Inflation. Interest rates. Global conflict. Oil prices. Artificial intelligence. Market performance.

When the headlines keep changing, it can be difficult to know what deserves your attention and what should influence your financial decisions.

You may even find yourself wondering:

Is my retirement plan still prepared for what could happen next?

In this month’s Matt’s Minutes, Matt Curfman, CFP®, CEO & Co-Owner of Richmond Brothers, looks back at the financial headlines from July, discusses why market leadership may be broadening beyond the largest technology companies, and explains why your personal plan may matter more than the latest news cycle.

“The world can feel incredibly uncertain, and yet markets can continue moving forward.”

Matt Curfman, CFP®
CEO & Co-Owner, Richmond Brothers

Timestamps

0:00 – Meet Oliver and Theo, Matt’s economic advisors
0:56 – Looking back at July’s financial headlines
1:36 – Global uncertainty, oil prices, inflation, and interest rates
1:45 – Economic and labor market resilience
2:00 – Understanding the Magnificent Seven
2:55 – Why market leadership may be broadening
3:10 – Artificial intelligence beyond the technology sector
3:20 – What should retirees and investors do?
3:34 – Diversification, liquidity, and retirement income planning
4:00 – Markets can move forward during uncertain times
4:30 – When life changes deserve attention
5:20 – The Federal Reserve, interest rates, and inflation
5:45 – Final thoughts

(Full transcript below.)

Looking Beyond the Headlines

Financial headlines often focus on what changed most recently.

One day, attention may be on the Federal Reserve. The next, it may shift to inflation, oil prices, global conflict, or artificial intelligence.

Those developments can affect the economy and financial markets. They can also create pressure to make a quick decision.

Before changing your retirement strategy, it may help to ask:

What has changed in your life, your goals, or your income needs?

A headline may be new without changing the purpose of your financial plan. A change in your family, health, retirement timeline, or spending needs may be a more meaningful reason to revisit it.

Why Broader Market Leadership Matters

For several years, much of the stock market’s performance was driven by a small group of very large technology companies often called the Magnificent Seven.

Because the S&P 500 is weighted by company size, those businesses can have a significant effect on the index.

Matt discusses signs that market leadership may be broadening beyond that group. A wider range of companies and sectors

contributing to performance can provide useful context for investors, although it does not guarantee future results.

Artificial intelligence may also play a role. While much of the attention has focused on technology companies, businesses across many industries are exploring whether AI can improve efficiency and productivity.

What Should Retirees and Pre-Retirees Do?

Periods of uncertainty can make it feel like large changes are necessary.

For many people, the more useful step may be reviewing the plan already in place.

That review may include questions such as:

• Is your portfolio appropriately diversified?
• Do you have enough liquidity for near-term retirement expenses?
• Where will your income come from during periods of market volatility?
• Does your strategy still reflect your goals and tolerance for risk?
• Have any recent life changes affected your plan?

These questions focus on your circumstances rather than predictions about what markets may do next.

When Life Changes Matter More Than Headlines

Market news often receives the most attention, but personal changes can have a greater effect on your retirement plan.

Those changes may include preparing to retire, changing jobs, welcoming a grandchild, losing a spouse, receiving an inheritance, or experiencing a major health event.

A useful question to consider is:

Does your current financial plan still reflect the life you are living today?

That question reflects one of the strongest principles in Richmond Brothers’ new advisor guide: begin with the individual’s goals and concerns, ask one clear question at a time, and avoid forcing a conclusion.

Key Takeaways

• Headlines remain focused on inflation, interest rates, global events, oil prices, and artificial intelligence.
• Market leadership may be broadening beyond a small group of large technology companies.
• Diversification, liquidity, and retirement income planning remain important.
• Personal changes may be a more meaningful reason to revisit a plan than the latest headline.
• Financial decisions should connect to your goals and long-term retirement strategy.

In Closing

There will always be another market forecast, Federal Reserve announcement, election headline, or global development competing for your attention.

Your retirement plan should help you evaluate those developments within the context of your own life.

You don’t need to predict every market movement to prepare thoughtfully for retirement. You can focus on the areas within your control: maintaining appropriate diversification, planning for income and liquidity, and reviewing your strategy when your circumstances change.

At Richmond Brothers, we believe a thoughtful retirement plan should give you confidence through changing markets and changing seasons of life.

If your life has changed—or you’ve just been wondering whether your current retirement plan still reflects your goals—we’d be honored to have that conversation with you.

The commentary in this video reflects the personal opinions, viewpoints, and analyses of Richmond Brothers employees and should not be regarded as advisory services provided by Richmond Brothers. Statements are subject to change without notice. Any mention of securities or market performance is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Richmond Brothers, Inc. does not provide tax advice; please consult your tax professional regarding your specific situation.

Full Transcription:

Hi everyone. This is Matt Curfman and two of my trusty economic advisors. One, the long two-and-a-half-year-old Oliver, you’ve met many, many times. And then also this is Theo, his younger brother. Theo is all of about 12 weeks old and he is learning all about the financial world’s headlines.

And just like Oliver, when he sees my blue light, the camera come on, he wants to jump in front of it and see, see, all of you and just say hi. So, Oliver, thank you for being here. Theo, thank you for being here. I’m gonna set these guys down now.

As always, for those of you who have seen my videos before, thank you for indulging me. People have shared a lot of feedback that they love seeing, my pup. So definitely want to throw them on these, videos. So I’m going to take just a minute and kind of look at life from a financial perspective in the rearview mirror.

We’ll go back and kind of look over the month of July and then we’ll also talk a little bit into the future. So, headlines are still really, really loud and really, really noisy. It seems like almost every day, every other day there is more and more extreme headlines, specifically around a few topics.

So one would be Iran, the war. One would be oil as it relates to Iran and the war and how it impacts all of us. Next would be inflation and higher interest rates and, and that kind of ties into the Federal Reserve. And so a lot of this is all kind of interconnected and sadly and unfortunately, it’s creating just a ton of uncertainty.

So, underneath all of those headlines, there’s another pattern, another trend, interesting that’s happening that we’ve noticed. So, the economy and the labor market remain pretty resilient, meaning things seem to be going okay from a purely economic standard standpoint.

That’s what I mean by resilient. However, if you look at stock market leadership, you, maybe many of you, have heard of the group of companies called the Magnificent Seven or the Mag seven. These are the seven really, really large trillion dollar plus technology companies.

And what you may remember is inside of the S&P500, the 500 means there’s 500 companies, really large companies. Seven of them have an uneven weighting because they’re so big. The, the seven represent almost a third of our entire US Market. Historically, the seven have really led the way as far as growth because they’re technology based.

What we’re starting to see is that the leadership within that is broadening beyond Magnificent Seven. So what does that mean in practical terms? The other 493 companies which represent other sectors, other pockets of the market, have actually and are doing better year to date, from my resources, rather than just the seven always leading the way.

So what that means is growth is broadening out beyond just the technology. We’ve talked about this a few times where as technology continues to evolve, specifically artificial intelligence. Can companies gain efficiencies by using artificial intelligence? And it’ll start to broaden well beyond just the technology only pocket of the market.

There are 10 other sectors, believe it or not, there’s 11 sectors in the S&P 500. So, next, as we kind of look forward, a question that I kind of think about when I look at all these headlines is what should you as a retiree or an investor do about it? Big question.

The answer is probably less than you think. I think we should just maintain and stay diversified. We should maintain appropriate liquidity if you are retired. And we need to have an income plan in place with you making sure we have stability and some assets that have nothing to do with the daily movements up or down or sideways in the market, and then just continue to make decisions together based on your plan rather than the newest headline.

One of the hardest lessons, I think, in the financial world, and maybe the investing world, is that the world can feel incredibly uncertain and yet markets can continue moving forward. And that’s such a simple statement, but it feels like a little bit about where we’re at.

There’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of noise, and markets are still moving forward. So we certainly can’t control what the world throws in our path, but we can control whether or not we’ve worked with you to, develop and prepare a plan that can help you navigate through it.

So from that standpoint, I feel really, really good if you have individual questions or you’ve had a life changing event, you know, family members change, you know, new grandkids, change of job, looking to retire. Maybe you’ve been retired, maybe you’ve lost a partner, significant other, and you need help just figuring out all of your finances.

These are all the things that we work with so many families, hundreds of families on these exact topics. And we are honored to be a partner with all of you who are watching and honored to be a resource for anyone who is, certainly considering us. So as we look forward into 2026, getting closer and closer to midterm elections, which certainly will cause much, more noise, I think, in headlines and obviously, I believe we all hope that the war and the conflict in Iran winds down, and hopefully eventually oil prices come down.

But for now, interest rates are staying a little higher. The Federal Reserve has maintained their status in their meeting during the month of July. Did not raise, did not lower interest rates. But we are seeing higher interest rates. And inflation is definitely still here, especially when you look to things like food and fuel prices when we go fill up at the gas pump.

So we are here to just continually, support you and partner with you along this financial journey. So thank you so much for tuning in. If you are part of the Richmond Brothers family, thank you so much for being part of our family. We are grateful for that partnership. And again, if any questions, our main email is questions@richmondbrothers.com thank you.