A Change in Format For as long as we can remember, we have been sending a paper market commentary by mail every quarter to our clients and friends. You probably wouldn’t have guessed it, but we have always felt a bit constrained by a 2 or 3 page paper commentary. How can we highlight what
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 Double-Edged Sword of Retirement Savings
How 10% Can Save You 10 Years in Retirement It’s hard to get out of my head that “10 minutes could save you 15% on your car insurance” thanks to GEICO’s never-ending cavemen commercials. Along those same lines, did you know that 10 percent could save you 10 years in retirement? Michael Kitces, whom I
Dow 20,000 – Irrelevantly Monumental
There are two equally true sides to this story: 1) it’s irrelevant and 2) it’s monumental. It’s irrelevant Bruce Almighty If we had all been born with 7 fingers and 7 toes we would have celebrated when the Dow broke 14,000 (first in 1999, then again in 2006 and, like your friend who has celebrated
Giving Back: Chuck Feeny, The James Bond of Philanthropy
“You can only wear one pair of pants at a time” – Chuck Feeny The New York Times has a great profile of Charles F. Feeny, an intentionally unknown name in the world of philanthropy who is living his motto of “Giving While Living”. What makes him so rare? For someone who has given away
How Do I Find the Right Financial Advisor?
Between the TV ads, recommendations from friends, and the "nice man at church" it is hard to figure out how to find the right financial advisor. Below are our suggested links to independent research on where to start your search, what you should be looking for, and which questions to ask. Not surprisingly, we think the
Market Commentary Q3 – 2016
Only the 1st Three Paragraphs are about the Election …I Promise "What will this election do to my investments?” Almost everyone we talk to seems to be both completely wrapped up and at the same time utterly exhausted with this election, so we will keep it to the first three paragraphs. Our answer always seems
Market Commentary Q3 – 2015
"It's just like riding a bike...on water." That's what I told myself this past July as a boat full of my buddies cheered me on. The five of us had gathered in North Carolina from as far away as Texas and Illinois for our Financial Planning Study Group retreat and I wasn't going to let
Market Commentary Q1 – 2015
When Millie and I got married, we had a wedding shower where people gave us marital wisdom to go along with their gift. I remember hearing cutesy advice like “don’t waste all the good kid names on your pets” and “soak up these first years, they are so much fun.” They were sweet and sincere
Market Commentary Q3 – 2014
Our son, Everett, just turned 18 months old last week. And after having two tutu-wearing daughters (Grayson now 7 and Finley Cate now almost 5) it felt like a real “win” for me, as a dad, to have my son’s favorite word be “truck.” And that doesn’t really even do the word justice, because he
Market Commentary Q1 – 2014
Chasing Returns and Wagon Wheels Growing up, I loved to listen to my dad (known to me Monday through Friday 8-5 and in this commentary going forward as “Jonathan”) as he would read the stories of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris. Harris, a journalist and editor of the Atlanta Constitution in the late 1800’s,