Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash Happy Wednesday, With the 2024 U.S. income tax deadline having just passed, I’ve already begun asking all my clients for a copy of their 2023 tax returns. Your tax return not only tells a story about what’s happened with your finances in the prior year, but it can also be an important tool in your retirement planning. Yet, most financial advisors don’t even ask about their clients’ tax returns. ? I’m not a CPA or accountant, and I don’t prepare tax returns or help clients with their tax compliance. But I’m a big believer in ongoing tax planning. Just think ..read more

Photo by Colton Sturgeon on Unsplash Happy Wednesday, Let’s talk about portfolio rebalancing. For those of you who aren’t familiar, portfolio rebalancing is simply adjusting your current investment holdings to reflect a target investment mix, or asset allocation. Let’s say you have 2 investments: Investment A Investment B According to your financial plan, which takes into account your current and future anticipated financial resources and looks at how likely it is that you can accomplish your goals and support your lifestyle for the rest of your life, you should have arrived at a targe ..read more

Photo by Jianxiang Wu on Unsplash Happy Wednesday, I’d like to share a simple, but important concept with you. Financial planning is rife with analogies about roadmaps, blueprints and much, much more. I’ve subjected y’all to many of these in my writing. And certainly will again… But today, let’s talk about art. “Art” has become – or maybe always was – a catchall term that includes music, dance, sculpture, writing, and painting. In fact, since “art is in the eye of the beholder,” most anything could be considered art by someone. But when it comes to your financial plan and money decisions, I ..read more

Photo by Waldemar on Unsplash Happy Wednesday! If you consider the common mouse and not only their capacity, but also their motivation, for making decisions, we might describe them as wanting to pursue pleasure and avoid danger. Or eat cheese ?, avoid cats ?. I heard this idea from a dude who used this “eat cheese, avoid cats” concept to frame a discussion around how you and I make decisions and why. Much like a mouse, we’re all about seeking pleasure and avoiding danger. Naturally I was thinking about how this idea translates to your financial planning and your money decisions. For some, “s ..read more

Photo by Money Knack on Unsplash Happy Wednesday, Let’s assume you’ve just retired. Now what? Whether you’ve left a tenured teaching position or are hanging it up after years on the road as a commission-earning salesperson, your paycheck – whether it was consistent or not – is going away. Hopefully, you’ve done a good job planning and saving for this day and the years that follow, but it’s still an uncomfortable feeling. You’re walking away from a stream of income, and even though you had to work in exchange for that income, now that the income is gone, how will you make your finances and yo ..read more

Photo by NASA on Unsplash Happy Wednesday! Thank you for all the lovely replies to last week’s email. I received dozens of messages, all full of warmth, empathy, and kindness. You have my (and Elizabeth’s) sincere appreciation and gratitude. ? A few months back, I read Robert Kurson’s book, Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon. Like all of Kurson’s books, it was hard to put down. The one thing in the book that stuck with me was his description of the “equigravisphere.” First of all, c’mon… that’s a pretty cool word. In the boo ..read more

You don’t have to look far to find all sorts of recommendations for investments you should own. Turn on the TV, look on your phone, or spend some time in front of a magazine rack, and you’re bombarded with investment recommendations competing for your attention. And your dollars. In fact, many pundits will gladly tell you which investments you should “Buy Now!” Today, however, I want to offer another perspective. I’d like to list 9 investments I think you shouldn’t have in your portfolio. Let’s get started: Investments that aren’t easy to keep track of. Don’t invest in anything where info ..read more

Our Winnie at Cape San Blas, FL - May, 2023 On Saturday, February 24th, Elizabeth and I were faced with the heartbreaking decision of letting our wonderful Winnie go to The Rainbow Bridge. As we started to treat the arthritis in her knees just a few weeks ago, one thing led to another which led to an MRI. We got the devastating news on the 22nd that she had osteosarcoma eating away the vertebrae in her cervical spine. We brought her home from the hospital to spend a final day or two with us where she got a steady stream of love, pain meds, and all the treats she wanted. Then on an otherwise ..read more

Happy Wednesday! After writing last week’s article on the potential cost of being “conservative” I’d planned to follow it up this week with another alliteratively titled piece on being “aggressive.” Maybe something like the “artificial allure of an aggressive approach.” But rather than write a counterpoint to last week, I decided to tackle the REAL issue as I see it. First, a little context… As you’ll see in the final section of this 2013 article, in the past I would create 3 financial plans for each client: This approach was based on the idea of creating an “ideal” plan or what you’d love ..read more

Happy Wednesday! I’m regularly told by people who are referred to me that I was described as “conservative” by the person that pointed them my direction. And while I can think of much worse things to be called, what does “conservative” even mean? Like many things in personal finance, it depends… Conservative for one person might be considered aggressive to another. And vice versa. But I’m not going to attempt to define the word conservative. Instead, I want to highlight a couple of examples - from my perspective, at least - where being “conservative” might be doing the exact opposite of wha ..read more