Why do you write like you’re running out of time?Write day and night like you’re running out of time? … Why do you write like it’s going out of style?Write day and night like it’s going out of style? – Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton I re-watched the musical Hamilton on Disney+, and I couldn’t help but…
My Favorite Female Created Content of 2022
We are living in a time of peak content creation. No matter your interest or hobby, there are hundreds of podcasts, blogs, videos, and social media posts dedicated to it. Financial content is exploding. Some of it is exceptional, with increasing quality. But most of it is useless noise. And like most of the financial…
Savers Get Paid Again
Cash is back! It was only a year ago that people were so desperate for yield that the Wall Street Journal asked me if savers should put some of their home down payment savings in the stock market. Now we have high-yield savings accounts topping 3%. Three-month Treasuries are yielding 4.4% and 12-month paper is…
Helping Your Girlfriend with Retirement Planning
Last week I joined Ben Carlson’s live Youtube show called Portfolio Rescue. Each week, Ben pulls the most relevant questions we receive from listeners, watchers, and readers of our finance content. I helped answer two listener questions that dealt with financial planning issues. The first was from a man who is helping his girlfriend save…
After the Harvest
Have you ever seen a grapevine after the harvest? What was recently a huge bush full of fruit, becomes a lonely, barren stick in the dirt. Rows and rows of sticks stretch across the vineyard for months. Winter is not a beautiful time to visit vineyards, but it is a great time to witness the…
Women of Wealth Management, Assemble!
Future Proof Festival is happening in a few weeks. This is an event you don’t want to miss if you work in wealth management. The speaker lineup is unbelievable. The venue is a boardwalk in Huntington Beach, CA. No cold hotel ballrooms, and no coffee and tea bars at the back of the exhibit hall….
The Biggest Life Event That No One Talks About
Graduation, first job, marriage, having kids, divorce, death of a spouse, becoming a grandparent. These are all major life events that receive a lot of attention. We throw parties, showers, weddings, and funerals to mark these milestones. We formalize them with legal documents. We write articles, how-to’s, and self-help books about them. The rhythm of…
If I Had a Billion Dollars
In case you haven’t heard, the Mega Millions jackpot for tonight’s drawing is over $1.2 billion. That’s Billion, with a B. Although the odds of winning are less than 1 in 300 million, I suspect that many nonregular lottery-playing Americans will purchase tickets. To put these odds in context, here are the odds of some…
Blah Blah Summer
Summer is the off-season in New Orleans. The heat and humidity pack a one-two punch that makes walking outside feel like walking into a steam room, day or night. It’s best to do chores like mowing the lawn or grocery shopping before 8 am when the sun makes its unwelcome return above the roof. We…
A Time to Puke
Today was an ugly day for the stock market. We have officially entered bear market territory for the S&P 500 Index, so we can stop dancing around the words “sell-off”. The arbitrary line in the sand has been crossed. I have spent my career assisting clients through bear markets. I graduated from college at the…