Two people video chatting
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Improving Investor Behavior: Reframing Your Business Mindset

For business owners, improving investor behavior can mean more than a focus solely on financial instruments. The intent of this column has been improving investor behavior, which often discusses market investments like equities, bonds, and…
Buttons to report a fire or call police
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Fire Drills and Why We Do Them

Every meeting we have with clients includes a line item on the agenda: Fire Drill.  What would you do if the market dropped significantly tomorrow? What would that look like for you? For years now it has felt like an unnecessary discussion…
Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup
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Improving Investor Behavior – Campbell’s Soup & Rising Income

Cold winter weather means it is soup season here in Colorado, and none feel more familiar than Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Campbell’s tomato soup is an excellent benchmark for understanding the impact of the persistent enemy of all investors: inflation. For more than 100 years, the size hasn’t changed, but the price sure has. About 45 years ago, in 1974, the soup cost about $0.12 per can. Today, it retails for about $0.87 per can. That points to an average inflation rate of 4.3 percent. Forty-five years may sound like a long time, but that’s about the length of a typical retirement.
Person holding a TV remote

Improving Investor Behavior: Investing time now will pay dividends later

The average American spends more than 85 hours per month watching TV. The same person will likely spend about 265 hours sleeping and 228 hours working. Know how much time they’ll spend working on their finances? About 1.8 minutes, (yes, that works out to 96 seconds) per day.
Knife digging into a log
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Improving Investor Behavior: The Sharp Knife of Compound Interest

As investors, we seek to understand and control compound interest. Like the knife, when used correctly, compound interest is a powerful tool. Even better, the three variables behind compound interest can be put to work for anyone, regardless of income or amount saved.
Alarm clock sitting on a table

Improving Investor Behavior: The Price of Time

Money is a resource; there can always be more of it. But time is finite, and there is no getting it back once it’s gone… or is there?
Rack of comic books

Improving Investor Behavior: Strengthen Your Financial Superpowers

My son and I were in the car driving to the store as he struggled to plug in his phone with a USB cable. He flipped the cable back and forth a few times before it finally slipped in. “If I had a superpower, I hope it would be to knowing…
Sun setting over a tropical beach
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Improving Investor Behavior: Retire to What?

If I asked you to define retirement, how would you describe it? Take some time and think about it. You’re probably envisioning white sandy beaches, trips to the golf course, and visits with family, free from the constraints of work and email.…
Nelisha Firestone

Improving Investor Behavior – Managing Your Time Like Money

As a financial advisor, I am typically hired by clients to help them manage their resources. Most often, these are financial resources including cash, investments, etc. Sometimes I help people to manage their business resources such as connecting…
Nelisha Firestone
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Improving Investor Behavior – Doubt, Sold with a Smile

Financial advice is usually broken into three steps. First, define your goals. Where do you want to go? Next comes a plan. This is the recipe for working toward your goals with actionable and measurable steps. Then comes implementation when…
Silhouette of a spider web
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Improving Investor Behavior: Managing Your Fears

Shark Week is among the longest running and most popular cable programs in history. First appearing 30 years ago in 1988, the show has since been watched and celebrated by millions. Why would a program about sharks and their danger be so popular? I think it plays on the emotion of fear, and more interestingly, people’s desire to be a little bit scared. My point is this: sometimes our greatest fears are the most unfounded. Whether it’s an oversized fish or monsters under the bed, our worst fears take up an oversized portion of our conscious and drive actions that can be damaging and counterproductive. Fear is a powerful emotion and one you must learn to rein in if you want to be a successful investor.
A woman expressing anxiety on the phone
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Anxiety and Investing: Taking the Fear Out of Finances

The chances that either you, a loved one, or a friend have had an incident with, or an ongoing relationship with heightened anxiety are likely. Almost 20 percent of the population expresses some sort of anxiety disorder in a lifetime. It comes…
Pat Alfano and Dave Anderson

A Retirement Plan Sponsor is Like the Pilot In Command of An Aircraft

The responsibility of being a retirement plan sponsor is like the responsibility of flying a group of passengers from one location to another. Are you and your team operating like a “pilot in command?”
Nelisha Firestone

Improving Investor Behavior – Longevity and the Fear of Running Out

When do you plan to die? Weird question, right? It’s one that financial advisors have to ask their clients. The typical approach to retirement planning involves spending down the portfolio, a lifetime of savings for a client, at a rate that…
Nelisha Firestone

My Dad’s Story

When my Dad met my Mom, he told her that he would be a millionaire one day. From collecting hub caps on the side of the road to running a seven-figure business, this is the story of his rise and fall.