In 2007, the U.S. Postal Service introduced the first Forever Stamp for 41 cents. It was a great way for the postal service to increase their cash flow, but it was also beneficial for individuals, who knew they would be sending letters in the future, to “prepay” for stamps in hopes of sidestepping future postage
Author: Justin Smith
Knowing full well that financial planning is about far more than numbers, Justin loves to help clients walk through both the routine and the significant decisions in life. While he could have been perfectly happy with a career as a mathematician or counselor; he is delighted to get to be both...often within the same meeting or even sentence. Justin thrives on being able to transform complex financial and relational issues into practical plans and clear action steps.
The Quarter in Charts – Q4 2018
The Year That Diversification Missed The chart above captures much of why investors felt they had nowhere to hide in 2018; because they didn't. For the first time in decades, no major asset class beat inflation. Meaning, if we could travel back in time a year, the absolute best investment for most investors would have
On Market Volatility and What to Believe
“They were told where they belonged, and they acted accordingly.” In his book, Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely highlights how our understanding of our current situation impacts how we will behave in the future. “One stereotype of Asian Americans, for instance, is that they are especially gifted in mathematics and science. A common stereotype of females
Real Life: How We’re Teaching Our Kids About Money
Every parent I know struggles with how to teach their kids about money. And even though I’m a financial planner, I’m no different. Below, I’ll walk you through how my wife and I are giving it our best shot. I’ll cover how we address saving, giving, investing and how allowances fit into it. As I
Ze Pain of Market Corrections – Q3 2018 Market Commentary
(Updated: In an earlier version of this post, I couldn’t recall the name of the children’s book I reference throughout. I offered a $25 reward, payable to the sleuth’s charity of choice, for anyone who could help me. In less than a day, one of our readers emailed me the title “The Creature Department”. I happily
The Quarter In Charts – Q2 2018
Below are some pictures that help illustrate the current investment landscape. All of these charts show us where we’ve been, but none guarantees to show us what will happen in the future. Even though valuations tend to “revert to the mean” and certain data points can be leading indicators, nothing is guaranteed. In fact, that’s
Winning the Retirement Game: A Look at Risk and Return
Playing a 3,000 Year-Old Board Game in Front of 200 Million People I’m a sucker for board games and Netflix documentaries, so when I stumbled on AlphaGo, I was sucked in. It chronicles the story of how a research group, DeepMind, developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based computer program (AlphaGo) so advanced it took on
A Step by Step Guide to Having a Family Money Talk
If you’re not already there, it’ll happen to you soon. You’ll need to have a Family Money Talk. Maybe you’re in your 20s asking your parents how much they could pay for a wedding. Or you could be in your 40s talking to your kids about their college choices. Our most frequent case, the one
Q1 2018 Market Commentary
The Return of Investor Pain and Volatility Every few weeks, Jonathan slides a chair up to my desk and pulls out an updated version of a chart, the Investor Pain Index. If you search for it online, you won’t find it. To call it “proprietary” would be accurate but (says Jonathan) far too complementary. The
Explaining Market Losses to a 10 Year-Old
Today the Dow Jones experienced a 4% drop, closing below 24,000 for the first time since November 28th (just 72 days ago). Furthermore, in the last 9 trading days, the Dow has dropped 10.3% from it’s all-time high (thus officially earning the name “a correction”). While it’s unsettling to see a pullback in the market,