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I think all advisors have a list of things that we wish that product salespeople would tell their clients.  When they come to us, we get to tell them the “bad news”.  And then they feel bad because they did something wrong (I’ve learned I never score bonus points with prospective clients by telling them they messed up).  Here are some of our most recent experien

The above chart teaches some great lessons on investing.  It shows two important data points per year for the S&P 500 Index from 1980 thru April 30, 2015.  Those two points are 1) the overall rate of return including dividends each year shown as the grey bars, and 2) the largest intra-year drop that occurred during the year noted by the purple dots (in other words, the largest pea

With more than 10,000 Baby Boomers crossing the retirement threshold every day, the Social Security check writing machine has kicked into overdrive.

While recently visiting four of my Exceptional Grandchildren in South Africa, I learned about a wonderful program that made me rethink my commitment to helping those with basic needs.  The KFC (aka “Kentucky Fried Chicken”) Add Hope Campaign raises funds for meals for children throughout South Africa.  Customers can participate by adding “Hope”

401(k) plans were established by Congress to encourage individual savings towards retirement. Offered through employers, the plans are generally available to eligible employees who are allowed to contribute a percent of their salary to the plan.

After costs, the return on the average actively managed dollar will be less than the return on the average passively managed dollar for any time period.
—William F. Sharpe, 1990 Nobel Laureate

It’s always fun to see reactions from people I meet when I tell them what I do for my work.  The title “financial planner or financial advisor” means different things to different people.  A common response I hear is a question regarding a short-term investment idea they heard from a financial pundit (usually on TV).  The details are different, but the category

Young families with an eye to the future are faced with a daunting choice – to save earnestly for a secure retirement or to save for their children’s education. Can you do both?

You may have heard statistics or evidence that multitasking can actually make people less efficient. Actually, in many cases that’s true. Generally speaking, multitasking decreases the level of knowledge and understanding in a given task; and, sometimes it can lead to doing many things but not really accomplishing anything.

In the world of financial planning, it’s easy to think that the output of our work is a document called a financial plan that outlines where an individual or family is today, where they would like to be in the future, and what steps need to be taken to get there.  While that is part of what we do, the real meat of what we do is the ongoing adjustments that are made to the plan.