Tue, 18 November 2014
Working towards retirement can feel like rafting a river full of dangerous rapids. As you flow down the river of your life, your constantly having to navigate events that threaten to turn your life upside down. Unemployment, death, divorce, college costs, healthcare, recessions, corrections, inflation and countless others can put you on the rocks. This week, I discuss how to "self rescue" if the rapids of life put you into the water. INVEST WISELY The Folklore of Finance: Beliefs That Contribute to Investors’ Failure Last week I read article in the New York Times discussing the release of a study by the State Street Center for Applied Research. It's titled: The Folklore of Finance: Beliefs That Contribute to Investors’ Failure The 2 year study tried to answer the question: "What does true investment success look like?" Interestingly, according to the article, instead, they found "that the way individual and professional investors made investment decisions was so skewed that achieving both high returns and long-term objectives was nearly impossible."
The study found that financial services firms spent 60 percent of their capital expenditures on resources to help generate short-term high performance. 60 Percent!! As a veteran of a major financial firm, I can attest that the value proposition of most major firs is that they can predict markets and guide you through them. I've always found this funny...having a value proposition based on predicting the future. Better, I think, to accept the uncertainties of the world, have a prudent process and focus having lots of little conversations so you can adjust as life unfolds. PLAN WELL How to Ride the Rapids Towards RetirementIf you've every been on a rafting trip you're probably familiar with the term "self rescue". How to self rescue is a talk given by your rafting guide before you venture onto the river. The Guide makes it very clear. If you get thrown into the what, do NOT wait to be rescued. It is YOUR responsibility to rescue yourself. Self rescue involve 4 steps that you can use to rescue your financial future: Get to the Surface
Take a deep breath (you may be pulled down again)
Float down river
Start to Swim
Being thrown into the rapids by life can be scary. It's okay. You can self rescue. I know you can.What Rapid Are You Most Afraid of? |
Tue, 18 November 2014
Working towards retirement can feel like rafting a river full of dangerous rapids. As you flow down the river of your life, your constantly having to navigate events that threaten to turn your life upside down. Unemployment, death, divorce, college costs, healthcare, recessions, corrections, inflation and countless others can put you on the rocks. This week, I discuss how to "self rescue" if the rapids of life put you into the water. INVEST WISELY The Folklore of Finance: Beliefs That Contribute to Investors’ Failure Last week I read article in the New York Times discussing the release of a study by the State Street Center for Applied Research. It's titled: The Folklore of Finance: Beliefs That Contribute to Investors’ Failure The 2 year study tried to answer the question: "What does true investment success look like?" Interestingly, according to the article, instead, they found "that the way individual and professional investors made investment decisions was so skewed that achieving both high returns and long-term objectives was nearly impossible."
The study found that financial services firms spent 60 percent of their capital expenditures on resources to help generate short-term high performance. 60 Percent!! As a veteran of a major financial firm, I can attest that the value proposition of most major firs is that they can predict markets and guide you through them. I've always found this funny...having a value proposition based on predicting the future. Better, I think, to accept the uncertainties of the world, have a prudent process and focus having lots of little conversations so you can adjust as life unfolds. PLAN WELL How to Ride the Rapids Towards RetirementIf you've every been on a rafting trip you're probably familiar with the term "self rescue". How to self rescue is a talk given by your rafting guide before you venture onto the river. The Guide makes it very clear. If you get thrown into the what, do NOT wait to be rescued. It is YOUR responsibility to rescue yourself. Self rescue involve 4 steps that you can use to rescue your financial future: Get to the Surface
Take a deep breath (you may be pulled down again)
Float down river
Start to Swim
Being thrown into the rapids by life can be scary. It's okay. You can self rescue. I know you can.What Rapid Are You Most Afraid of?
Category:general
-- posted at: 7:26pm CDT
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Wed, 12 November 2014
If you're working towards retirement you know that investing wisely is a key part of reaching your goals. The problem is, investing means putting your money at risk. That's stressful. As a result, many of us tell ourselves lies or believe "trues" that can be dangerous to our financial future. In this episode, I'll discuss 7 lies we tell ourselves about investing and how to avoid them. INVEST WISELYThe 7 Lies We Tell Ourselves About Investing
How to Avoid Them
PLAN WELLLast month I conducted my 1st annual listener survey. A big thank you to all that participated. Here are some interesting facts about you:
Some of your top questions you need answered are:
In future episodes, I'll work to answer each one of these questions.
Tell me in the form below and I'll try to help. |
Wed, 5 November 2014
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Tue, 4 November 2014
I'm convinced that the most stressful part of planning for and living in retirement is that we don't know how to balance living well today, while not sacrificing tomorrow. As a result, most of us live out of balance. Some of us are so worried about tomorrow that they sacrifice their current life in order to be "prudent". Others "live for the day", assuming without a thought for their future. both are wrong. In this episode, I talk about my #1 retirement planning tool to help other find this delicate balance. Invest Wisely--Investing Potholes in November and DecemberIf you're planning on making large investments in your taxable accounts be careful. In December, most pooled investments, like mutual funds, distribute to shareholders the capital gains and dividends they've accumulated throughout the year. If you buy one of these products in a taxable account before this distribution, you could have a tax liability for capital gains that were realized before you even owned the fund. In this episode, I discuss how this works and some things you can do to avoid a potential nasty tax surprise. Plan Well--My #1 Retirement Planning Tool to Help People Find Balance
These are some of the frustrating questions that people struggle with every day as they plan for retirement. About 16 years ago, I discovered a tool to help me help people answer these questions and confidently live a more balanced life.It's called Monte Carlo engine. Today, I've integrated it into my Plan Well process to help other make smarter financial decisions and find some balance between living well today without sacrificing their tomorrow. Like most tools, some are better than others and much of it's usefulness is dependent upon the skill of the user. In this episode, I use a planning example to demonstrate how I use it and some of it's advantages and drawback. Note: Normally just read these show notes, it's best to listen to this one. Just click on the audio play at the bottom of this post. Here is the Fact Set for John Smith
To see the full report that I discuss, click here. How Not to Use It
How to Use It
There is no tool that will solve for all the uncertainty in your life or the world.The best we can do is acknowledge what we don't know (can't know) and use a sound compass to help guide our life's journey.
"He who is enslaved to his compass, will enjoy the freedom of the seas"Ken Davis Are You Confident in Your Compass? |