We know – vividly – what has already happened. We can never know what will come next. The humble recognition of this truth should be the foundation of any long-term investment philosophy. The question is, “Given that we cannot know what comes next, how should we invest?” From a micro level, when a company knows

Read More

I have been in financial services for over 2 decades, and there are 5 things I see (over and over) that take people away from their financial success. They are: Spend > Earn Retire Too Early Panic Sell Excited Buy No Planning Spend > Earn This one seems so obvious, yet so many people do

Read More

The last 2 weeks, I’ve been talking about “account minimums” in the financial services industry. 8/8/22 – Minimums Are Necessary, But I Don’t Like Them 8/15/22 – No Account Minimum (Part 1): Education for Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Financial Planning These issues of “account minimums” and who has access to advice have been on my mind for

Read More

Last week I talked about account minimums in financial services. My stated concern was that 80-85% of the US population doesn’t have enough assets to qualify for most advisors’ $500,000 minimum. They either do it themselves or work with commissioned sales people. They don’t have access to independent, objective advice from a qualified fiduciary to

Read More

Featured Articles: Good Writing From Around The Web Thinking About Reaching Out to Someone? Science Says Do It   Drop the note; make the call; send the text. Overcoming acquaintance inertia leads to surprisingly positive results. Before You Fly The Nest: Advice For Kids Heading to College   Share this life advice with the new

Read More

Clearly, there is a very low bar to shop at the local drugstore. If you are wearing a shirt and shoes (pants, I guess, are presumed), you can be a customer. Tellers can handle 20 customers (or more) in an hour without knowing anything about each customer. Professional service firms routinely spend multiple or even

Read More

Featured Articles: Good Writing From Around The Web On Sarcasm   I was a caustically sarcastic teenager. I made the decision to be nicer in college and dropped sarcasm. Now, people act like I just don’t get it when I don’t appreciate sarcasm. Anyone else? Misinformation Is Here To Stay (And That’s OK)   Not

Read More

There is a lot of negative news out there right now. Inflation is the worst it has been in 4 decades, there may be a recession around the corner (we may just be waiting for the National Bureau of Economic Research to verify what the 2 quarters of negative GDP has already told us), supply

Read More

Fair enough. Personal finance is an enormous topic. Let me see if I can make it a little bit easier with an overview of our financial education courses. Because our educational system teaches next to nothing practical about personal finance, there are usually two ways people come to the idea of personal financial education. Either

Read More