My son Dominic is 18 and a high school graduate, as of this week! Knock on wood, he’s had only one near-miss since he began to drive. Only days after receiving his permit, he and his dad were driving to school when a kamikaze deer leaped in front of the car. Devon, his younger brother, was waiting at the school bus stop and witnessed the event. Unfortunately, the deer had...

Part III: Additional Notes on Financial Harmony In Part I of our three-part series on managing held-away accounts, we described the important role retirement plans play in your life, as they are often among the biggest building blocks in your household wealth. In Part II, we described an investment strategy for managing them effectively within your family’s overall game plan. Today, we’ll wrap our series with some of the additional advantages...

Part II: From Hodge-Podge Investing to Financial Harmony In our last blog post, we introduced the concept of organizing the building blocks of your household assets under the unified oversight of a financial professional. These include your primary investment portfolio as well as held-away accounts such as retirement plans or unmanaged annuities. Today, we’ll dig deeper into how coordinated oversight can be expected to enhance your investment Harmonious Versus Piecemeal Investing:...

A recent question from one of our clients struck me as excellent inspiration for a blog post of wider appeal. It went something like this: “My son is now 18 and tells me he wants to invest in stocks, or mutual funds, what do I think, etc. He has $1,700, so not really enough to shake the markets, but I am happy he is developing an interest. Before I respond to...

My son Dominic has been a Junior Firefighter for over a year and a half now, but he moves to Volunteer Firefighter status on his 18th birthday – today! Have you ever wondered what it takes to be a fire fighter? Check out the program Dominic attended last summer to pass his Fire Fighter 1 level. No pun intended, but isn’t this cool? As we celebrate Dominic’s 18th birthday it also...

Your favorite sweatshirt. An unfinished paperback. That doggy bag left on the table. Small losses when they go missing, but don’t you just hate that sinking feeling when you realize they’re gone? As our financial holdings accumulate and our memories diminish, we can lose track of our money that way, too: A pension plan from several jobs ago, the IRA from a former spouse, age-old bank accounts never closed. It gets...