Carey Wealth Management

07/03/2025

NEWSLETTER June 2025

Do You Want Independence?
by Jamie Carey on June 30th
Happy Fourth of July! On July 4th, 1776, the American colonies announced their independence from British rule. Since then, this day has marked the birth of the United States—a nation founded on the ideals of freedom, self-governance, and resilience.
For the past 249 years, independence has meant many things to many people. For me, it has always symbolized the freedom to live life on my terms. Specifically, I’ve pursued financial independence, because having control over your finances means having control over your future.
🏚️ A Personal Journey
Growing up, my family didn’t have financial independence. I remember when my dad lost his electrician job—the mental toll it took on him, and on our entire family, was profound. I watched him battle despair, feeling that the loss of financial autonomy had stripped away his sense of purpose. Even as a young boy, I understood that financial independence can be more than numbers—it can be a matter of survival.
Later, after my parents divorced, I witnessed my mom’s tireless fight for financial independence. She worked a full-time job at Nationwide Insurance, then came home and started her second job entering country club receipts into the computer. Her evenings often stretched from 6 pm to 11 pm or later. She sacrificed personal time, comfort, and rest—all to reclaim her freedom. And she succeeded. Today, over 40 years later, she has achieved the independence she worked so hard for. I like to think she had a great financial advisor along the way.
💼 My First Steps Toward Independence
My own journey started at age 17 when I took a part-time evening shift at Nationwide Insurance. I missed playing baseball my senior year, but I gained something even more valuable: the mindset of independence. I worked there through college, steadily growing in my role and understanding how hard work, smart spending, and long-term vision come together to build financial freedom.
More than ten years before launching Carey Wealth Management, I had already begun dreaming about the kind of firm I wanted to create. I knew it would prioritize one goal above all: helping clients achieve financial independence. I envisioned a company that would remain independent from Wall Street and deeply committed to improving lives.
🔄 Building for the Future
We recently welcomed Grant Carey as an Investment Advisor Representative Apprentice. Grant holds a degree in Finance with a minor in Economics, has earned his Series 65 license, and is currently pursuing his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. I’ve been mentoring Grant for over six years for this moment, and I’m confident he’ll help carry our mission forward. In fact, we’ve been growing steadily for the past three years, and I already have my eye on another team member to join us in 2026.
📈 Market Musings & Looking Ahead
June has been another intriguing month. We’re seeing signs of stock market growth again, and some of the uncertainty from earlier in the year is beginning to shift. One thing is clear: much of the mainstream financial media has missed the mark lately. That’s the trouble with lacking independence—real insight comes from direct experience, not headlines.
The economic data is improving, although we still need interest rates to drop by at least 1% to truly kick-start the housing market. We're also noticing a weakening in employment trends, which may be tied to the rise of artificial intelligence and automation—a shift that could reduce the demand for new hires across industries.
As we head into the holiday weekend, I hope you find time for celebration, reflection, and fun. More than anything, I hope Carey Wealth Management continues to be a driving force in your journey toward financial independence.
Remember, We Plan, We Manage, We Care About Your Future®

09/01/2024

This is a test for our business page.

11/24/2022

Happy Thanksgiving to our wonderful clients. Have a happy and healthy holiday season.

11/23/2021

We hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!

We are very thankful for your health and happiness. We are also very grateful for our relationship. Our family of clients continue to grow and it has been a privilege to advise and guide through the ups and downs of everyone’s journey through life.

We have been with our clients through new jobs, new careers, retirements, weddings, divorces, major health issues, major health recoveries, deaths and births. We have advised and guided our clients through the great recession, the great pandemic and the great expansion.
We are looking forward to our journey together.

Overall, the markets are still having a good year even with the pressure of increasing inflation. The Federal Reserve started buying less bonds, however they are still pouring gasoline on the inflation fire.
When demand is higher than supply, prices go up. When demand stays the same and supply decreases, prices go up. We are currently experiencing both. When demand is lower and supply increases, we have a recession.

I still believe there are good prospects of working through most inflation however I am still very concerned about the excess risk taking.

Examples of excess risk taking can be found in the following:

1) Special Purpose Acquisition Company (S**C)
a. 5 years ago, these didn’t exist.
b. S**C’s allow companies to go public however the investors in the S**C do not know the financial details of the companies being invested in by the S**C.
2) Initial Public Offering (IPO)
a. Today’s IPO’s have investors lining up to buy a lot of grossly overvalued companies.
b. 5 years ago, a company issuing an IPO had better financials and the valuation the company receiving was much lower.
c. Example, Amazon’s IPO was in 1997, the market cap for Amazon right after the IPO was $438 million. If we inflate the market cap valuation to today’s dollars, Amazon’s market cap after IPO was $890 million. Compare that to IPO valuations today and it’s clear that there is major excess risk in most IPOs.
d. Today’s IPOs are coming to market extremely overvalued.
3) Cryptocurrency
a. They call it a currency but it’s not a currency.
b. They call it a coin but it’s not a coin.
c. Most of the value is supply/demand driven. Get more people to own it and you will see an increase in value.
d. Cryptocurrencies have two real benefits currently, which are lack of regulations and lack of taxation. Both of these will go away at some point.
e. People believe if everyone owns it, everyone will be wealthy.
4) Non-Fungible Token (NFT)
a. NFT’s are video clips, digital art, a virtual cat.
b. NFT’s value come from their uniqueness.
c. c. Below is an example of a NFT that is currently for sale. Some people have paid over $100,000 for these. Some people have paid over $100,000 for these.

5) Rare sneakers investments
a. You can invest, buy shares and sell shares in rare sneakers.
b. This is not a joke, just another example of too much money and too much speculation.

Throughout history, greed and fear are major factors in investing. Currently we are living in a greed only time.

There are some signs that valuations do matter. Over the past few months, we are starting to see some of the companies with excessive valuations starting to get adjusted back down.

The following examples are all good companies with desirable products and services. The only problem has been their valuation was too high.
A few examples:
1) Pelton
a. 52-week high stock price was $171.09
b. Current stock price as of 11/18/2021, $46.26
c. Stock is down 73% in the last 12 months.
2) Zillow
a. 52-week high stock price was $208.11
b. Current stock price as of 11/18/2021 $57.90
c. Stock is down 73% in the last 12 months.
3) Zoom
a. 52-week high stock price was $486.83
b. Current stock price as of 11/18/2021, $245.16
c. Stock is down 50% in the last 12 months
We need to see more price correction across most assets before we can say see we survived the great bubble.

There are two factors that are major positives once we get past the current bubble that will help our economy expand for years to come. One is factor is the labor market and technology. 20 years ago, companies throughout the world were moving manufacturing and capital into areas of low wage labor.

If a company was to going to make shoes, cars, computers, etc., they needed a lot of employees to assemble the things they were making. Now, due to technology, robots, automation, low wage labor is not important. The labor need has shifted from unskilled to skilled. Our economy is positioned for this shift. Also, companies now realize that shorter supply chains are a major competitive advantage. These factors will greatly benefit our country’s economy.

Remember, we plan, we manage, we care about your future®

11/10/2021

“We will, we will inflate everything”. Listen to the song We Will Rock You by Queen while replacing “rock you” with “inflate everything” and that is what we are all experiencing at this post pandemic economic moment. The Federal Reserve continues to buy bonds and hopefully by the next newsletter they will have stopped.

As I have mentioned before in earlier newsletters, some inflation is healthy for the economy and too much inflation is bad, very bad. On the long term, even with all the current inflation pressures we can still see some positive longer-term signs, such as more companies announcing plans for expanding manufacturing in the United States. If more investments in the future flow to the US instead of China (or other cheaper labor countries) we are going to witness The Great American Expansion.

Shorter term, the Federal Reserve has created an inflation monster. As the Federal Reserve tries to tame inflation, we could finally see some downward pressure on stocks.
Currently, FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) and TINA (There Is No Alternative) are driving a lot of investment decisions. Let’s step back from FOMO and TINA and review the fundamentals of stocks and bonds.

When you buy a stock, you own part of the company. Stocks are called equities. Overtime, owning a stock can grow your money through receiving dividends and stock appreciation. Stock appreciation occurs from the company becoming more valuable, as they grow their business and make more money.

Some companies pay their owners a dividend. The dividend can either be received in cash or reinvested back into the company. Thus, the reinvested dividend buys more shares in the company. At Carey Wealth Management we can turn on and off the dividend reinvestment depending on various factors for each investment and each client account. Another detail about dividends is some companies do not pay any, like Amazon for example, does not pay a dividend. Some companies do pay a dividend, but they can suspend the dividend when they have cash flow issues. An example of that is Ford, who pays a dividend, however they suspended the dividend in 2020 and just announced they are going to start paying a dividend again.

Stocks can also be owned through Exchange Traded Funds (EFTs) and Mutual Funds.
Keep in mind that the two benefits of owning a stock are dividends and stock appreciation. If companies grow and make money, owning their stock leads to growing your money. However, if a company doesn’t grow and doesn’t make money, owning their stock will lose your money.

We can also invest in bonds/CDs. When you buy a bond or CD you are not an owner in the company, you are a lender to that company. Bonds/CDs are called fixed income. Example, if you buy a 10-year Bank of America bond, you don’t have any ownership in Bank of America, instead you have lent money to Bank of America for 10 years. Bank of America will pay you a coupon payment (interest) over the 10 years. At the end of the 10 years, the bond will mature and you will receive back the original amount you lent to Bank of America.

Bonds can also be owned through Exchange Traded Funds (EFTs) and Mutual Funds.
Both stocks and bonds have risks of losing money if the company doesn’t grow or doesn’t make money. If a company goes bankrupt both stock holders and bond holders can lose everything.

With bonds you can diversify risk by owning bonds from the US government, or state and local governments. Also, you can own CDs which are FDIC insured. A CD is just like a bond from the stand point that you are lending the bank money and they will pay you interest and return the amount you lent them when the CD matures.

Currently there is almost zero opportunities in the CD and short-term bond market due to the Federal Reserve. For each of our clients we have a bend of stocks and bonds/CDs/cash. This blend is called the asset allocation. The asset allocation is customized for each client and each account. Example, a client has a Trust account which is taxable and an IRA account which is not taxable until money is taken as a withdrawal. We manage each account differently even then both are owned by the same client.

Both stocks and bonds are always changing. What is great today could be terrible tomorrow and what is terrible today could be great tomorrow.

We have been living through a period where most assets are being inflated, and we might need to live through a period where most assets are being deflated. Owning quality investments, diversification, and balancing risk versus reward will always be our focus

Remember, we plan, we manage, we care about your future®

09/30/2021

Depending on which state you live in, various shades of fall are upon us. Historically, fall has not been a great time for the investment markets.

Currently there are a lot of unknowns which create more risk throughout our economy and investment markets. We are starting to see some equity sell-offs however they have been very small so far and a large sell-off would help reset the investment markets.

Economies and investment markets like predictably. Therefore, the more unpredictable factors such as inflation, taxation, regulations and Covid become, the more overall risk to the economy and investment markets.

Understanding and planning for taxation is always an important factor in building wealth. There are a lot of discussions around increasing various taxes, however we still do not know which taxes will change. Income taxes, capital gain taxes and estate taxes are all on the table which could impact individuals.

We will continue to monitor these possible changes.

Hopefully, we will see a more balanced approach with a little less government spending, less manipulation of the interest rates and more predictable tax policies.
Interest rates are still at record lows. The benefit of these ultra-low interest
rates is debt. Meaning if you are refinancing your mortgage or buying something with debt, the ultra-low interest rates are a great opportunity. However, like anything if life, too much of something can be very bad. You can have too much of the ultra-low interest rate debt.

There are many individuals and companies that have way too much of this wonderful debt. We will continue to work hard to keep our client’s properly balanced.

The other side of these ultra-low interest rates is the saving and investing side.

Retirees and pre-retirees are being negatively impacted by the ultra-low interest rates. An example, January 2020, a 1-year CD was paying 1.86%, currently a 1-year CD is paying .15%. Higher inflation and ultra-low rates have the biggest negative impact on retirees and pre-retirees.

The Fed needs to stop buying bonds so we can start to see short term CD and bond opportunities again.

On a positive note, we are seeing more announcements of new manufacturing plants across the USA. If more of our supply chain is produced here verses overseas, that will be a strong positive impact on our economy.

Remember, we plan, we manage, we care about your future®

06/29/2020

Another month and wow things keep changing fast!

Thank you for your positive thoughts about my health issue. The great news my health is now better than it has been in years. I am amazed at how many people and pets that have had exposed to ticks. Ticks are everywhere. Last week I found a tick crawling on me while mountain bike riding so please be tick aware.

The markets and the economy continue on a volatile journey. Currently the market is ahead of the economy which means the stock market believes we are through the worst part of this health crisis.
I still believe the true economic impact of the shutdown is not fully understood. Businesses are changing a lot of their daily business practices and this change will continue to evolve. We continue to look for opportunities as we reposition our portfolios to have a higher focus on the companies and areas that will do better during uncertain times.

The health crisis is still evolving, some days it appears the worst is behind us, however, just a few days ago we had our first friend and client have Covid 19 virus. She is healthy in her early 50’s and spent 3 days in the hospital. She recently purchased an electric mountain bike so I am hoping she will be out riding soon. Also, she is much cooler than her husband! (Note, this is an embedded joke to see if they read our newsletter)

So currently we have economic uncertainty, health uncertainty, social uncertainty and on top of all that it is an election year. A lot of uncertainty. Can we get through this? Yes! Could it take a few years, Maybe?

Our economy was much stronger than anyone understood before Covid 19. If some of the supply chain moves back to the United States, it will lead to tremendous economic growth. Timing to be determined.

With all this uncertainty, what can we control and focus on during this time?

I picked up these three items from all of my clients:

1) Stay healthy, health is the ultimate wealth.
2) Stay balanced. If you watch too much news it’s very easy to become unbalanced.
3) Stay happy. What makes you happy? Try to keep the pursuit of happiness.

Remember, we plan, we manage, we care about your future®

04/02/2020

PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM (PPP) is a new opportunity for small businesses, under 500 employees.

This program provides loans to support payroll and some other expenses for small business. This loan does not need to be repaid if certain provisions are met by the small business.

Below is information from the Small Business Administration. Businesses can start applying through their bank on Friday.

I wanted to share this with everyone because you might have a family member or friend that works at small business and this might help them.

Stay safe and be strong,

Jamie

We support America's small businesses. The SBA connects entrepreneurs with lenders and funding to help them plan, start and grow their business.

03/12/2020

This information went out our clients at 11:00am today.

The Coronavirus continues to cause major disruptions in our daily lives and in our economy.

We have been working hard on getting real facts and making decisions based on the facts. We have received input from various sources including people that live in China and front-line doctors. All have different viewpoints and different information.

At this point, the information is still very confusing. There are still too many unknowns. One thing we do know is that many events have been cancelled and postponed. There will be a large financial impact and it could be less than 3 months or much longer.
We are still hoping that within a month or two this will end up being that largest head-fake in the last 100 years. However, the risk/reward on the short term has changed enough that we proactively analyzed all of our accounts and we have sold any of the equities that we feel will receive the largest negative impact from the fallout of this virus. Certain asset classes will be impacted more than others.

This strategy will allow us to have more cash available to take advantage of investment opportunities. This strategy will lessen the volatility you see in your investment account. Part of this strategy was to take advantage of some tax loss selling now for your taxable accounts.

One very important detail is all of our pre-retirees and retirees could receive their income for many years before we would need to sell any equities. This is the most important part of the long-term plan that you already have in place. However, since this is a health event with so much uncertainty and we know that so many individuals and businesses will be impacted by the cancellations and postponements, we feel this is the best move for you.

The action we took has nothing to do with the market sell off as of the time of writing this. A 20 percent or more correction is a normal part of investing. This action is due to the unknown health impact on individuals from the Coronavirus and the actions taken by individuals, cities and states to slow the spread of Coronavirus. We might see a race to close everything down and it might end up being a bad move, however the economic impact will be real for a period of time.

For any of our clients that have mortgage, depending on your current interest rate, you might be able to refinance your mortgage. We recommend starting to have those conversations with a bank or mortgage broker now. We are starting to see some outstanding opportunities in refinancing.

Please practice these safe health activities:
1) Wash your hands after touching anything outside of your home.
2) Do not travel on airplanes, cruise ships or mass transit.
3) Do not attend any events with more than 20 people. Just stay away until we get better facts.
Let other people prove this is nothing more than a cold or flu, and until more facts are available be safe.

Remember we plan, we manage, we care about your future.

Jamie

03/02/2020

The Corona virus is causing a large sell off in the equity markets.

Hopefully in the near future the facts about this virus will come out.

The virus might end up being just another Chinese flu which there have been many and some have been very scary over the past 15 years. Until the real facts are known, it’s impossible to know the real impact.

So why is the stock market selling off?
1) It’s scary, if you have ever had an unknown health issue, it’s scary. It makes you overreact to things! It’s scary because the media uses words like “pandemic”.
2) Many investors, including countries, don’t have a long-term investment plan. The stock market is a short-term place for their money. They move in and out trying to make money, they never are focused on long term wealth creation. (Short-term money that is invested in long term investments, that never works, but there is lot of money that flows into stocks like this)
3) Many investors have to sell. They have to sell because they bought the stocks using a loan (margin). Over the last 5 year, more and more stocks have been purchased with margin. When stock prices drop, they have to put in more cash or sell the stock to cover the loan.
We have never used margin and will never use margin for investments. I learned that lesson in 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in one day. Yes, down 22.6% in one day.
4) Computer (program) trading will sell stocks even when it’s the absolute worst thing to do. We don’t use any automatic program trading.
Remember these two items:
1) This is from our last newsletter, dated February 11, 2020, “I have said this a million times and I will continue to say this, short term is always, always risky in the stock market. Always! Short term from an investment standpoint is 1 to 3 years”
2) We never want to be in a position that we have to sell stocks because someone, somewhere needs to sell. Example, we don’t want to have to sell stocks when China created a new virus that is currently causing a lot of fear. Example, we don’t want to sell stocks when a country might need a lot of cash because their economy is going to need a lot of money to support it because it was built with smoke and mirrors.
We are so proud of our clients. We haven’t received any panic calls.

We are seeing a lot of clients finding cash to invest. Hey, why didn’t you tell us you had the cash!

Remember, we plan, we manage, we care about your future!

11/14/2019

The markets and economy have been a wild ride for the past 12 months.
With all the negative talk about the trade war, recession and politics, the investments are producing a very strong year.

The facts are the job market is still one of the best in the last 50 years and most consumers are in a positive financial position. One thing that is very clear, you can’t worry about things that happen on the short term. Long term planning, long term strategies give the best results. We have some investments and strategies that we put in place approximately 10 years ago and those investments and strategies are paying off day. (Long term)
On the short term, we must always think about risk management. Short term, a million things can happen that cause short term pain. We are always preparing for the unexpected unknowns. Managing risks for unknowns is very complex.

Overall long-term planning and strategies with short term risk management puts our clients in the best possible position whatever happens next. Bring it on!

Remember, we plan, we manage, we care about your future®

12/19/2018

We like to share this story again during this time of year.

THE MAYONNAISE JAR AND 2 CUPS OF COFFEE
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle & 24 hours in a day is not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar & 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - God, family, children, health, friends, and favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, house, and car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

So . . . Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play With your children or grandchildren.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your partner out to dinner.
Play another 18.
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

"Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand." One of the students raised her hand and inquired as to what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."