During the last few weeks I’ve been celebrating my mother’s life and choosing to remember all the good times before the Alzheimer’s diagnosis took many things from her. My mom spent the last five years of her life living in care facilities. There were many difficult days for my mom [...]
In the fourth chapter of Saint Peter’s first letter, he urges believers to concentrate on loving each other properly because love covers a multitude of sins. God is still working on me in that regard and I am thankful about that. But in the financial world, there is a principle [...]
Recently I attended the 2018 LINC Conference held by TD Ameritrade. At the event, a wealth of information was shared about the future of the investment management industry. One of the most valuable bits of insight I received was from a recent survey conducted by Dimensional Fund Advisors. The survey [...]
Health savings accounts (HSA) have become very popular in the last few years. An HSA account is defined as a tax‐advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers in the United States who are enrolled in a high‐deductible health plan (HDHP). The money contributed to this account is not subject to [...]
Last week’s column was a primer on Bonds. Now let’s take a closer look at how one can lose money owning bonds when interest rates rise. Aren’t bonds supposed to be safer than stocks? First, what does the term “safe” mean? Most people equate financial risk or safety with stability [...]
As a father of boys ages 5 and 1, I am the first to admit, I’m no parenting expert. In fact, there are days when I feel like a total parenting failure. But, I do my best, and seek wise counsel when possible. Since parenting is being discussed in my [...]
Let’s take quick inventory of 2017 investing, then discuss what makes sense in this stage of the current strong bull market. Here are some calendar year results by major indexes and sectors: NASDAQ 100 9% Dow Jones Ind. 1% S&P [...]
If you have ever seen the Austin Powers movies, it is hard to get the image of Mike Myers as Dr. Evil holding the world ransom for 1 million dollars out of your mind. The comedic punchline is that he’s been out of the loop since the 1960’s, back when [...]
It’s that time again. Even though it comes consistently at the same time every year, Christmas somehow always seems to sneak up on us. We say that next year we will save money throughout the year to reduce the burden of all the additional expenses related to the holiday, yet [...]
Last week I discussed the opportunity to pass on to our families our bedrock principles. Some refer to this as our social capital. Our inheritance may be large or small, but the beliefs and wisdom we have gained over decades should be far more valuable than cash one hundred years [...]
