Blog

01 May 2015

Posted at 13:39h in The Friday Brief by
Who doesn't like the word guarantee? It gives us a comforting feeling when we exchange our money for a product or service to know that we will get our money back if our expectations are not met. But when it comes to most guaranteed financial products, like CD’s, bond funds, and annuities, owners unfortunately don't realize their expectations have not been met until it’s too late because there's another guarantee these products fail to address - inflation. If inflation continues at just 2% for the next ten years, $100 worth of groceries today will cost $122 ten years from now.

24 Apr 2015

Posted at 12:40h in The Friday Brief by
[caption id="attachment_7006" align="alignnone" width="1024"]Turner Field. Atlanta, GA. Turner Field. Atlanta, GA. -- https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidberkowitz/[/caption]   I talked to my friend Brian on the phone the other day, and among other things we discussed his desire to go see the Atlanta Braves play at Turner Field this summer. Brian is a diehard Braves fan, but has never been able to get down to Atlanta to see them play, and would love to do so before they tear that stadium down and build one way out in Cobb County (suburb of Atlanta).

17 Apr 2015

Posted at 12:09h in The Friday Brief by
I have a good friend who, as a college professor, frequently asks young people this question when meeting for the first time: "what do you think about?" At the moment she considers most opportune, she gently tosses the question into the conversation like a freshly baited hook onto a still pond, and she patiently waits for the cork to bob.

10 Apr 2015

Posted at 12:38h in The Friday Brief by
This week's Brief comes to us from our good friend and like-minded colleague Russ Thornton, an Atlanta-based financial advisor. Russ is a thought leader in the area of financial planning, and puts out rock-solid content each week over at his website (and via an email which all of us subscribe to). His post this week on moving past rules of thumb and avoiding overly expensive products while still creating retirement income was spot on, so we decided to share it with you all! Take it away, Russ:

03 Apr 2015

Posted at 10:35h in The Friday Brief by
Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was buried on the Friday preceding his resurrection, the original Easter. Why is a day that marks Jesus’ horrible suffering and death on a cross called "good"?

27 Mar 2015

Posted at 10:06h in The Friday Brief by
If your family is like ours, you have thousands of digital pictures, videos, and songs on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, iCloud, DVDs, CD’s, thumb drives, camera cards, backup disks, and maybe even some old floppy disks. Together they have become our modern-day equivalent of those dusty old photo albums on dark closet shelves - with a few significant exceptions.

20 Mar 2015

Posted at 11:11h in The Friday Brief by
Have you seen how much movie tickets cost these days? Expensive enough that when I went to the movies last week, I felt very acutely what behavioral economists call the "pain of paying." Ouch. As I handed my credit card to the cashier inside the plastic bubble, I wondered, "How much will these things cost in 24 years?"

13 Mar 2015

Posted at 12:26h in The Friday Brief by

At some point, the Federal Reserve will begin the measured process of raising interest rates. No one denies it. The unprecedented condition of near zero rates must be manipulated back to levels deemed 'normal' and soon as the economy continues to improve. Another undeniable fact is that as interest rates rise, bond prices will fall. So doesn't...

05 Mar 2015

Posted at 19:44h in The Friday Brief by
If you knew there were things you could do today to improve your lifestyle both now and in the future, why would you wait? In fact, if you could see into the future to learn how much more wealth you might generate with just a few tweaks and adjustments to your current course to get you on an optimal course, would you act? After all, every day you wait has a compounding effect on your wealth improvement in the long run.

27 Feb 2015

Posted at 16:50h in The Friday Brief by
Last week during her Congressional testimony before the House, Fed Chair Janet Yellen did a good job of expressing the Central Bank's view that interest rates needed to rise eventually and she did so without jarring the markets. Since the financial crisis of 2008 and 09 the Federal Reserve has pulled out all the stops to keep the US economy moving ahead. The last and most controversial phases of their policy were labeled QE1, 2, and 3, short for Quantitative Easing.