The greatest enemy of successful investing is not always inflation, recessions, elections, interest rates or even market declines. Often, it’s distraction: the shiny object promising an easier path; the belief in “something better” than patiently following a well-designed plan.
AI raises an important question, especially for any business that offers advice: What can technology do, and what can it never truly replace? I believe technology can provide information, but a good advisor provides understanding.
I’ve held many versions of this same conversation over the years. Sometimes they genuinely seek perspective. Other times they want reassurance that everything will be all right. Sometimes they’ve already decided what they want to do and hope an advisor will simply reinforce that choice. Those are three very different conversations.
Fear is understandable. People are not foolish for worrying about war, rising prices, political division or an unexpected event interrupting the retirement plan they spent decades building. Yet my nearly five decades in this business have taught me a critical lesson: Even understandable fears can drive damaging financial decisions.
Automation allows people and businesses to do more with less. Innovation applies new ideas to create better products, processes and outcomes. When the two collaborate over time, entire industries change.
Complexity often reassures many investors. Surely a system involving so many formulas, ratings, models and highly compensated experts must mean diminished the risk, right? The truth is often the opposite: Rather than remove risk, complexity simply disguises it.
There are few transitions in life more profound than moving from “we” to “me.” Whether through the passing of a spouse or a divorce, the change is emotional, financial, and deeply personal. For those approaching or already in retirement, this transition can be especially difficult.
I believe it’s valuable to step back from all of the political, financial market, and economic noise and ask ourselves some fundamental questions: Why am I investing? For what am I investing? How will I get there? The answers to these questions will never be found in today’s attention-seeking headlines. Their only goal is to […]
Most people think of financial planning as being solely tied to numbers. But a quiet assumption is built into nearly every person’s plan, whether they recognize it or not: They assume the future will cooperate. But life never has been, nor will it ever be, linear.
Not long ago, gambling largely remained in places designed for gambling. Today, those boundaries are fading. While greed is one motivating factor, I’ve often found another emotion equally to blame: anxiety.
He was known as the “Great Bear of Wall Street,” Jesse Livermore was one of the best known investors of the early 1900s. But his story is not a happy one. It raises the uncomfortable question: How can someone be so right … and still not succeed?
For many, retirement is an imagined finish line. A date circled on the calendar. A number on a statement. A moment when the alarm clock turns off for good and life finally begins to slow down. Every day becomes a Saturday!
And then it arrives.
What does a typical meal cost today? Maybe $12 for a quick stop — or $15 if including a drink. Sit down somewhere nice, and you’ll owe closer to $20. Now fast forward 30 years. The $12 lunch — once only $5 — is headed toward $30.
Investors often learn about this critical principle in finance: the time value of money. But recently, I began thinking about this from the other direction. If there’s a time value of money, there’s also something I call the money value of time. In the long run, that may matter even more.
Where do those tax problems actually show up, and why do so many thoughtful investors ultimately pay more than necessary? In most cases, it’s not a lack of knowledge that drives this problem, but timing. The biggest tax mistake investors make isn’t misunderstanding the rules; it’s waiting too long to act.
Most people assume the IRS measures a dollar of income as simply a dollar of income. That’s true for many income sources. Interest from a savings account, CD or bond is taxed as ordinary income, at the same federal rates as wages. But qualified dividends receive different federal treatment.
