January 2019

I think my favorite mother-in-law joke has to be Rick Pitino’s when he told his team he wanted them to play “mother-in-law defense – constant harassment.” That’s the first and last quote of Pitino to appear in my blog and, probably, the last mother-in-law joke. The fact is, my mother-in-law is a wonderful, caring person who also happens to make beautiful quilts - the most recent as a Christmas gift to my daughter. 

Now, examined square by square one sees that each is unique in their own color and pattern and is beautiful on their own. Viewed as a whole, however, the quilt becomes magical with an array of color and patterns that is sure to bring a smile to even the grumpiest of coaches. In short, the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

While I have always admired her quilts, it wasn’t until recently, after reading the blog post of a friend and fellow Certified Financial Planner™ professional, Eric Clark from Charlotte, North Carolina, that I saw how closely Judy’s quilts resemble the sometimes-called Quilt Chart, pictured below. Consisting of blocks of color, each representing a different investment asset class, it looks like a beautiful quilt. Examining each block individually one sees how each asset class – Large Cap stocks, Small Cap stocks, Fixed Income, etc. – performed in every year since 2004.