A common question many clients have had over the years as they’ve asked us to take on managing their investments is “how do you manage my money?” Our answer to this for many years has been that we use a long-term focused strategy, accomplished through the use of low-cost passive index funds. A caution we give on a regular basis …
Protecting Your Castle
On New Year’s Eve we saw an enormous fire that destroyed over a thousand homes and businesses in Superior and Louisville. Concurrently, every insurance agent I know is working around the clock to process claims and get their clients taken care of in the face of such an awful catastrophe. While I can’t go back and coach anyone who suffered …
The Relationships Between Planning & Wealth
As you know, we were on hiatus for two weeks earlier this month, as I was in Manhattan, Kansas, at Kansas State University (which, for those who don’t know, is Harvard for Financial Planners). It seems only fair that with the interruption to your regularly scheduled educational content, that I should share some of the research we did while we …
The Millionaire Formula
Nothing quite captures the attention of the American public like being wealthy. Whether it’s celebrating or decrying billionaires for traveling to space, observing major gaps in wealth between various members of the population, and otherwise simply hanging on every word (or tweet) of the ultra-successful, nothing seems to capture our attention like people with money. Yet, research over the decades …
This Time I’m Different
“The four most dangerous words in investing are ‘this time it’s different.’” Said Sir John Templeton, indicating the historical trend that investors often identify “unprecedented opportunities” to invest in, only to find that history repeats itself often when said opportunities crash or end up mediocre. After all, since the most valuable company on earth, Apple, had an initial public offering …
Plan Ahead – Financial Lessons from the Life of a Good Man
Financial Lessons from the Life of a Good Man My grandfather, Chester Persons, passed away on March 5th. While his passing is sad, he has left behind an incredible legacy, one part of which I want to share with you: financial lessons. While Chet didn’t die a rich man, he overcame enormous uphill battles to support his family and create …
Some Retirement Plans are More Equal Than Others
In the United States, we have a national pension and disability insurance system called Social Security; you may have heard of it. Originally established in 1935, social security started as a safety net to provide the elderly, widows, and orphans with some form of supplemental income. At the time and since that time as the program has developed, the concern …
This Time It’s Different – Why I’m a Boring Investor
It was exactly one year ago when my phone rang. It was a client out in California, and the S&P 500 index had just shown a slide of over 11% in the proceeding five days. “Dan, don’t you think we should get out now? It’s getting kinda scary.” He said. “No; this is what asset allocation is for. We have …
The Financial Literacy Crisis
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 …
Book Review – “The Fiduciary Formula” by Josh Itzoe
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. …
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