One popular money script is, “I need to leave an inheritance to my kids.” Yet choices that parents make based on this money script can actually result in both failing to leave an inheritance and even costing children money. Here is one way that might happen. My town...
“The Bear is coming! The Bear is coming!” Indeed it is. Should you be worried? No, if you have heeded my advice and diversified your portfolio and set aside a cash reserve. You can actually stop reading now. For everyone else, the answer is “probably...
Whenever I surf television cable news channels, I can’t help but notice the plethora of ads for financial planning. Some of them sound compelling, even to me. I often find myself thinking, “Dang, that’s exactly what we do.” Then I notice the...
Two years ago, writing at the outset of the pandemic, I cited a March 2020 New York Times column by David Brooks, “Pandemics Kill Compassion, Too.” He warned that, historically, pandemics, unlike other disasters which bring communities and nations...
For decades, financial experts like myself have implored you to have a health care power of attorney. Now, some health care experts say you don’t need one because they don’t work. “Decades of research demonstrate advance care planning doesn’t work. We need a new...
Suppose you have a net worth of one thousand dollars, while your friend has one million dollars. Would you consider yourselves to be in the same financial category? Almost certainly not. The comparison is absurd. Your friend’s one million is a thousand times...
