Well Balanced Vol. 39
📈 Stock Quote
“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” — Virginia Woolf
📖 — Virginia Woolf, was a prominent English novelist and essayist. She helped pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device.
🧩 Riddle Me
Q: Seven people stand in a square room measuring 30' x 30'. Each can see the entire room and everyone in it without making any physical movement (aside from eye movement).
🍎 Where inside this room can you place an apple so that all but one person can see it?
(answer below)
🔗 Recent Vector Posts & Pods
Discussions from our blog that aim to spark dialogue, enhance retirement readiness, and help make more informed financial choices.
🎙 Markets, Debt Ceiling, Home Un-Affordability at All Time Highs
Markets are setting record highs in price, the national debt ceiling was just increased to $41 $5 trillion, and home affordability is nearing a breaking point. (podcast)
🎙 Treat Yourself: Why Intentional Spending Matters in Retirement
If you’re hesitant to spend—even when your plan says you can—you’re not alone. This episode explores how small, intentional choices can help shift the mindset from saver to spender, adding comfort, joy, and purpose to your retirement. (podcast)
📄 A Taxing Story: Capital Gains and Losses
Chris Rock once remarked, “You don’t pay taxes – they take taxes.” Capital gains result when an individual sells an investment for an amount greater than their purchase price. (article)
🎙 Target Date Funds and Retirement. What’s Next?
What got you to retirement isn’t necessarily what’s going to get you through retirement optimally. That’s where personalized planning comes in — not just managing risk, but building a strategy that supports how you actually want to live. (podcast)
🎙 Art, Math and Financial Planning with Emily Victory
Our guest Emily Victory blends mathematics with artistic expression, drawing inspiration from patterns found in nature and architecture. In this podcast, she joins Vector’s Sharon Calhoun to explore curiosity, structure, and creativity in art and financial planning. (podcast)
🌟 The Michelin Star System
True or False: The decor and service quality of a restaurant influence its Michelin star rating.
❌ False. Michelin stars are awarded based on the food—nothing else.
The exciting summer travel plans that so many of our clients are sharing with us have made us curious about what a Michelin star really stands for.
🍽️ Interestingly, its stars are given purely based on these five criteria:
1️⃣ Quality of ingredients
2️⃣ Mastery of cooking technique and flavor
3️⃣ The chef's personality reflected in the dish
4️⃣ Value for money
5️⃣ Consistency across visits
Notably missing? Ambiance, location, and service!
Here's what the numbers of stars mean:
⭐ Worth a stop
⭐⭐ Worth a detour
⭐⭐⭐ Worth a special journey
🤖 The T Word
While tariffs drove market headlines last week, another “t word” made news: trillion.
More specifically, $4 trillion in market capitalization. The worlds largest AI chip maker was the first company to breach that market cap level in July. So, why does it matter ? For a market-cap weighted index like the S&P 500, a company valued at $4 trillion has an outsized effect on the overall index’s performance.
The largest five companies in the S&P 500 comprise about one-third of the benchmark index.
Rank and Index Weights:
NVIDIA: 7.4%
Microsoft: 6.6%
Apple Inc.: 5.6%
Amazon: 4.2%
Meta Platforms: 3.1%
*Approximate S&P 500 weightings as of July 17th, 2025. Weights and rankings fluctuate with market changes.
🧩 Riddle Answer
A: Place the apple on the head of one person.
Everyone else in the room can see it, but the person with the apple on their head cannot—because they can’t see the top of their own head without a mirror or movement.