Beacon Wealthcare |

21 Aug 2015 Measuring Risk Tolerance Is Not Financial Planning

Posted at 13:30h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

Market cycles, bull and bear, have considerably more impact on our psyche, confidence, and outlook than we perhaps realize. When stocks have risen for a period long enough for us to believe the trend will last, things simply look brighter. We feel more confident about our future, loosen our grip on our money, and feel more comfortable taking risk. With the the Total US Stock market up some 200% since March of 2009, we have had numerous discussions around increasing stock exposure to capture larger returns - it's only normal.

14 Aug 2015 What a 10-day Traffic Jam Can Teach Us About Money

Posted at 12:25h in The Friday Brief by Jared Korver, CPA, CFP®

You probably saw something in the past few weeks about the alarming volatility of the Chinese stock market, and more recently its currency devaluation. If you didn't, the short version is that things are a bit messy there these days. That being said, I'm not going...

07 Aug 2015 Measure Your Risk Before The Next Bear Market

Posted at 09:58h in The Friday Brief by Geoff Hall, CFP®, RICP®

Potentially Important Life Goals:

1. Retire with confidence

2. Help fund your kids' college expenses

3. Give more

4. Travel with your family or friends

5. Take more investment risk

31 Jul 2015 What Las Vegas Can Teach Us About Investing

Posted at 11:34h in The Friday Brief by Sam Bass Jr.

"People call it luck when you've acted more sensibly then they have." Amy Tan

When we invest or expend money to make a profit, we start from one of two vantages: Confidence or Luck. The first requires effort, competence, and a thorough understanding of what is controllable and what is not controllable and we plan contingencies for those things that are not controllable. The second perspective is the veritable flip a coin. Luck-dependent investment decisions are based on things like past performance, colorful brochures, and influential arguments.