3 Questions to Ask When Planning Your Financial Future

Not only do many people not have a financial plan, many of them don't understand what such a plan should involve. One way to deal with this is to engage a qualified financial planner. Whether you take this route or go it alone, a financial plan should be the answer to issues raised by key questions about your future.

Invest Like Norway, Not Yale

David Swenson, the chief investment officer of the Yale endowment fund, has gained notoriety over the past several decades to manage the Yale endowment fund. In the early 1990s, he decided to place a gigantic chunk of the endowment into alternative assets like real estate, hedge funds, and private equity. The results were spectacular.

WISE Money – Stubborn Bulls and Stubborn Bears are Both Wrong

Some people—perma‐bulls—are always predicting that the stock market will go up, and others—perma‐bears—are always predicting that it will go down

WISE Money – Wedding To-do List: Give Yourself a Money Checkup

Amid an engagement, it's easy for couples to overlook key financial points that can affect their financial security and their relationship. As couples plan their wedding, it's a good idea to do some foundational financial planning, as well.

WISE MONEY – Do a Reality Check on Your Retirement Finances

Your poor savings habits might stem from ignoring the problem or, when you do think of it, slipping into denial. Well, denial is not just a river in Egypt. If you're fooling yourself about your retirement resources, you're probably rationalizing a lot. If this describes you, you might want to examine your emotions on the subject. Are these emotions lining up to justify your lack of action to save for retirement (or your all-too-active spending habits)? If so, you may be using some of these rationalizations too.

“Fight The Fights That Are Worth Fighting”

Do you work with a financial advisor? If so, is that advisor required to put your interest ahead of his/her own? If you are like 99% of other investors out there, you probably don’t know for sure. The vast majority of advisors are brokers or have the option to operate as a broker, and therefore don’t have to act in their client’s best interest.

There Is No Such Thing As “Long-Term” In Tax Planning

I often read articles that talk about the virtues of long-term tax planning. This could be in the form of Roth IRA conversions, charitable planning, or gifting strategies. In general, most of these articles are correct in their reasoning, but they tend to under-emphasize one important item.

You Are Not A Contrarian

It seems like every investor (amateur or professional) bills themselves as a contrarian. They will tell you that they tend to buy unloved or unwanted companies when they are trading for a great bargain. The simple fact is that this is very hard. The Motley Fool has a great article on this very topic.

They’re Back: Revisiting Interest Rates

It has been a couple of months since we’ve addressed interest rates, and today we find that the 10-year Treasury bond (often considered the benchmark of bond yields) has hit 3% again. With the recent economic data surprising to the upside, there is a possibility for rates to rise.

Private Wealth Management Insights

3 Questions to Ask When Planning Your Financial Future

Invest Like Norway, Not Yale

WISE Money – Stubborn Bulls and Stubborn Bears are Both Wrong

WISE Money – Wedding To-do List: Give Yourself a Money Checkup

WISE MONEY – Do a Reality Check on Your Retirement Finances

“Fight The Fights That Are Worth Fighting”

There Is No Such Thing As “Long-Term” In Tax Planning

You Are Not A Contrarian

They’re Back: Revisiting Interest Rates

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