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“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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …