January 2019

Pay Money To Invest and Then Pay Even More

Would you buy a ticket to a game you can’t see?  Introducing the worst financial product since the variable annuity:  The “In the Building Pass.”   Warriors’ zealots pay $100 for every home game, but there’s one small catch – no seat is included.  Fanatics watch on T.V.s throughout the arena but there are no views of the…

It’s Monday Again…..When Is My Retirement?

Watching this year’s Super Bowl is more important to some people than having an intelligent retirement plan. Don’t let a bad call by a referee or temporary market hysteria derail your future. Start by reading this week’s links. Ten retirement lessons you won’t forget. MarketWatch If you want to move to another state when you…

You Know Nothing, Financial Advisors!

Many advisors speak at clients rather than to them, unknowingly detouring into financial frivolity. Terms like yield curve, alpha, support and resistance levels, factor investing, and risk premium confuse, bore, and scare civilians. What do average people want to know? According to the InvestmentNews: “Rollovers and understanding employer matches were frequent questions, but the topic…

Relentless Optimism

Dina here… Like most people, I have a real soft spot for the underdog. Yanely Espinal has a unique story to tell, but the theme of trying to make a better life is at the core, and that story never grows old for me. Her parents immigrated to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic and had…

It’s Monday Again…..When Is My Retirement?

A huge part of a happy retirement is helping others less fortunate than yourself. Use the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and the recently deceased Jack Bogle to help guide you in your journey. Part of the joy from a retirement nest egg is the ability to give some of it away. Don’t let…

Do We Need To Know This For The Test?

Students and Investors often miss the point of what’s really important. Short term thinking regarding test grades or annual portfolio performance leads to future disappointment. A few weeks ago, I  spent the day teaching five middle school classes about investing. Being away from this for a bit, I needed some oxygen when I got home….

Invest Like a Jomo-Sapien

Reacting to someone else’s cues won’t make you rich; resisting them just might. Get ready for Jomo – the joy of missing out. When joy replaces fear, good things start to happen. Danish psychology professor, Svend Brinkmann, published a paper outlining the benefits of a Jomo lifestyle.  Miranda Green of the Financial Times wrote about his findings:…

It’s Monday Again…..When Is My Retirement?

If you think to accumulate retirement savings is difficult, what are you going to do when you need to decumulate? Determining how much money you can spend in retirement is a difficult puzzle. Start solving it by reading this week’s terrific links. How nudges can help with retirement spending. UCLA Anderson Do you have enough international exposure…

Calling all Ladies

Dina here … I had the pleasure of catching up with my colleague, Blair duQuesnay, for an episode of On Her Mind podcast. She shed some light on the history of women in the workforce and shared that, before 1973, newspapers had segregated the help wanted ads by gender. So it is a fairly recent development that…

Does Your M.D. Act Like a Conflicted Salesperson?

Add cross-selling to George Carlin’s list of seven dirty words. Companies call this “keepage;” hostage is the appropriate term. Losing customers is described as “leakage.”  Organizations obsess about losing clients to cheaper competitors, even if it means selling them expensive, inferior products (think Wells Fargo). Disturbingly, cross-selling infects our hospitals. According to The Wall Street Journal: The…