Comedian Bob Hope once quipped, “A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don’t need it.” We chuckle, but it’s true. Lending institutions couldn’t stay in business long if they loaned money to folks who couldn’t repay them (with interest).  So banks are careful. They consider the risks […]

Clients often ask, “Do I need to budget?”  When I reply, “Maybe, maybe not,” they look at me like I’m a weight loss guru who just offered them a cheese Danish. “Wait—you’re a financial planner! Aren’t you supposed to tell me to budget?” My experience is that only about 10% of my clients budget. And […]

All the financial whizzes like to say, “You need to be saving money!” Maybe you’d like to, but you don’t know how. (If so, how’s this for a hook: You will by the time you finish this column!) First things first: Saving is a habit. Like all habits, it requires motivation and momentum. If you’ve […]

In the Disney film Glory Road, a star basketball player at Texas Western University is on the verge of flunking out.  In desperation, the coach summons the young man’s mother. She marches onto campus and proceeds to turns her son’s world upside down. She even attends class with him and “volunteers” him to recite all […]

Why are so many of us bad at keeping the secrets we should keep, but good at keeping those we shouldn’t? Like the financial secrets you’ve been keeping from your spouse. Gulp. Oh, yeah. Those. I’m convinced this happens because some financial realities are painful to face. And yet the pain of dealing with those […]

When the iconic Mission Impossible music starts blaring, we all know what’s coming.  A fuse has just been lit! The clock is ticking!  It’s up to Ethan Hunt (played perfectly by Tom Cruise) and his talented team of spies to save the day again (they’ve done it six times so far).  They’ve got two hours, […]