We’ve all heard the phrase “hindsight is 2020.” There are tons of memes floating around alluding to getting the year 2020 in our rearview mirror, and I have to agree. One thing you may be feeling lately is fragile. Your finances, sense of self, confidence in our social systems, routines, hobbies, and plans have…
So, how’s your 2020 been? As I write this blog, I’m getting used to yet another blow to personal freedom, the 9pm curfew. Even my parents didn’t have me home that early in my not-so-rebellious teenage years. It is easy to feel sorry for ourselves, and we should take some time to grieve. Things…
Clients sometimes ask me what they are not thinking about when it comes to retirement planning. Mostly, they’ve thought about a lot, but there are a few things that can surprise you. Unreimbursed medical expenses. Yes, retirees dread health care costs, but it seems like kind of an amorphous worry, not one that gets…
Recently a prospective client sent an e-mail with some questions he wanted answered before engaging a financial adviser. I thought others might share these same questions, maybe about me or even other advisers they have. Here, with permission and a few edits, is a copy of our correspondence. Q: I wanted to learn more…
Many people are looking at a drop or loss of income due to the coronavirus shutting down 25% of the economy. I’ve been reading about hardships for everyone from optometrists to restaurant workers to minor league baseball players. If your business shuts down, there is no income whether you are butcher, baker, or candlestick maker.…
After the usual partisan haggling, Washington has presented citizens with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, cleverly known as CARES.* What does it mean for you? Here, as usual, are the very broad strokes of the Act that affect most people, along with my snarky comments. For more technical information, please read this…
If this pandemic has taught us anything it is that everyone has questions, problems, goals, victories, losses, fears, gains, excitement, despair, greed, generosity, and insecurity about money. You don’t have to be poor to worry about money or rich to deserve financial help. That’s right, everyone can use a financial adviser, and you don’t…
Over the past 15 months, I have been in a LOT of family therapy. And the one thing I have learned is that when a person is feeling strong emotions (fear, anger, insecurity), the rational part of their brain (the pre-frontal cortex) literally is not working. It physically gets no energy and just shuts off.…
So, you’ve seen all the newsletters advising you not to panic and sell as the stock market loses 20% in a week. You may even hear investment folks encouraging you to buy stocks if you have any cash. But, as you watch your accounts drop each day, you can’t help feeling like buying more and…
The first quarter rite of passage for financial advisers seems to be attending economic forecasts. Yes, it is absolutely as fun as it sounds. Zzzzzz. I try to avoid these meetings because market forecasts are almost never right and not one is ever called to account for their not-rightness. Like weather forecasting. Also, I…
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