“One question: what is your why for scaling?” A colleague with a planning practice in Arizona asked me this over the weekend. I answered, but it left me ruminating on the question. Plenty of growth in the world of finance is growth for growth’s sake. Those who’ve made a thorough study of finance and inflation understand that no growth is …
Job Post Signals
This blog continues a two-part series on job seeking. For those readers happily employed or otherwise retired to a life of work-optional, this may not be the most salient read, but it could prove useful for someone else in your life. Otherwise, you can expect us to return to some of our more regular or otherwise “normal financial educational” programming …
Job Market Signals
It’s a curious thing, the job market. While Bureau of Labor Statistics data suggests that unemployment is only sitting at 4.3%, the media ecosystem seems to be in disagreement about what constitutes a good or bad job market. In a period of just a month or two, articles such as “Work-Life Balance Will Keep You Mediocre” or thought pieces about …
The 2025 Colorado Ballot
Every year, the government likes us to vote to approve or disapprove of what it’s doing. Take the larger non-Colorado context out of it, and you might think it’s a government of the people for the people or something like that! As we typically do, this week we’re reviewing ballot measures impacting Longmont and Colorado at large, so you can …
Updates & Q4 Planning
As we wrap up Q3 and look to the outset of Q4, it seems as good a time as any to share a few pointers and give a heads up regarding some of the technology and service structure we’ll be going through in Q4 and into 2026. Today, we’re discussing how to achieve the most successful Q4 planning cycle for …
A Case Study in Bad Planning
This week we’re doing a technical breakdown of how the financial plan we reviewed on “The Science of Wealth” got to be so bad, and how much harm it actually causes for someone to be given a plan that is not adequately designed to their individual needs rather than being a sales pitch masquerading as a financial plan. If you …
A Risk Premium Approach to Retirement
It’s conventional wisdom in finance that, for those approaching or entering into retirement, a conservative portfolio is best. By “de-risking” the portfolio through a reduction in equity holdings and an increase in fixed income and cash equivalents, the portfolio’s general level of volatility (as measured by standard deviation) is expected to decline, and by mixing up the asset allocation to …
Service Model Updates
While we normally aim to provide largely educational content, sometimes the occasion arises that we need to do some direct “promotional educational content,” as is the case today. Specifically, we’ll be sharing some background on our services as they exist today, drivers for upcoming changes, and what you can expect to see in 2026. We’ll be back to our regular …
Preparing for the Warranty Expiration
When I was in my initial training, licensing, and education as a financial advisor, there was a requirement in the state of Colorado that you complete a specific licensing course for the sale of long term care insurance. The instructor, an insurance brokerage executive who had been in the long term care insurance game so long that he’d literally driven …
How to Recognize Products Are the Plan
It’s not uncommon that we find ourselves in the awkward profession of critiquing someone else’s work in the world of financial planning. Mind you, we’re seldom put in a position to review a comprehensive financial plan crafted by a fiduciary CFP® Professional using advanced planning software, and that was clearly crafted for this particular client with love and care. Rather, …