The following is the second in a two part series on school debt. See our first part here. Now What? As we mentioned in our previous post (Student Loans: Assess the Situation), the first step to paying off student loans is to know what you have. After you fully comprehend what your debt is, you can
It’s More Than Money
Dying With a Will Could be the Least of Your Problems
Advanced estate planning can’t include every “what-if” scenario. In my wife’s family things didn’t exactly play out like they’d planned. Her parents each wrote their own obituary years before their deaths…or so we thought. It turns out that Anne’s mother authored both obituaries. Her mother’s read that her husband “preceded her in death” and his
Why Bookies Don’t Work Local Swim Meets
My wife and I have been in the thick of swim team at the neighborhood pool. With our 9 and 7 year-old girls on the team and their 4 year-old brother to cheer them on, Tuesday nights take on a whole new meaning. By far, the most entertaining events are the 6 and under heats.
Student Loans: Assess the Situation (Part 1 of 2)
It is near impossible to cover every student loan situation, payback option and variable in an individual’s life with a blog post. I recommend using the information below as a starting point and combining it with personal knowledge of yourself and your resources to mount a plan of attack for your scenario. Navy Seals and
Fiduciary School Bus Drivers
Seven years after the Obama Administration proposed a fiduciary rule to protect investors’ retirement accounts from conflicted advice, the DoL Fiduciary Rule finally went into effect June 9, 2017. What does that mean for investors? Imagine a world where no school system owns their own buses. All busing has been privatized and the DoL Fiduciary
Required Reading for Nearly Anyone: “Being Mortal” by Dr. Atul Gawande
Not Your Typical Summer Beach Read I bought Being Mortal a few years ago on a date night with my wife. We grabbed dinner and stopped through Scuppernong Books to judge books by their covers. We each bought a book and laughed that my choice was a surgeon’s thoughts on “medicine and what matters most
Keeping Track of Surprise Joys
May 10th - "Received 'Happy Birth Month' wishes out at dinner with friends" May 11th - "Got up early just to see the sunrise. Beautiful!" May 12th - "Saw a young Eurasian Eagle Owl in person! Still fluffy!" Some of our best friends surprised Jonathan and me with an invitation to join their family on
The Best Way To Spend Money On Healthcare
In life there are people that show up to work, do a great job, and go home without much fanfare: much like Tim Duncan. Tim (I wish we were on a first name basis) reminds me of a Health Savings Account (HSA) because he outperforms his peers consistently but is widely underappreciated. With an HSA the
Most Stocks Underperform Treasuries…and Santa’s Not Real
Dr. Hendrick Bessembinder is shattering stock pickers’ dreams like the 2nd grader who tells his classmates the truth about Santa Claus. Looking back over an 89 year period (1926-2015), the Arizona State professor found that the odds of picking winning stocks are not that appealing. In fact, investors would have a better chance at picking
Q1 2017 – Quarterly Market Commentary
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