Gg Year in Review
8
min. read
We’re happy to report another successful year in our goal of helping you live your best life. Our purpose—and your portfolio—continue to be driven by your life goals rather than prognostications or predictions about the economy, politics, or the market. Just as it was in 2025, this will always be the case throughout the coming year and beyond.
We want to start by restating our core beliefs that guide our advice and investment approach at Gg. Then, we’ll review the highlights of 2025, as well as our thoughts as we head into 2026.
While 2025 brought us the third straight year of double-digit returns, it started off as a bumpy one, to say the least, with a 19% peak-to-trough decline during the Tariff Tantrum that lasted from February through the beginning of April. The VIX (a measure of market volatility) hit a level of 60, signaling extreme panic just as stock prices reached their bottom for the year.
Was it unusual?
No, not in the least.
While the news and related events are unique in the moment, temporary declines occur about once every 12 months over the last 100+ years, with an average decline of about 15%.
Despite this year’s ups and downs, the S&P 500 finished up roughly 18% and, as of this writing, sits at new all-time highs.
That means, financially speaking, just like every crisis before it, fearmongering and investing based on political opinion or emotion would have left you worse off than staying the course, ignoring the noise, and living your life.
2025 was unique compared to recent years in that diversification actually worked. International equities were the stars, outperforming the S&P 500 by a wide margin for the first time in almost 20 years and returning north of 30% in 2025. Fixed income participated with low- to mid-single-digit returns, while cash was once again a terrible place to be.
This year, we continued to follow the same plan that has always worked in the long run. At Gg, we do not accept the idea that “this time is different,” regardless of what “this” may be at a given moment. We do not adjust our strategy or portfolios to accommodate the fads or fears of the moment. We don’t go to cash during market panics, and we don’t make bets on “new era” miracles or flavors of the day like crypto, AI, or ESG.
We stayed disciplined by rebalancing portfolios, trimming areas of outperformance (i.e., growth), adding to lagging asset classes (international and small-cap), and encouraging the thoughtful deployment of excess cash during periods of uncertainty. Our role is to remain calm and steady—helping you not just endure market declines, but benefit from them over time.
When reviewing your life goals and building your financial plan, we always plan for the following:
This is not a prediction; it’s what we can reasonably expect based on more than 100 years of market history.
Our purpose during each of these periods is to ensure that you are not only prepared for them, but able to prosper through them—without missing a single moment of what matters most: your life.
This is where planning meets preparation, and why meeting with us is so important. It enables us to gain a deep understanding of your life today, your goals, and to prepare, make crucial changes, and develop a plan for what’s ahead—rather than reacting in the middle of the storm.
It’s also why we have buckets and emergency funds set aside: to endure, not avoid, these temporary declines.
Last year, we invested heavily in our team, adding Stephanie and Trey, to add depth to our service and resources. We also continued to refine our current services and overall client experience. The best is definitely yet to come, with several major technology initiatives underway at Gg as we further refine and improve what we offer. We’ll be reaching out as usual and ask that you schedule your annual reviews so we can revisit your life goals and ensure your portfolio and financial plan is aligned.
We cannot promise the road ahead will be smooth. There will be other media-driven temporary panics, and there will be plenty of new and “improved” crises—both real and imagined.
Life will continue to throw curveballs.
Financial life management is never-ending. It’s one foot in front of the other, taking life as it comes with the foundational cornerstones of patience, discipline, and unwavering faith in the future.
The good news is that together, we can handle whatever comes our way—making adjustments and developing habits that, like your investments, will compound dramatically over time.
Our ultimate purpose as your advisor is to help you live a flexible, happy, and fulfilled life without worrying about money.
It’s what we do and why we exist.
We wish all of you a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2026. We’re always here to address your questions and concerns.
Thank you for allowing us to be a small part of your lives.
It is a privilege to serve you each and every day.
