Understanding that two weeks ago I wrote about the behavioral financial biases that lead to someone with political beliefs having their perception of money and the economy skewed by their politics, I’m now probably going to stick my foot in deeper water by talking about a recent political issue: the president’s taxes. In the interest of trying to keep as …

One of the most common points of improvement early on in the financial planning process is cash flow management. Whether the client lives paycheck to paycheck or is sitting on a significant amount of cash in their checking and savings accounts, most people don’t know the answer to “what’s right for me?” and consequently either overspend and run a constant …

In my newfound academic studies, I get the opportunity to read research. A lot of research. A lot of research. This isn’t for the pure fun and joy of it, but because the effort to obtain a Ph.D. is equal parts your own research and learning what’s already been done in the field. Consequently, you spend a significant amount of …

The United States has, by design, a politically polarized governmental system. While many other democracies practice with a parliamentary system, which utilizes proportional representation to allow for multiple small parties to build coalitions that result in majorities, the United States system favors deliberate disfunction. Concerned about tyrannies of the majority, the founders put in place a number of mechanisms to …

Every two years, a research team from the University of Southern Maine and kitces.com (a popular research and thought leadership platform in financial planning) conduct and release a study on “How Real Financial Planners Actually Do Financial Planning”. The study, the only of its kind, surveys hundreds of financial planners from an array of business models on how they conduct …