It all started with a 12’ tree. We were preparing a special Christmas celebration with our entire family at our Duck Creek cabin. No detail was overlooked as Launa and I stacked our truck with games, presents and a mountain of food. Our meticulous planning left us confident this would be our family’s most memorable…
My wife’s grandfather was a brilliant investor. Though limited to a high school education, he taught himself to analyze a stock like few I have known. Whenever we visited, he would call me into his den to discuss the financial markets. Our discussions always involved a fat resource book that he received in the mail…
I just returned from my annual recurrent training required to maintain my ability to fly. Flying is important to me because it allows me to travel long distances to visit with clients who for many reasons are not able to see me in my office. But more important than visiting my clients is being safe…
Writing a weekly column for so many years has allowed me to create a pretty good journal of world economic events. With the election only a few days away I re-read my thoughts from the prior presidential election. Just two days before the 2016 contest I finished my article with this line, “It has been…
A referees’ job is to fairly enforce the rules of the competition. Nothing annoys a sports fan more than a referee who gets involved in deciding the outcome of the game. Watching the financial news this year, I feel more like a sports fan watching a game officiated by a group of biased referees. Unsurprisingly,…
Winter is arriving and that presents new challenges for pilots. On the positive side, the terrible summer turbulence will be gone. I won’t have my family complaining about the rough afternoon approaches into my desert airport. I love flying in the heavy, cool winter air where the engine can breathe better, the air is smoother,…
I recently read a particularly troubling story about an advisor who had stolen millions of dollars from his clients over many years. He had done so largely by forging client signatures on transfer documents. Many of the clients were single and elderly and so the advisor likely felt he would be less likely to be…
Have you ever been flying in heavy turbulence and watched those big wings bouncing up and down, wondering if they were going to break? Yeah, me too. Given how much weight those wings are carrying and the intense pressures being exerted on them as they travel hundreds of miles an hour, it is a marvel…
It was a great week in our office with my son Jared, and son-in-law Jason, both passing their CFP® exams. Apart from all the pre-requisite educational and experience requirements, they both studied almost every day for over a year to prepare for the very difficult test. You can imagine the celebration when they both passed,…
Launa sent me to the store to buy bananas. I was expecting them to be .69 a pound but when I saw they were only .49 a pound I bought more than she asked for. I like a bargain and when I see one I stock up. I am even worse when it comes to…