Well, I’m completely cooked, my bracket is toast after the first round of the NCAA tournament! Filling out your bracket with your favorite picks is a fun gamble that may or may not pan out. Quite the opposite of financial planning which allows for more inputs in...
When you think of your best investments, does a particular stock, collectable, digital currency, or real estate come to mind? For me, I believe my best investment is my health. As we mark the one-year point into this pandemic, it’s difficult at times to recall how...
Much has been written about saving, investing, and planning for tomorrow. What is discussed less in written form is how to spend all those dollars you’ve saved. How you formulate your spending decisions is very personal. Even so, there seems to be fewer guidelines...
Trust is important in any relationship. In a financial planning relationship, it’s essential. Without trust it becomes impossible for the client and I to collaborate. Trust is not one sided though, it’s a two-way street. Both the client and I need to believe and...
My oldest son, a junior in high school, took the ACT exam last weekend. Where did the time go? It seems like the elementary school years last forever only to fast forward once high school arrives. This has me thinking about investments that will be responsible for...
Recently there has been a lot of attention placed on the wild financial gains of certain companies and trading platforms. So much hype around what’s being made, who’s taking advantage of who, and stories of turning $20k into $200k in three weeks. Top this off with a...
So, did you see your financial shadow yesterday? Chances are it may be six more weeks of financial worries and stress if you did OR six more weeks of spending and savings with purpose if you didn’t. Consider the following steps based on what you saw: Your financial...
In last week’s post we discussed an example of generating $10k a month in retirement income beginning at age 62 and lasting for 30 years (and more). This may seem like significant monthly income and it is. Retiring (in a metropolitan area or not) requires a fair bit...
This is Buzz Lightyear’s famous quote as he soars across the room cheered on by his fellow friends/toys. It also describes how I view our firm as we continue to attract clients beyond Northern Virginia. While working on the business, we discovered that over 30...
Each January, our firm distributes a shareholder letter to our clients which reiterates our guiding principles and covers important planning themes. We view clients as shareholders in our practice, ongoing communication is critical in our partnership together as this...
As the year comes to a close, we naturally begin to consider a New Year’s resolution. Often this may be a personal fitness or financial goal, it may also be a positive change to improve your wellbeing. This is all done with good intentions, though often by late...
Imagine updating your financial plan in January, April, or December of 2020. How might the plan outputs at various dates have impacted your behavior and financial choices? What other life decisions may positively influence your approach to planning? January 2020: ...