Uncategorized
February 7, 2020
As a financial advisor, I get a lot of questions. Some people ask me if it’s a good time to invest in the markets, or if they should be sticking their money under a mattress. Others ask me about the economy. A few ask me about specific investments. But the most common question I get is probably the best. “What,” they ask, “is the number one tip you can give me?” So here’s my answer: Precautions are useless after a crisis! You’re probably wondering what I mean. It’s simple. When’s the worst time to buy a home-security system? After a […]
January 30, 2020
By now, you’ve probably heard about the coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan. As of this writing, there have been about 2,900 confirmed cases, with over 80 deaths.1 Most cases have been within China itself, but the virus has spread to a small number of individuals in over fifteen countries. As you can imagine, the outbreak has put global markets on edge. On Monday, the Dow dropped over 450 points due to concerns about the virus’s spread.2 While there’s no reason to be alarmed, this is a good opportunity to remind ourselves why taking a longer view is […]
November 27, 2019
The “Good Family” Blessing It has become common practice to refer to our Thanksgiving holiday as “Turkey Day.” For some people, that name is truly accurate. Not only is it mildly amusing, but if you don’t believe there’s any power beyond yourself that you ought to be thanking, it’s also more honest. If you’re a skeptic, being honest about it is good. When it comes to Thanksgiving, I’m not among the skeptics. So, I’d like to share with you a daily meal blessing that’s been used by four generations of a family I know named Good. You might want to […]
November 21, 2019
One of our favorite economic parables is the Fish Story, from Paul Zane Pilzer’s 1990 book, “Unlimited Wealth.” It is an excellent tool for thinking about wealth creation, inequality and redistribution. Imagine 10 people live on an island. Each day they wake up, catch two fish, eat them, and go back to bed. Its subsistence living at the most basic level. There are no savings – no stored or saved wealth. If someone gets sick and can’t fish, there’s no way to help them. No one has any extra. Now imagine two of these people dream up a boat and […]
November 14, 2019
Since the earliest days of the current economic expansion, there have been naysayers asserting the US was on the brink of another recession. Remember all the fear about another wave of home foreclosures, or a disaster in commercial real estate, or the Fiscal Cliff, or Greece potentially leaving the Eurozone, or German bank defaults, or even the inverted yield curve earlier this year? The list goes on and on. One by one, the pessimistic theories have been proven wrong. Yes, the US will eventually fall back into a recession. But we don’t see it happening this year or next, and […]
August 6, 2019
In 1809, Mary Kies became the first American woman to hold a U.S. patent in her own name for her original way to weave straw with silk. In 1825, Rebecca Lukens became the first female CEO of an industrial company in the United States, and was inducted into the National Business Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1839, Mississippi passed the Married Women’s Property Act, which gradually strengthened women’s claims to ownership and financial independence. Just think, this was all before women were even allowed to vote! Women have been more than involved in business and […]