The cause of most airplane accidents boils down to two pilot related issues, insufficient knowledge and poor judgement. Although knowledge doesn’t always result in good judgement, the lack of it will usually lead to bad decisions. One of my favorite childhood cartoon shorts ended with the phrase, “Knowledge is power.” That phrase never left me…
Our family has a little thing we do when, if we really want to buy something that is too expensive we say, “Imagine what it would cost if you bought it at Disneyland?” This always generates a chuckle and then makes whatever we want to buy seem cheap in comparison. I‘m pretty sure this is…
In Utah, a largely desert land, we have endured many flash floods. One that hit in 2012 destroyed a dam which severely damaged my home and 65 of my neighbors’ as well. Within an hour volunteers showed up at my home to shovel, clean and tear down that which was destroyed. The community help was…
In the midst of our current huge financial crisis, a prominent national publication released its annual list of the top financial advisors in America. I suppose maybe this is a good time for people to know who to turn to for their financial advice, so I read through the article. In the very small print…
Many have asked me why the stock market is doing relatively well, while the economic numbers keep getting worse. There are several reasons for this phenomenon so let’s review a couple things that are going on. High unemployment. The unemployment numbers are off the charts, which would normally indicate tough times ahead. However, consider this issue…
Last week I took an essential business trip to Colorado, which resulted in my booking a room at a well-known national hotel chain. As I approached the hotel I saw there were no cars in the parking lot. The place, which had only opened in the past six months, was a complete ghost town. My…
As a financial advisor and a pilot, I consider myself a good risk manager but I can’t hold a candle to my wife. She has given birth to seven children. She told me that if you can survive pregnancy and childbirth, you can do anything. I believe it. With each child I have seen Launa…
An investor came to me for advice this week saying, “I spend all day long watching every show, joining every webcast and following every analyst I can find, and I’m still confused and don’t know what to do.” I responded that if I did the same thing, I wouldn’t know what to do either. I get…
Not long ago I wrote that according to statistics from the Department of Labor, over half of all financial advisors had never experienced a bear market first-hand. I can safely set that statistic aside now. This crisis has been quite an education for investors and their advisors. Based on some younger financial advisors who have…
My copy of the masterpiece, Dante’s Inferno, is in Italian, so I will attempt to translate into English the sign that hung above the gates of hell in that poem. It said, “Leave behind all hope, you who enter here.” To Dante, the loss of hope was the loss of everything. I thought of that poem…