I love to read, especially about American History. Earlier this week, I was reading about WWII and General Patton. Before battle, General Patton would think through – and plan – for any and everything that could go wrong in battle. What if the enemy attacked us here, what if they had more soldiers than we were anticipating, what if they used this strategy, what if, what if, what if… This was so important to General Patton because he felt that…
Blog
Categories:
What A Joe Biden Presidency Could Mean To Your 401K
Despite the hyper partisan times that we are living in, there is one thing in my experience as a financial planner that unites both Republicans and Democrats: Taxes. I work with people on all sides of the aisle, and they all want to know what they can do to lower their taxes. As we get closer to Election Day, the polls are showing that Joe Biden has a good chance of winning, which means it’s important to understand what his…
Thinking Of Leaving California? Here’s Two Things You Need To Do
Recently, I have met with a number of clients and friends who are thinking of getting out of the Golden State of California. It makes sense! You can cut your housing expense in half, lower your taxes, and have a better quality of life. But before you get out of dodge, you need to be mindful of two very important things, which I describe in the video below: Want a free copy of my book on retirement and taxes? Go…
Are You Getting Your “Fair Share”?
There seems to be a growing number of politicians these days who think that us taxpayers haven’t “paid our fair share” of taxes…. They think that the people paying federal income taxes, state income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes (and more), for decades, simply aren’t contributing enough to our government. Frankly, I think that’s wrong. If anything, I don’t think taxpayers are receiving enough benefits for forking over so much in taxes. But that’s just me…feel free to disagree. If…
Chemistry 101 With Walter White
During our extended Quarantine, I’ve been watching a show that my brother highly recommended – Breaking Bad. (No spoilers in this email, but I’ll warn you if I write about this again and I spoil anything) It’s a show about a high school chemistry teacher (named Walter White) who has a midlife crisis, gets diagnosed with cancer, and starts making crystal meth to raise money for his family. Yes, you read that right. Early on in the show, Walter is…
Lessons From My First Year In Business
I’ve got some exciting news: Today marks the one year anniversary of the start of my Financial Planning business. Yes, my business name (Forthright Finances) has been around for a few years. But that included some time when I was working at my old company – who controlled and oversaw how I did things. Wanting to be completely independent, for my clients and for myself, I decided to end that relationship and start my own business separate from them. So…
Do What Feels Uncomfortable
Last week we saw the season finale of my favorite guilty pleasure, The Bachelor. Our bachelor Peter finally got down to his final two ladytestants, Madison and Hannah Ann. Sadly for Peter, his first choice (Madison) broke up with him before he ever got the chance to propose. Which meant that it was down to one ladytestant, Hannah Ann. Not wanting to go home single (the show is basically built around a proposal at the end), Peter proposed to Hannah…
This Is How Warren Buffett Makes His Money
The coronavirus fears have continued their effect on the stock market. Just today, the US stock market is down around 7.6%. And the markets are down around 19% from their all time highs earlier this year. Naturally, this leads lots of us to ask, “what should we do now?” I was actually talking to one of my favorite, and smartest, clients earlier today. She didn’t want to sell her investments. And she wasn’t happy with just holding on to what…
Kobe’s Advice To Be A Better Investor
Yesterday was the memorial services for Kobe Bryant. It was full of very powerful and emotional speeches and tributes. My favorite came from Shaquille O’Neal, who was teammates with Kobe early on in his career. Shaq was quoting a philosophy that Kobe had shared with him, and here’s what Shaq said: Everything negative, all pressures and challenges, is all an opportunity to rise. Shaq and Kobe discussed this in reference to basketball, but it can apply to all areas of…
Even Nancy Pelosi Wouldn’t Rip This Up
On Tuesday night we had the latest episode of our country’s political reality TV show. As I’m sure you heard, the feud between President Trump and Speaker Pelosi is only getting worse. It started out when Trump apparently avoided shaking hands with Pelosi before the speech. And after the speech the feud escalated, as Pelosi ripped up Trump’s speech in half, right as he finished. She felt like the speech was so bad it wasn’t even worth the paper it was…