Blog

04 Aug 2017

Posted at 12:04h in The Friday Brief by

Circle the letters in the list below that best describe the financial planning process for you (please select as many as are appropriate). More time: Sailing, fishing, swimming, hiking, biking, walking, running, scuba diving, mentoring, tinkering, painting, crafting, cooking, gardening, stamp collecting, reading, writing, enjoying...

28 Jul 2017

Posted at 13:10h in The Friday Brief by

As suggested would happen in a Brief weeks ago, Senate Republicans have failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. While the opposition was fierce from Democrats, the media, health providers, special interest groups, and the insurance industry, the lethal blow was delivered by...

21 Jul 2017

Posted at 10:57h in The Friday Brief by

Each summer about this time amid the lazy hot days of vacation and slower work weeks, I like to tell a story of my youth. This one is particularly timely as it coincides with Disney's hit movie Cars 3. If you haven't seen it, collect...

14 Jul 2017

Posted at 12:47h in The Friday Brief by

Republicans currently face the near impossible task of repealing Obamacare and passing a replacement bill that will not cost them politically. At their core, Republicans are loathe to add additional entitlement spending to an already broken federal budget, but no political alternative exists because, since its...

07 Jul 2017

Posted at 12:14h in The Friday Brief by

Working closely with people and their money for almost 35 years, I've seen and learned a great deal about human behavior. As doctors observe the physical impact of bad health habits and counselors uncover the personal and relational damage of bad life choices, caring advisors contend with...

23 Jun 2017

Posted at 14:17h in The Friday Brief by

With summertime upon us, complete with tropical storm Cindy soaking the South, and nearly half of 2017 in the books, this might be a good time to review the progress and condition of the capital markets. While forecasting the direction of the markets is not...

09 Jun 2017

Posted at 14:30h in The Friday Brief by

This week I’ve been cleaning out my desk as I prepare for our move to our new offices on Glenwood Avenue. While organizing, I discovered that I have a paper copy of every single tax return I’ve filed since 1994. The financial nerd in me...

02 Jun 2017

Posted at 13:48h in The Friday Brief by
This weekend my wife and I will be keeping three of our grandchildren and I can't wait. The twins are 6 and the youngest, 3. We've been thinking all week about the fun things we will do together. This morning, while pondering today's Brief, I was reminded of one of the great joys of being with children; which is their boundless capacity for imagination. It is nothing short of amazing how freely and effortlessly they enter into a world that we adults have sadly  'grown' out of along the way. But if we are willing, our children and grandchildren can happily lead us, hand-in-crayon, marker, dirt, or paint-covered hand, back into the lost world of our imaginations.

26 May 2017

Posted at 10:30h in The Friday Brief by
Just three weeks away from moving into our new office here in Raleigh, we've learned a lot of lessons about planning in a very hands-on sort of way. The hand-drawn timeline that we started with (thanks to our wonderful general contractor) appears almost laughable in hindsight, and yet if we hadn't begun there, it's likely that we would be three months away from move-in rather than three weeks.