As summer winds down and fall begins, questions around interest rates, tariffs, and market direction remain front and center.

🎥 Watch this month’s Matt’s Minutes video here (full transcript below).

⏱ Video Highlights

Want to jump to a specific part of this month’s update? Here are the key sections:

• 0:20 — Tariffs and interest rate headlines from August
• 0:36 — What lower interest rates could mean for borrowing costs
• 1:17 — Recap of “The Tale of Three Markets”
• 1:37 — Comparing buy-and-hold and safety net strategies
• 1:50 — Why your comfort with risk matters most

In August, markets stayed relatively steady, but the Federal Reserve has signaled the possibility of lowering rates before year’s end. If that happens, borrowing costs — from mortgages to car loans — could ease. While this can provide short-term relief, it’s not always the best long-term answer for the economy.

Revisiting the “Tale of Three Markets”

In a recent Matt’s Minutes, we shared the “Tale of Three Markets” — what happens during rising, falling, and V-shaped markets. Alongside that, we compared two common investment approaches:

• Buy-and-hold strategies, which can work well in stable periods.
• Approaches with safety nets, designed to help soften losses during sharp downturns that often appear every few years.

Neither approach is perfect, and the right balance depends on your comfort with risk and your long-term retirement goals.

Why This Matters for Retirement Planning

For those retired — or preparing to retire soon — these decisions aren’t just about investments. They connect directly to income, lifestyle, and peace of mind.

At Richmond Brothers, our purpose is to help you live fearlessly into and beyond retirement. That means keeping you informed, providing context, and helping you feel confident no matter what the markets may bring.

📄 Want to learn more? Watch the full Matt’s Minutes video above or connect with our team.
📞 Call us at 517-435-4040 or email questions@richmondbrothers.com.

Full Transcript of Video

Prefer to read instead of watch? Here’s the full transcript from Matt’s Minutes.

Hi everyone, this is Matt Curfman and Oliver here with a Matt’s Minutes edition, recording in early September just after Labor Day — kind of reviewing a little of the month of August.

We just want to reach out. This is going to be a fairly short video, as there wasn’t a lot of extreme movement in August as far as headlines. I think the continual questions are: What is happening with tariffs? What is happening with interest rates in general? And what is the Fed going to do about it?

There is general consensus that sometime in the fall — the last four months of 2025 — the Fed could start to lower rates. In general, I think that would be received well by the markets. What it means is that as rates come down from the Fed, it trickles back to other things in the economy — meaning mortgage rates would be lower, car loan rates would be lower. So lower interest rates make borrowing money and living a little cheaper.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good long-term; it just is what it is. That’s probably the biggest theme I would say as far as how it ties to your investments, your retirement, and your portfolios.

I’d also like to refer back to the most recent video I did, which was The Tale of Three Markets. In that video, I talked through what happens in a rising market, what happens in a falling or declining market, and what happens in a V-shaped market. Then I paralleled that to two different types of strategies:

• One is the traditional buy-and-hold.
• The other is having some safety nets to avoid extreme downside, which can happen once every three to five years.

In the three- to five-year period until that happens, it feels like we should always be in buy-and-hold. But when we do hit one of those extreme downsides, for whatever reason, that’s when everyone says, “Ooh, I wish I would have had those safety nets.”

Neither path is perfect. We’re here to help you on both sides — and also help you solve for whatever you feel comfortable with, with respect to your risk tolerance.

So, stay in touch. Please let us know if you have any questions — specifically at questions@richmondbrothers.com.

We’re here to help educate, inform, and guide you through your retirement years — and to your retirement years if you’re not yet retired — no matter what the world or the market throws our way.

Thanks for tuning in, and thanks for being part of Richmond Brothers.

Sources:

Research Reports

Please note: Any market index referenced is unmanaged, does not reflect the impact of fees and other expenses and is unable to be invested in.