Blog

07 Nov 2014

Posted at 14:28h in The Friday Brief by
I got my first job when I was 8, selling The Pilot (Moore County's local newspaper) to businesses near my home 50 or so miles south of Raleigh. The gig was super simple in those times: I bought each paper for 30 cents and sold it for 50 cents. For four years, I sold the paper three days a week, earning a profit of 20 cents on every paper I sold.

24 Oct 2014

Posted at 09:18h in The Friday Brief by

Adults over 65 in this country outnumber teenagers, and they are living longer. Demand for elderly care is rising exponentially, emphasizing the importance of planning for the possible need for long-term care. Long-term care refers to the medical, personal, and social services that might be required as we age. It includes daily help...

17 Oct 2014

Posted at 14:30h in The Friday Brief by
With all the flashing lights, colorful charts, complicated lingo, computers, algorithms, and statistics associated with the stock and bond markets, it's pretty easy to think of them as logical, efficient, monolithic machines. But nothing could be further from the truth.

17 Oct 2014

Posted at 14:19h in The Friday Brief by
Some of the best advice during times of stock market uncertainty can be to turn off CNBC and ignore the financial section of your newspaper for a while.  That is, of course, if you've planned ahead and set up your portfolio to withstand the markets's ups and downs.

11 Oct 2014

Posted at 13:02h in The Friday Brief by

Yesterday, Sam, Jared and I were out around town and had multiple people ask us about the recent craziness in the stock market.  If you're not caught up with what's been going on here's a quick update.  On Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 272 points.  The next day it rose 274 points only to plummet 300 points on Thursday, marking the Dow's most erratic 3 days since August 2011.  It would appear that our old friend Volatility has come back for a visit.  So, what’s causing all the commotion?

11 Oct 2014

Posted at 12:51h in The Friday Brief by

Yesterday, Sam, Jared and I were out around town and had multiple people ask us about the recent craziness in the stock market.  If you're not caught up with what's been going on here's a quick update.  On Tuesday the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 272 points.  The next day it rose 274 points only to plummet 300 points on Thursday, marking the Dow's most erratic 3 days since August 2011.  It would appear that our old friend Volatility has come back for a visit.  So, what’s causing all the commotion?

10 Oct 2014

Posted at 16:50h in The Friday Brief by

Due to the large number of Baby Boomers in retirement or retiring soon, much is being written on the merits of delaying Social Security from age 62, (Early Age), to 66 (Full Retirement Age) or even waiting until 70 (benefits must begin). Forget the rules of thumb and the pat answers. This is one of those cases where 'one size' absolutely does not fit all. There are simply too many nuances and special considerations unique to each person for general advice to be worthwhile.

19 Sep 2014

Posted at 12:58h in The Friday Brief by
I'm here to free you up from that awkward moment at the cocktail party when you ask the guy next to you what he does for a living and he responds, "I'm a financial advisor."  After 18 years as a financial advisor I've learned to embrace that awkward silence when the person I'm talking to pauses momentarily, presumably waiting for me to solicit their business.  The financial industry has created this phenomenon for itself by focusing more on product sales and stock market prediction than good solid advice.  Fortunately, our society has come up with a clever way to break that silence in the form of a question.  "What's the stock market going to do? "