August 2017

The Dash (-) is What’s Important

Plan for the dash – not the number. While listening to a speaker at our sons’ new school, I heard something pretty interesting. They are entering ninth grade and will be the class of 2017-2021. The speaker mentioned the goal of similar schools is to “prep” their students for college. The endgame: high grades and…

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

Good Morning! Here are this week’s retirement links. Have a great day. How to (and not to) work effectively with teachers as 403(b) clients – InvestmentNews 401(k)s Put Spotlight On Wealth Gap – Financial Advisor 6 Ways To Help Your Parents And Still Save For Retirement – Forbes How Far Does $1 Million Go In…

Here Is What We Don’t Need

First figure out what you don’t want to do. According to a 1986 Harvard  commencement address from  Charlie Munger: You can see the results of not learning from others’ mistakes by simply looking about you. How little originality there is in the common disasters of mankind -drunk driving deaths, reckless driving maimings, incurable venereal diseases,…

Brokers Take Investors From the Penthouse to the Outhouse

Some brokers often shovel annuities into retirement accounts like coal into a furnace.  The results are the same: an incessant need for more coal and lots of fire. In this instance, client money is the coal. A horrific story recently came out about a group of annuity peddlers.  It turns out four former Atlanta LPL brokers…

Chaos, Incompetence and Confusion

“Why do we love the idea that people might be secretly working together to control and organise the world? Because we do not like to face the fact that our world runs on a combination of chaos, incompetence, and confusion.” – Jonathan Cainer Investing success or failure may be determined by something you never noticed…

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

Good Morning! Here are this week’s retirement links. Have a great day. Here’s What To Expect If You Sell Annuities – Insurancenewsnet 6 Ways To Survive Retirement Income Shocks –  Forbes Read This Before You Get An Annuity – The Motley Fool For Workers Without Retirement Plans, States Step In – Wall Street Journal In Defense…

Undying Courage

  Courage is timeless; living forever, even after those who have displayed it are long gone. While Warren Buffet is fortunately still with us, he is closer to the end of his journey than the beginning. Not only is he an extraordinary quantitative investor, he understood when it was time to take a fearless stand….

Worrying About Risk Can Very Risky

There is a huge bubble in unnecessary worry. Our greatest risk is choosing the wrong thing to worry about. Probability blindness is our enemy. For example, we vastly overstate the potential for cataclysmic markets events. “We pay close attention to some risks while ignoring others, which very often causes the dilemma of choosing between risks to vanish,” according to…

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

Good Morning! Here are this weeks retirement links. Have a great week. Don’t Think Retirement Plans Are Safe From Tax Reform – BenefitsPro Vanguard Outsources Some 403(b) Record Keeping To Newport Group – InvestmentNews How An IRA Could Help The Average American Save For Retirement – The Motley Fool What Are Required Minimum Distributions? –…

The Ultimate Unemployment Insurance- A Love Of Learning

There is a good chance your child’s future job does not exist – yet. This should make you think harder on the potential $250,000 you may spend to prepare them for it. Google and Facebook were ideas, not companies, 20 years ago. Today, most graduates would kill for an entry level job at either company….