They were an easy-going couple who rarely squabbled—UNTIL he suggested they create (and live by) a budget. Each time he gently brought up the subject, she got defensive. He walked away muttering to himself. They remind me of a story I heard John Maxwell tell. A friend showed him a list of New Year’s resolutions: […]

Every day we face a variety of financial decisions: When it comes to making financial choices, my observation is that some people struggle all the time, and all people struggle some of the time. What’s behind this reluctance to choose?  After decades as a financial planner, I’m convinced most of our indecision is caused by […]

NFL quarterback Steve “Air” McNair was rich and famous.  About a year after retiring from football in 2008, the former Tennessee Titan star died of sudden onset acute lead poisoning (a polite way of saying “his girlfriend shot him”).  That’s when the world found out about McNair’s intestacy (a fancy way of saying “he died […]

The next time you fail financially—losing a sale or a job, making a bad investment—I hope you’ll think of Tom. Tom’s head was crammed with ideas he was certain would change the world. Yet more times than not, when he tried to bring those ideas to life, he failed.  Tom inspires me because he refused […]

The movie classic Gone With the Wind ends with Scarlett O’Hara…procrastinating.  “I’ll think about that tomorrow,” she declares in her exaggerated Southern drawl. “After all, tomorrow IS another day.” I can’t tell you how often I meet people who embrace that “later” mindset when it comes to their financial futures. They say things like, “I […]

How much does confident optimism matter in the marketplace—for job hunters, salespeople, entrepreneurs, and investors?  That’s the subject we began exploring last week. We said that every person has a built-in emotional thermometer that measures how they’re feeling from one situation to the next.  Some “run” a higher emotional temperature. That is, they’re usually “up” […]