“The stock market is like gambling,” someone told me earlier this week. I understand such feelings.  Thanks to inflation, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and other factors, the markets are more volatile than normal. The S&P 500 is a prime example. It fell 12% earlier this year. It has since recovered about half that year-to-date […]

If you typed the word “inflation” into your favorite search engine, you’d get over 380 million results.  Whew. That’s a lot of reading. Let me save you time and confusion. Here are short answers to the five most common questions people ask about inflation. 1. What is inflation?  In simple terms, inflation is when our […]

Can you run as fast today as you could 20 years ago?  Probably not. We get slower the older we get.  And it isn’t just our 40-yard dash time that declines. Our willingness to accept change and tolerate risk both decrease with age.  There are always exceptions. But most folks are far more safety-conscious at […]

Why would anyone want to get out of debt? Think about it. You borrow money. You get to use that money now. Then you get to pay it back slowly, over time. Who wouldn’t want that deal? You might expect a financial planner to say getting out of debt is what everyone should do, ASAP. […]

If Hollywood made your life into a movie, would people want to watch it? Author Donald Miller got me thinking about stories, characters, and plots with his terrific new book Hero on a Mission. Drawing inspiration from great story tellers of the past, Miller argues that all great stories have four primary characters: the victim, […]

One of the common questions I get from new clients is, “How am I doing financially . . . compared to everyone else in my situation?”  Something in us loves to compare—and do whatever “everyone else is doing.” When it comes to finances, this is rarely wise: Right now, some 2 million homeowners are three […]