“Knowledge does not equal understanding.” “Truth is truth no matter what I think about it.” “You’re looking at the world with a bias whether you think you are or not.” How much of our ‘knowledge’ prevents us from learning new things that might help make better financial decisions? And remember...it’s as easy as riding a [...]
Language is powerful. Oftentimes it gets lost in subtlety. During your next conversation listen for whether the person says, “I think” or “I feel.” It's quite telling. Feelings are great. The beauty of humanity is we experience emotion. Thoughts are great too. The beauty of humanity is we are capable of thought without limited capacity [...]
No, we don’t mean this Myra or this Myra. We mean this myRA courtesy of our friends at Treasury. We, um, “sat down with myRA” to get to know her. Let’s see what she’s all about: Apollo: When were you born? myRA: President Obama mentioned me in his 2014 State of the Union address. Apollo: [...]
In an attempt to close a ‘loophole’ they claim is exploited by ‘evil one-percenters’ Congress has done away with a very useful planning strategy – File and Suspend. File and Suspend allows spouse #1 to file for and immediately suspend receipt of benefits until a future date up to age 70. This allows spouse #2 [...]
Last week the IRS told us what’s new in 2016. While some items remain unchanged there are interesting developments with 401(k) contribution limits, income tax brackets and deductions, IRA contributions, the estate tax credit, AGI phase outs and more. More than 50 tax-related items were addressed. A partial summary and some of the more interesting [...]
The Pope? Cigarettes? ISIS? Justin Bieber? Let’s start the weekend on a light note with some interesting "the dog ate my homework" explanations for corporate quarterly earnings misses.
We’re strongly considering adding a new category for blog posts dedicated to the wonderfully naïve Milhouse Van Houten. The goal?...expose the frauds who try to buy us with the BS they sell. You know these folks. People like him and her. Read about it here and here. Here’s an exchange between Milhouse and Bart from [...]
Forget your feelings about attorneys. If nothing else law schools have one thing right. They need to break down students before they can build ‘em up again. Why? To think in a certain way means to stop thinking another way. In the financial planning world we fight the same battle. It’s emotionally and physically draining [...]
Carl Richard is a believer in The KISS Principle. He spends his time providing financial education by explaining complex strategies and terms using simple, easy to understand diagrams. You can find examples in his weekly “Sketch Guy” column in The New York Times and his book “The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb [...]
What’s the best way to achieve superior, long-term, risk-adjusted returns? On one side of the argument are the efficient market devotees. They argue cost and turnover are the prime factors of fund performance. Nothing else matters since it isn’t possible to ‘beat the market.’ On the other side of the argument are those with functional [...]