Mindful Money Blog

You’ve heard me say it over and over… and over and over… and over and over again. Creating a retirement income that rises to match your rising cost of living and lasts the rest of your life, while at the same time creating a legacy that potentially lasts across generations, is possible – even for those who begin with very modest incomes. It requires three things: savings, equity ownership, and time.

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?”

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. We have designed two offerings to solve for these 5 mistakes.

These issues of “account minimums” and who has access to advice have been on my mind for years. They are the main drivers for both the book and the education courses. It was a conversation, about 6 months ago, with a business coach that helped the rest of my platform take shape.

Last week I talked about account minimums in financial services. My stated concern was that 80-85% of the US population doesn’t have access to independent, objective advice from a qualified fiduciary to answer their questions. I believe this is a problem, and I believe the problem is solvable.

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Most professional services firms ultimately have to wrestle with the issue of client minimums. Solo providers or very small silo firms may avoid it for a while, but every firm that grows (which is, every firm that is any good at all) will eventually need to increase their minimums. This has always bothered me.

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, supply chains are still problematic. When will it end? I don’t know, but I’d be careful about getting overly swept up in it.

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 they are in a crisis of a particular kind, or they are finally realizing that some general financial education would be helpful as they go about their regular lives.

For J. Money's first "Budgets are Sexy" blog, he did a bit of a personal intro, and I liked the format... so, in the name of transparency, I am stealing it. My name is Jonathan DeYoe. I’ve been a "financial advisor" for 25 years. I started in sales at Dean Witter in 1996...

The best way to completely destroy any chance for lifetime investment success has historically been to sell one’s quality equity portfolios in a bear market. In Warren Buffet’s words, it is wise for investors to be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

Historically, it seems the primary function of financial journalism (perhaps all journalism) is to scare us out of our wits. We have been reminded of this almost hourly since the S&P 500 entered official “bear market territory” on Monday, June 13th by closing 20% below its previous all-time high set in January of 2022.

It is impossible to know where today’s 8.6% inflation will lead. If it hangs on for too long, it will begin hurting everyone’s retirement income plan. Our definitions of "money" and "wealth" hinge on successfully solving the retirement income problem.

Yoda’s idea, “Difficult to see, Always in motion is the future,” turns out to be exactly right. There are too many variables at work on something so incomprehensible as “the economy” or “the market.” One small (perhaps even intentional) change in one variable (e.g. FED funds rate) unpredictably causes additional changes across other variables, which in turn, cause more changes and so on. Each change multiplies to create outcomes that are unknowable. The future… moves.

If you have recently begun investing –OR– if you have recently changed your investing philosophy and a bear market arrives, it is very easy to become scared out of your process. Because…

With markets down into almost-bear-market-territory, nerves are fraying and questions are being asked. It is perhaps time for another reminder that, “This too shall pass.”

A “Bear Market” is usually defined as the condition in which the price of a market falls – on a closing basis – 20% (or more) from recent highs amid widespread negative investor sentiment. Your answer to the question, “Are we in a Bear Market?” will depend on what “market” you are considering.

This is the working title of my 2nd book. It is based on my 40 years investing in stocks, 25 years in options, 20 years in real estate, and 15 years in private markets. If there is a tool that could be invested in, I have invested in it. At the end, I choose to invest 90% of my own and my family's investable assets in the simplest way possible.

The problem with accepting the standard definition of “Risk” is that it is literally devoid of a critical aspect of personal finance – TIME! When we add time to the analysis of risk, a different risk definition is born. Think of the next 30 years of your own life. What do you want your money to be able to do?

The last couple weeks we’ve been highlighting the only three percentages that matter. The combination of the 2nd and 3rd determine whether your retirement income will rise to meet your rising cost of living and last the rest of your life… or not.