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In the United States we have several measures of financial literacy, and to be frank, none of the numbers look good. Less than one in four Americans is literate in risk management (insurance) terms and only three in five can accurately describe how a loan works. Over half the population would struggle to pay for a five hundred dollar emergency …
Disclaimers and Disclosures: As of this writing, I am the owner of a Registered Investment Adviser Firm offering ERISA Plan Fiduciary services, and this represents a conflict of interest in that anything Mr. Itzoe has written in the book that better aligns with what I do, I am likely to tout, and anything that varies, I am likely to critique. …
Every two years, a research team from the University of Southern Maine and kitces.com (a popular research and thought leadership platform in financial planning) conduct and release a study on “How Real Financial Planners Actually Do Financial Planning”. The study, the only of its kind, surveys hundreds of financial planners from an array of business models on how they conduct …
At MY Wealth Planners®, we are a Fee-Only Financial Planning firm. This means we are paid directly by our clients and no one else. This is an advantage to our clients for an obvious set of reasons: fee transparency, reduced conflicts of interest, and in many cases, lower costs to clients. However, when the public is asked to compare financial …
We’ve all had that job. Whether it was THE job or just part of A JOB, we’ve all found ourselves staring at the clock and waiting to go home. But what does that say about the expectations we have for our work and the expectations our employers have? After all, if I’m AT work, shouldn’t I HAVE work to do? …
Culture is an interesting area of interest, both public, private, personal, and professional. While every individual brings a genetic heritage and traditions in tandem, each business develops its culture from the top down in a positive light or the bottom up in a negative one. From small businesses to enormous institutions, culture is the force multiplier. An institution with the …
Things are tense right now. As a country, as a people, we’re struggling with the constant push-pull of a system that statistically, anecdotally, and personally seems to have a constant void that needs to be filled by tragedy and outrage. For the past several months it’s been a non-stop deluge of bad news that has to this point seemingly culminated …
Insurance is boring. Really boring. Experimenting eating paint chips might be more entertaining, if significantly more hazardous for your health. This boredom, along with education and training on how to evaluate insurance, costs consumers over a billion dollars a year in fees, conflicts, and opportunity costs. You too, probably find insurance pretty boring, but when you’re given an opportunity to …
It’s an expression you’ve heard before. “Riding out the storm.” Usually it’s quite literal: families staying at home during a hurricane, huddling in the living room around the fire during a blizzard, and so on. But the idiom comes with a much more literal background. In naval excursions, particularly over long distances and upon the ocean, storms can reach peaks …
Good news! The market is on sale. Why do I view it so optimistically when the average news report makes it sound like the world is ending? Well, a bit of context is required. My first year as a financial planner was an interesting one. Within a year we had Chinese market volatility, the first big drop in the preceding …