Financial planning has a curious chicken and egg problem. You see, most of the major studies about financial health in the United States are cross-sectional. Studies such as the Survey of Consumer Finances or the National Financial Capability Study are often used to assess everything from financial literacy to the impact of parental education on their children’s financial wellbeing. But …

It was announced earlier today that Patrick Mahoney, the CEO of the Financial Planning Association passed away. I had a good relationship with Patrick, who took the helm of the FPA during a time of controversy in the FPA when a recent initiative had given pause to the chapters of the association as to whether the national FPA organization controlled …

You may not be aware, but one of America’s retirement plans has died. Okay, not died (does a statute ever really die?) but it is on life support, a vegetable, or otherwise is essentially on its way out; if not quickly, quietly. The SIMPLE IRA is a form of small business retirement plan you may or may not be familiar …

Last week, congress passed and the president signed the “Social Security Fairness Act,” which was aimed at filling a gap between those who had paid into Social Security during their working years but were then disqualified from receiving Social Security benefits because they spent the majority of their career paying into Social Security alternative programs such as PERA or other …

Famously, if you stay at the Ritz Carlton, you get $2,000 in experiential insurance. Now mind you, this isn’t one of those upsells you see when you book a plane flight, trying to scare you into insuring “your very expensive and potentially ruined $249 flight to Boise,” but a well-known brand guarantee offered by the company. If you have an …

Let me ask you a question: How’s the economy? Interestingly enough, your answer might depend on who you voted for. It turns out we’re somewhat predictable animals in a number of ways. In our last blog post, we gave a politically neutral evaluation of the prior Trump administration’s economic policy and forecast what we might anticipate in the coming administration. …

Some of you reading this will be elated at the election results yesterday, and others will be devastated. With election day passed, today we’re commenting on the probable economic policies of a Trump administration. Before we do so, we will simply note that the best thing anyone can do today and going forward is to be kind to each other, …

“Risk is what’s left when you think you’ve thought of everything.” -Carl Richards, The Behavior Gap These words from Carl Richards hang over the world of finance in a curious way. Risk is traditionally defined in the financial industry as variation from the average result, e.g. “standard deviation” or the variation from the results you were expecting. Thus, when someone …

A few weeks ago, an anonymous Redditor posted the following story on the “Millennials” Reddit: “My wife and I have spent almost two decades of leveling up in jobs and careers and are now in our late 30s with two small children in a HCOL state. We scraped and suffered to buy a small ranch house and two used larger …

As the Fed has finally lowered rates and signals that it anticipates up to another half of a percent decline by the end of the year, both accumulators and retirees are faced with the question of what to do in a declining rate environment. For many clients, a relatively straightforward strategy for cash management for the past two years has …