. Research suggests losses feel roughly twice as painful as equivalent gains feel good. It's wired into us, and it shows up in portfolios constantly.

Here's how it plays out with money:
📉 Investors sell their winners too early, because locking in a gain feels great and they want to protect it.
📉 They hold their losers too long, because selling makes the loss "real," and they'd rather wait and hope.

Notice the problem? That's often the exact opposite of what a sound process would tell you to do.

A good question to ask about any holding: "If I didn't own this today, would I buy it at this price?" If the answer is no, the fact that you're down on it is a feeling, not a strategy.

You can't turn loss aversion off. But you can build a plan that decides in advance when to rebalance, trim, or hold, so the decision doesn't get made in the middle of a bad day.

Have you ever held onto something longer than you should have? No judgment. Every investor has a story. 👇

09/30/2026

Mind Over Money, Part 3: Anchoring

Last week I watched a guy in a store hold up a jacket. "Was $220. Now $99!"

He bought it in about four seconds.

Here's what he didn't ask: would he have paid $99 for that jacket if the $220 tag had never existed?

That's anchoring. The first number we see becomes the reference point for every decision after it, even when that number is arbitrary or irrelevant.

It gets expensive in investing.

Say you bought a stock at $50. It's now $30. What's the thought?

"I'll sell when it gets back to $50."

But the stock doesn't know what you paid. The market has no memory of your entry price. Your $50 is a number in your head, not a fact about the company.

The better question: "If I had cash today, would I buy this at $30?"

If yes, hold it, and hold it for the right reasons. If no, "getting back to even" isn't a strategy. It's an anchor, and it keeps you in a position you wouldn't choose today.

Anchoring shows up in other places too:

→ Refusing to sell a house for less than you paid
→ Fixating on a portfolio's all-time high
→ Judging a stock as "cheap" just because it used to cost more

The fix isn't ignoring the past. It's making decisions based on where you're going, not where you started.

At Sturkie Wealth Management, this is one of the first things we work through with clients: separating the decision from the price tag in your head.

What's an anchor you've had to cut loose? 👇

09/29/2026

The other day I mentioned how nostalgia sells, but it can also be dangerous to your portfolio. (see my Lost Boys reference)

Another Mind over Money threat point... RECENCY bias. Picture this...

It's October 2022. Stocks are down for the year, bonds are down too, and every headline says it's only going to get worse.

Your gut says: get out now, before it gets worse.

That's recency bias. Our brains treat the most recent stretch of events as the new normal and assume it will keep going.

Here's what happened next. The S&P 500 finished 2022 down about 18%. In 2023, it gained more than 26%. Investors who sold near the bottom locked in the loss, and many missed a good part of the recovery.

Nobody rang a bell at the low. It felt like the worst possible time to stay invested, and that's exactly why it's so hard.

The same bias works in reverse. When markets are soaring, we assume they always will, and we take on more risk than we planned for.

The fix isn't predicting the market. It's having a plan you can stick with when your emotions say otherwise: goals first, diversification on purpose, and rebalancing on a schedule instead of on headlines.

Before making a move, ask: "Has something changed about my goals, or just about the news?"

If you're feeling a bit jittery heading into the mid term election, Strait of Hormuz issues or rising interest rates... let's talk it through.

Next up: Anchoring, and why "getting back to even" isn't a strategy.

Disclosure: for educational purposes only. Not personalized advice. Past performance doesn't guarantee future results.

09/28/2026

Nostalgia is one of the most powerful forces in investing — and in marketing.

Caught The Lost Boys on Broadway over the weekend. The show leans hard into 80s nostalgia — comic book stores, video rental shops, a world before phones and social media where kids actually had to leave the house to find each other. Simpler times, or at least they feel that way looking back.

That's not an accident. Nostalgia sells because it taps into something real: a longing for a time that felt more certain, even if it wasn't. Hollywood knows it (reboots, remakes, needle-drops from decades past). Brands know it. And frankly, so do markets.

Investors do the same thing with money. We reach for "the way things used to work" — the stock that made us rich once, the strategy that worked in a different rate environment, the sector that felt safe because it always had been. Nostalgia is comforting. It's also a terrible investment thesis.

The market doesn't care what worked in 1987. It cares what works now, and what's likely to work next. Good planning means separating the emotional pull of "the good old days" from what your actual goals and time horizon require today.

So enjoy the throwback — the comic shops, the VHS tapes, the pre-screen childhood. Just don't build your portfolio on it.

PS Amazing show. Highly recommended.

09/24/2026

Prince left us with some of the greatest music ever created.

When he died in 2016, he didn’t just leave a gaping hole in all of our hearts.

He left a gaping hole in his estate plan.

Prince died without a will.

And what followed was a six-year legal battle over his estate, which was ultimately valued at approximately $156 million. His six siblings were named as heirs, and lawyers, consultants and others were paid tens of millions of dollars as the estate was administered and its assets—including his music rights—were sorted out.

Think about that for a moment.

Prince had spent his life creating something incredibly valuable. But without a clear estate plan telling everyone what he wanted, his family was left to navigate the courts, lawyers and complicated decisions after he was gone.

I don't believe Prince intended to create that kind of heartache.

He never meant to cause sorrow.
He never meant to cause pain.

But a properly prepared estate plan could have given his family much more clarity—and potentially saved significant time, expense and conflict.

And here's the important part:

Estate planning isn't just for billionaires, business owners or celebrities. It's for all of us.

Whether you have $100,000 or $10 million, you have people you care about, assets you've worked hard to build, and wishes for what should happen if you're no longer here to make those decisions yourself.

That's why I'm excited that Sturkie Wealth clients have access to Wealth.com at no cost to them.

Wealth.com provides a guided, state-specific process for creating estate planning documents, including a Last Will & Testament, financial power of attorney and advance healthcare directive. It also offers trust-based planning when appropriate.

It doesn't have to be complicated.

It doesn't have to be something you keep putting off.

And it doesn't have to be something your family has to figure out after you're gone.

If you're a Sturkie Wealth client and you don't have an estate plan—or yours hasn't been updated in years—let's talk.

One of the greatest gifts you can leave your family isn't necessarily more money.

It's clarity.

It's knowing what you wanted.

And it's making sure the people you love aren't left to figure it out for themselves.

09/24/2026

What if one tax return could make your Medicare Part B premium 3.4x higher*? 💡

IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount) can significantly increase what you pay for Medicare Parts B and D if your income exceeds certain thresholds. And the surprise for many retirees? It's based on your income from two years ago.

Planning ahead may help you avoid unexpected premium increases.

Message me to learn more.



*ssa.gov, 2026

09/21/2026

You've seen this disclosure before... "Past performance not indicative of future results."

Past performance is a great story. It’s not a financial plan.

I took this photo during a trip to Liverpool during my son's senior year of High School, standing in front of some of the club’s Champions League trophies — including the 1978, 2005 and 2019 titles.

There’s something powerful about seeing that history in person.

Liverpool has a remarkable record in European competition, with six Champions League/European Cup titles.

But here’s the interesting part:

Those trophies don't guarantee what happens this season.

Liverpool may have an incredible history, a talented squad, and a strong track record — but none of that guarantees another Champions League title. The 2026/27 competition is a new season, with new opponents, new circumstances and a long road still ahead.

And that’s exactly why one of the most important disclosures in investing is:

“Past performance is not indicative of future results.”

Yet investors often do the opposite.

We see an investment, fund, sector, or strategy that has performed exceptionally well and assume that performance will continue.

"Nvidia will never go down... AI stocks are the future, all my money is in AI... My Dad only invested in dividend stocks..."

But investing isn't about buying yesterday's trophy.

It's about building a portfolio designed for YOUR future.

That starts with financial planning:

📌 What are you trying to accomplish?
📌 When will you need the money?
📌 How much volatility can you reasonably withstand?
📌 How much liquidity do you need?
📌 What level of risk is appropriate for your circumstances?
📌 How should your assets be allocated across different investments?
📌 When should the portfolio be rebalanced?

Proper asset allocation isn't about predicting which investment will win the Champions League of the next market cycle.

It's about recognizing that we don't know the future — and constructing a plan that doesn't require us to.

Liverpool's trophies are a great reminder of what has already happened.

Your financial plan should be focused on what you're trying to accomplish next.

*Past performance is not indicative of future results. Asset allocation and diversification do not guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. This post is for educational purposes only and should not be considered individualized investment advice.*

09/21/2026

My daughter smoked me on the Rocky Steps. Financially speaking, it was educational.

Went for a "family jog" up the Rocky Steps in Philly this weekend with my daughter — Division 1 soccer player, Davidson College, quads of steel. Big mistake challenging her to a race.

She hit the top before I cleared the first landing. Didn't even look winded. Wearing flip flops and not sneakers. Just stood there, hands on hips, watching her old man wheeze his way up like he owed the steps money.

Naturally, my brain went straight to mutual funds. (Occupational hazard.)

She ran like a growth fund. Full send. No brakes. Zero fear of the downside because at 18, the downside doesn't exist yet.

I ran like a dividend income fund. Slow. Deliberate. Very aware that a trip to the ortho at my age is not "a setback," it's a storyline.

But here's the punchline: we both made it to the top.

Same summit, wildly different styles. That's basically every portfolio conversation I have. Growth chases the sprint. Income plays the long, careful game. Neither is wrong — it just depends on whether your knees (or your risk tolerance) can cash the check.

So — are you a Rocky-sprint growth investor, or a "let's not end up on a stretcher" dividend investor? 😂