Think back to when you were a kid: what is your first memory of money? The first thing that comes to mind for me is receiving a folded-up dollar bill to place in the offering plate at church. Your memory may be less pleasant, but maybe you recall your parents arguing over money – further […]
A favorite book in our household is “Goodnight Moon,” written by Margaret Wise Brown. My oldest son, who is now six, has “outgrown” the book, but my youngest son just recently picked it up and asked me to read it again for the first time in a long time. One of the pages reads, “there […]
April Fool’s Day is synonymous with practical jokes and good-natured hoaxes. While most people accept the light-hearted nature of April Fool’s Day and laugh along with the practical jokes, April 1 should also serve as a reminder to remain vigilant against the much more serious hoaxes we are all subject to on a regular basis. […]
Financial issues are complicated, and we are aware that the choices we make can have lasting impact. This can easily lead to people feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and even paralyzed about how to move forward at all. As a result, they often seek someone to advise them and guide them through the myriad of products and […]
None of us planned for this crisis. It probably seems like a long time ago, but our first blog post of the year, titled Return on Life vs Return on Investment, gave us the foundation for dealing with the current challenge of the COVID-19 and market volatility. The key is not letting heightened emotions and […]
Every year, as a firm, we do something that is very important for you, but you probably never noticed…and that’s a good thing. What is it? We run a test of our Business Continuity Plan, or BCP. As part of this testing procedure, every single person in our office works remotely for the day to […]
I was explaining to a new client recently how we invest our client assets. They wanted to know if we use individual stocks, Mutual Funds or ETFs (Exchanged Traded Funds.) I told them we don’t use individual stocks or securities, as this adds a level of risk that does not necessarily improve the risk/reward return. […]
With the unexpected passing of my husband, I’ve had a lot of unplanned decisions required of me. I’ve been very intentional about not making emotional decisions, but to be honest, how do you remove emotion? There are both rational and emotional elements to making financial decisions. “Research has found that negative emotions hit us with […]
Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, or better recognized as the new SECURE Act, was signed into law on December 20th, 2019. The bill’s intent is for folks to have opportunities to increase their “nest egg” by addressing a number of retirement savings and employee benefit changes. While there are numerous aspects to […]
If you enjoy taking the opportunity a new year offers to make resolutions, make sure financial resolutions are a part of that focus. Formulating financial resolutions this year can help get you closer to long term goals like retirement, a large purchase, business ownership or debt elimination. Here are just a few practical ideas to […]
