29 Aug 2014

Posted at 10:22h in The Friday Brief by
I'll be the first to admit that the idea of "financial planning" can sound about as exciting as an invitation to a friend's daughter's third grade violin concert. Throw in the fact that we are in-the-moment creatures, not naturally focused on the future and we begin to understand why planning is such a challenge for us. We are so busy managing the chaos of our daily lives, we simply can't afford to take the time to consider a future that seems to be coming at us faster than we can adjust.

29 Oct 2010

Posted at 16:00h in The Friday Brief by
One of the most compelling human instincts is to excel at whatever we do, to be the best we can be, to win. No matter what endeavor we pursue, our careers, our hobbies, the games we play – all are more exciting when we compete to win.

13 Aug 2010

Posted at 14:48h in The Friday Brief by
The 10% rally in the S&P 500 beginning in early July abruptly turned this past Tuesday as the Fed announced a small downgrade in their assessment of the recovery and as a Chinese government report suggested growth was slowing in that economy. The US recovery has been largely attributed to exports which will decline if China and the global economy drift back into recession. The three-day decline in stock prices this week erased 3.8% from the 10% rally. Treasuries on the other hand continued their multi-month advance as the Fed said they would replace maturing mortgage bonds held on their books with two to ten-year Treasury bonds. The Barclay’s 7-10 year Treasury index is up 3% since early July. 

24 Jul 2009

Posted at 16:34h in The Friday Brief by
It’s all too easy to project our current circumstances into the future and assume that things will remain the same forever. We find this phenomenon particularly true the longer a current trend, good or bad, persists. Remember how the “Internet changed everything?” In the late nineties stock valuations were at all-time highs, ‘twenty-somethings’ became overnight billionaires with dot.com ideas that required an ever increasing suspension of reality (and gravity). Even seasoned CEO’s who remain heads today of companies like Cisco, Intel, Apple, and Broadcom said then, that they could barely believe what was happening themselves; the orders were there – the growth was real. Then, all of a sudden the orders went away. The Y2K bug had not bitten. Information companies were indeed subject to the same business cycle as the rest of the economy. And the silliness of most new dot coms was exposed. It all came crashing down. Wall Street analysts who had months earlier championed the record high stock multiples as the new reality were summarily fired. The few who were too deeply involved with large investment banking customers stayed on, but quickly changed their tune. The reality changed overnight.