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July 20, 2021
‘Rethinking Forward’ has been a life-long pursuit of study that began in college, continues fervently today, and will continue for the remaining time that I’m on this beautiful and amazing blue and green planet. ‘Rethinking Forward’ means going against the crowd, skating to where the puck is going to be, avoiding groupthink, and looking for the true meaning in the investment markets. In planning for being work-optional, it means not using the last 48-hour news cycle to plan for a 30-year retirement. Or to put it another way, it’s avoiding the recency bias of current information in making long-term decisions. […]
June 17, 2021
These days, planning to retire —or as we like to call it, making work optional— isn’t a luxury; it’s a necessity. Making work optional has become too complex to just pick a day and stop showing up to work. And it’s more than complex— it is also expensive. You have to factor in expenses, taxes, and other spending. There are many ways to pay for it, but which ways are the best ways? How much do you need to save? How should you invest? Many pre-retirees don’t know the answers to these questions. As a result, there are several common […]
July 9, 2020
A report from First Trust Advisors, L.P.: Not since the 1960s and 70s has the United States experienced social upheaval like it is experiencing today. We have protests (both peaceful and otherwise), and a massively divided political landscape. On top of that, we have a virus that is spreading across the country, creating fear and an acceptance of economic shutdowns. Originally, the scientists said we needed 15 days to slow the spread. These same scientists have consistently lengthened the time they believe keeping the economy relatively closed is a good idea. Yet, eventually, as the number of new cases of […]
July 4, 2020
Independence Day, July 4th, 2020 Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is the United States of America. I was born on July 4, 1776, conceived in freedom and liberty. That freedom has brought millions to my shores to cast their lot with me. It has also given human incentive its widest scope. Now, just 244 years later, I am a diverse, multilingual country that is bound together by a single language, English. The dominant language of the business world, of the Internet world, and the second language for most of the world. Who would have believed that 60% of the world’s […]
July 2, 2020
A report from First Trust Advisors, L.P.: A resurgence of new Coronavirus cases around the country has created uncertainty for investors. Stock markets fell last week, not because of the virus, but because investors fear another round of economy-killing, government-mandated lockdowns. We don’t expect that to happen, but when the government is involved, risks are definitely higher. After the peak in early April, the seven-day moving average for new cases bottomed on June 9 at 21,282. Since then, they’ve surged, hitting 39,662 per day in the seven days through yesterday. That’s an 86% increase in only 19 days. (Daily volatility […]
March 19, 2020
We know when there is global panic, it can’t help but to spill over into our families. We know a lot of people are concerned. While we haven’t had a ton of panicked client calls, (we are proactively dialing out as fast as we can), and our clients tell us repeatedly, “you have trained us well”, we have had a few folks who are nervous about current events. And those few prompted this outreach. It’s natural to fear the unknown. We are all human. And when “they” yell long enough, and loud enough, that the sky is falling, we all […]