Financial Planning

In a recent review meeting, clients told us they were considering changing careers to be able to spend more time with each other and their kids and to reduce their considerable professional stress. They were approaching this in a thoughtful manner so want to consider the financial implications of such a move – both short-term and long-term.

The other week I wrote about inflation and the uncertainty of predicting whether it is either temporary or here to stay. Fact: No one really knows for sure. So, how does one plan for a potentially disruptive force? Answer: By creating a margin of safety in our financial plans and our investments. Here are some ideas how to do that.

The list of things I don’t know would stretch from here to, well, I don’t know where. I’m perfectly comfortable admitting when I don’t know something so it amuses me when “experts” claim they know exactly what’s going to happen in the future.

Recently, the mother of a dear friend passed away without a will and it reminded me of this blog post I wrote a couple years ago.

Kentucky’s own Henry Clay reportedly coined the phrase, “self-made man” when describing Benjamin Franklin during a speech in the U.S. Senate in 1842.

Two hosts of a podcast I’m listening to recently described their relationships with money after both growing up poor. Their thoughts started me thinking, again, about people’s views toward money and what affect it has on us psychologically.

“You must pay taxes. But there’s no law that says you gotta leave a tip”, said somebody once. So check now, while you still have time to do something about it, to see whether you’ll owe or get a refund when you file next year. If you believe you’ll owe, below are some moves to reduce or eliminate that amount.

A friend – a friend of everyone he met, actually – recently died. Known affectionately by many as the “Silver Fox” as much for his personality as for his looks, our friend truly loved people and life. In fact, he was the kind of guy who never had a bad day. At his funeral, one of his several eulogists listed our friend’s 10 keys to living a good life. I find them so compelling I want to share them with you:

As you might expect, I often get questions from clients, friends and acquaintances regarding finances. When 2 or 3 people ask, there are probably more as well, so here are two recent questions: 1) What does it mean to max out my retirement savings? 2) Should I pay off my mortgage early?

I have a cousin who was born when I was a freshman in college and we’ve grown rather close in recent years – mainly thanks to him – so when he called around the first of the year to tell me he had quit his high-paying job I was tempted to yell, “Are you crazy?!” I care for him a great deal, you see, so my financial planner brain started to mentally calculate the future value of his lost salary over the next few months. I didn’t react that way, fortunately, and I slowly started to see his wisdom as he explained his motivation. It wasn’t that he hated his job – he was a well-compensated regional manager for Target – but that he yearned to see the impact of his hard work more directly. As it turns out, his professional journey is actually becoming more common.