Articles
The Solution to Maintaining a Budget Is Awareness
What I’ve discovered over the years is that most of our problems do not come down to income. Instead, we don’t notice enough. I want you to try a little experiment I’ve created. It’s called “30 Days and Three Seconds.”
The Financial Benefits of Buying What You Love
I am asking you to consider the possibility that buying stuff you love, regardless of price, may be the best decision you can make.
How to Break Bad Money Habits
I sat down with Susan Johnston Taylor at US News for a Q&A. I shared tips for avoiding common financial blunders and setting money goals.
How Do You Define Enough?
I wonder if we’re asking the right questions about how much money we need to be happy. Once our basic needs are met, then what?
Diversification Is the Sane Alternative to Betting Big on One Investment
With no proven model for picking the next winner, can you really afford to bet big on any one investment? Perhaps the better choice really is to stay diversified. A diversified portfolio all but guarantees you’ll be unhappy with at least one investment each year.
What Does a One-Page Plan Look Like?
A question I’ve heard a lot is, "What does your one-page financial plan look like?" In this article, I share the exact plan that sits on my desk. It reminds me of what I value most and helps me make decisions that keep me focused on those values.
What Did You Really Hear?
How do we know that what we think is what we really think, and not just what someone else wants us to think? It turns out that it doesn’t take much to make us think something we didn’t previously. Our minds are biased to work against us. It’s often referred to as “confirmation bias.”
The Value of an Advisor
The work that real financial advisors do is different than the work the traditional financial services industry has done. Instead of learning how to justify the fee you charge a client, get so good at your craft that your value isn’t a question.
Under the Influence of Money
By talking about how money makes us think, we stop giving power to the assumptions that drive our behavior because we learn to understand the inconsistencies.
The Single Most Valuable Asset Is Trust
In this three-part audio series, I want to introduce a relatively narrow and simple, but insanely powerful, concept. Trust is the single most valuable asset that any real financial advisor has.
Social Science vs Physical Science
There is a long-standing debate over the difference between the social sciences and the physical sciences. Many of the tools we use in the physical sciences will simply not work with economics – one being the bell-shaped curve or normal distribution.
Notes on Scary Markets and Free Mini-Course for Financial Advisors
When the markets get scary, we're often the only thing standing between them and our clients doing something foolish. My goal with this free mini-course about scary markets is to help you understand your true value as a REAL financial advisor.