Financial Planning is great until life gets in the way and then you got to do what you got to do. I am a big fan of financial planning. Financial planning is what I do for my day job. A financial plan can help individuals organize their financial life and potentially put them on a path of...
To give or not to give, that is the question. You may be struggling with the mass of year end giving requests. The holiday season can be overwhelming for both givers and non-givers alike. It is especially hard for non-givers who do not have a charitable or philanthropic plan. With a...
Paul would call me every Monday morning and ask me what the stock market was going to do for the week. He wanted to know if he should make any changes to his account as a result of what might happen. Of course, I had no idea what the stock market was going to during the course of the day or the...
When I entered the investment business in the late 80’s the 30 year U.S. Treasury Bond was yielding above 8%. Investors were reluctant to buy these bonds for fear of locking up their money for 30 years at 8% because they were convinced that interest rates were going higher. These investors...
Jacob’s Ladder is an American horror movie starring Tim Robbins who plays a postal working trying to work his way back into society after a tour of duty in Vietnam and the death of his son. Jacob was dealing with both perception and reality.
Another horror story for investors is the thought of...
In 2009 I decided to run the Boston Marathon. Unlike most marathons, the Boston Marathon requires runners to qualify for their esteemed race so the earliest that I could run this marathon would be in April of 2011. I launched a plan to make this happen and set out on a two year journey to...
Herman Melville’s book Moby Dick is a great read. It is a book with colorful characters and a ton of suspense. Captain Ahab is the main character who is in endless pursuit of the white whale that bit off part of his leg. Captain Ahab wanted revenge on Moby Dick. When I finished reading Moby...
Mr. Cub, Ernie Banks, was famous for saying, “let’s play two!” Mr. Banks was the long-time great shortstop for the Chicago Cubs who entered the Hall of Fame in 1977. As the story goes, Mr. Banks arrived at the ballpark in Chicago with the temperature hovering around 105 degrees and said,...
When my daughter was in the first grade I had the honor of coaching her soccer team. Our team name was the Mustangs. These little Mustangs consisted of a band of young ladies, most of whom were playing an organized sport for the first time in their lives. Our league did not keep score as the...