The typical response from someone when they find out that I have retired is, “Congratulations! What do you do in your spare time?” To which I reply, “I volunteer at Habitat For Humanity and Neighbor To Neighbor, go to the gym, visit family, take day trips, and write financial articles.” I would get a more excited response if I replied that I go paragliding in Costa Rica. I do occasionally get a response from people wanting to know more about investing.

This article summarizes how Continue reading →

AI has a presence in almost every aspect of modern life, from summarizing buyer responses on Amazon to working with radiologists to discover incipient tumors on scans. Few industries have been as anxiously vigilant on the subject as investment management. Increasingly, managers are relying on AI to do part of their work and, increasingly, they wonder if it could eventually replace them entirely.  (Spoiler: quite possibly.)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has Continue reading →

A young lady where I volunteer asked me when I started saving. I started saving as a child, but had no money saved until nearly thirty years later when I started down a “stable” career path after graduating with an engineering degree and an MBA. I described to her that Fidelity’s guideline is to have one year’s income saved by age 30 and 10 times your income by the time you retire. The next question was, “How do you protect your savings from severe corrections in retirement?” I explained that inflation is the silent risk of being too conservative and described target date funds as perhaps being ideal for someone starting out in savings when the daily challenges of home and work life weigh heavy on time requirements. Continue reading →

“Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry!”

Advice attributed to Oliver Cromwell, in the poem “Oliver’s Advice” (1834)

Here are three simple truths Continue reading →

I have had conversations with friends and family, and the question comes up, “Where should I put my money [cash] to earn a safe yield. This comes from younger people starting to build a nest egg and older people wanting to protect their nest egg. The options asked about are high yield savings accounts, certificates of deposits (CDs), or paying off mortgages. One concept has confused people when talking about bond funds. There are two components to fixed income return: 1) the yield, which is typically paid daily, monthly, quarterly, or annually, and 2) changes in yield that impact the price of the bonds. If the yield Continue reading →