Part of my job is to help families think about—and prepare for—bad things. It can be tricky because humans mostly don’t like to think about bad things. After all, they’re bad and it’s unpleasant to think about them. The point is not really that you must do this one thing in response to the bad stuff. The …
5 places to get retirement income
For many families, the entire point of saving for retirement is to create an “income engine” that produces income to pay for life in retirement after the wages stop. But creating that engine can be tricky because of how hard it is to answer the following questions: How long will you need the money? How …
Four steps to build and maintain wealth
It’s easy to look at people around you who seem to have accumulated more wealth than you and believe they know some big secret that you don’t. Actually, when you break down what people do to build and maintain wealth, it tends to be a series of relatively common-sense actions taken patiently over time. Here’s …
9 steps to declaring your financial independence
This week brings us U.S. Independence Day. It’s a reminder of several conversations I’ve had with clients and friends lately. In each case it was mostly the same conversation with different details: What will retirement look like? How will they know when they are able to make the move? We do not typically talk about retirement in the traditional …
8 things to know about bear market cycles
Since the S&P 500 index of the 500 largest U.S. stocks set a record high on June 20, many people are wondering how much longer the bull market can last. Markets started their climb in March 2009, and we have not had a bear market since then. This is the longest bull market so far. …
8 Things to Ask A Financial Planner
One of my favorite quotes is: “If you ask great questions, you’ll get great answers.” To get the best experience from a financial planner, you really need to know what questions to ask. Whether it’s your existing advisor, or a person you have just met and are considering, here are eight good questions to ask. …