I despise market commentary, both for the presumption that anyone really knows the reason for short-term movements and because it distracts people from the fact that investing in equities is a matter of long-term ownership in the businesses that provide the world’s goods and services. Fluctuations in human emotions explain more of the short-term movement Read more »
Seven Steps to Financial Peace of Mind
Before addressing specialized areas, I’d like to offer my thoughts on basic financial advice for do-it-yourselfers: Spend less than you earn Be an owner, not a loaner Commit to your service Locate yourself Adopt pay-as-you-go Protect against major threats Focus on relationships 1. Spend less than you earn. You want your life to point up rather Read more »
I’m Back!
Happy Reboot Day! For the past year-plus I’ve had to put the website on hold while I focused on various professional and personal matters, the most important being the final illness and passing of my beloved wife of 30 years. I’m doing great, thanks, and Diane said she’ll kill me if I keep using her Read more »
Lesson 27: Deciding Whether to Get Long-Term-Care Insurance
Ironically, while many people allow their lives to be exposed to the risk of an income-destroying disability, they are far more aware of a far less useful protection, long-term-care (LTC) insurance. It isn’t that the need for LTC is less likely than long-term disability. Almost by definition, the former is much more likely, since anyone Read more »
Lesson 26 – Disability Income Protection
Now that tax season is over, I have a little more time to blog. A new lesson is overdue: my last one on life insurance was a cakewalk compared to disability income protection. It’s not because it is difficult to determine whether or not you need disability income protection: if you aren’t yet financially independent, Read more »
See You In December
November is a time when I review all of my client accounts for year-end tax planning, and this year I’m also hoping to put together an eBook to help all of you do-it-yourselfers do it yourself. Look for me here on the first Friday of December, and wish me luck on the eBook.
Lesson 25: How Much Life Insurance?
Once you’ve decided to obtain term life-insurance coverage to protect those dependent on you, you need to determine the amount of coverage needed. There are plenty of calculators online, but my quick-and-dirty approach is as follows: Determine the expected annual spending of those you’ll be leaving behind. A detailed analysis would be nice, but you Read more »
Lesson 24 – Life Insurance
We’ll begin our disaster-of-the-week sessions with the most straightforward: life insurance. A few principles will guide us: The purpose of insurance is to protect against financial losses you cannot afford to suffer. Insurance policies generally make lousy investments. This is as it should be, since we want the insurer to be financially healthy and able Read more »
Lesson 23 – Financial Planning Is More than Just Investing
Now that I’ve answered a few questions from readers, all on the details of investing, I want to remind you all that there is more to financial planning than investing. We could talk for the rest of our lives about ways to tweak a portfolio and possibly add a little more in returns, but if Read more »
Lesson 22 – Does the Doctor Take His Own Medicine?
I am sometimes asked if I invest my own money the same way I invest client money. I’m afraid such questions usually elicit a sarcastic response such as: “Do you think a surgeon should undergo the same operations she performs?” Or “Why would I even invest for one client the same way as another, let Read more »