The Gambler’s Conundrum
You are sitting at the table with a pile of chips in front of you. Airfare is already covered as is your room and a few meals. The excitement of Vegas, Macau or whatever the venue is reverberating through your body and your momentum is unmistakable. You have finally figured out how to crack their […]
Dude, Where’s My Cash Reserve?
Dude, where’s my cash reserve is never a question you should be asking yourself. Having 6 months of expenses in an FDIC insured account is the only way to go. You shouldn’t have any less, but circumstances may cause you to need more. Cherish that cash reserve. Be proud of it and bask in […]
Why I Hate Most Target Date Funds and Other Short Stories
Target date mutual funds provide a one-stop shop for retirement portfolios. The target date is the approximate date when investors plan to start withdrawing their money and you get an asset allocation that is geared to a specific retirement year. It then gradually gets more conservative as you inch towards that target date, a seemingly […]
Dear Retirees – Hang Loose Don’t Hang Ten
Financial planner Gary Alpert has made Woodstock home for him, his wife Wendy Helen and their pups, Chloe and Skeeter. “I am a member of the Woodstock Rotary Club and really enjoy giving back to the community,” Gary said. “Wendy Helen and I enjoy supporting various local charities and participating in the business community. We […]
If (You’re Sure) It Ain’t Broke Don’t Fix It
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” is one of my favorite proverbs. However, with all due respect to the great Bert Lance who coined the phrase, I’d like to make a modification that especially rings true in the investment world. Do we determine whether something is broke or it ain’t based on a […]
Cuba: An Outsider’s Perspective
I just returned from a trip to Cuba in which I visited several parts of the country. It started with a flight to Santa Clara, followed by a taxi ride to Havana. My friends and I stayed in an Airbnb on the coast of Havana and then in several Casas Particulares around the country […]
Dare To Be Different
While I am a fairly conservative financial advisor, I like to step out sometimes. My interests include dancing, traveling to third world countries and consuming ethnic foods (particularly Indian and Ethiopian cuisine). I’ve even been convinced to eat a chocolate covered cricket (found in the US and I’m not embarrassed to say it was […]
Stay Hungry My Friends
It has been over seven years since we were mired in the Great Recession. Over seven years since some of us had to work twice as hard for half the pay, worry about whether our job was safe, or be concerned about whether we were going to find a new job after being laid […]
In the Long Term, the Absolute Trumps the Relative
Most of us remember the dot com bubble. We would buy a technology stock trading at 60 times its earnings estimates and think this was a tremendous deal as compared to other technology stocks trading at over 100 times or even 1,000 times their earnings. When the bubble popped, almost all technology stocks got […]
May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor
I recently watched all of the movies in the Hunger Games series (admittedly becoming a bit jaded after the second installment). President Snow was the elegant and soft-spoken leader of Panem, a fictional country overrun by poverty. He was reviled by his subjects because his actions were often vicious and oppressive. President Snow administered the […]
