Encouraging a 20-something friend at my gym to attend a workshop I was giving on investing and financial planning, I quipped, “I’ll teach you how to be a millionaire.” “Really?” she responded. I quickly explained that, if someone her age invested $6,000 a year in...
If you lose your job, what emotional and professional support should you expect from your financial planner? Ideally, the planner’s first response would be, “Tell me more about what you’re experiencing. How can I best support you in this moment?” Since every client’s...
Aligning your stated values and your spending is something I encourage as part of financial wellness. It isn’t always easy to do. For example, someone strongly concerned about climate change will likely avoid buying items like bottled water, plastic bags, aerosols,...
Last week I addressed the gravity of the increased risk of suicide after experiencing a personal financial crisis. This underscores the seriousness with which we all need to approach making financial decisions, especially those involving high-risk speculative...
If you learned that your financial planner had their own financial planner, would you be concerned? Would you see it as a confession of incompetence or a sign of confidence and wisdom? Years ago, when I told my clients that I had a financial planner, their reactions...
In last week’s column about grief, I suggested that all of our personal losses, such as the death of a loved one, have financial aspects. These may range from a severe reduction in family income because of a divorce or the death of a wage earner, to the complexities...
