Financial Planning

In 1999, the French golfer Jean Van de Velde held a three-shot lead as he headed to the 72nd, and last hole, of the British Open. All he had to do to win arguably the most important golf tournament on the Continent was to score a double bogey or better – a 6 on a par 4. An almost insurmountable lead. Here is what happened:

In a recent article the author Tim Urban wrote about a concept he calls “depressing math.” In a nutshell, this concept comes from actually counting the number of times that we will get to experience something we enjoy from now through the rest of our lives. It feels like we have countless weeks ahead of us but, in fact, they are quite countable.

University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach, John Calipari, played himself in a cameo appearance on the Showtime series Billions last week. He, as usual, was brilliant. In fact, his advice to the fictional hedge fund traders was so spot on he might actually make a good financial planner some day. Here are some highlights followed by a link to the 1:47 video:

I am obsessed with Succession, the HBO Max series about the uber-wealthy and powerful family vying to take over their father’s media empire. While exploring the motivations and psyches of truly terrible people, the show excels at character development and features brilliant writing. In the 2nd season, there is a scene where they provide striking perspective on wealth.

Steve: This article appeared on Forbes online on Oct. 20, 2021. As it is almost as good as something I would write myself, I thought I’d share. The link to the story is at the end.

Ever wonder how the wealthy stay wealthy? For one, they don’t just leave their money sitting around in some savings account. Here’s what they do with it instead...

I recently read about a 28-year old New Jersey man who typed the wrong address into his rental car’s GPS in Iceland and drove six hours in the wrong direction – SIX! – from the airport to a fishing village in the north of the country….when he was just trying to get to his hotel. Now, his first mistake is quite understandable.

In a recent review meeting, clients told us they were considering changing careers to be able to spend more time with each other and their kids and to reduce their considerable professional stress. They were approaching this in a thoughtful manner so want to consider the financial implications of such a move – both short-term and long-term.

The other week I wrote about inflation and the uncertainty of predicting whether it is either temporary or here to stay. Fact: No one really knows for sure. So, how does one plan for a potentially disruptive force? Answer: By creating a margin of safety in our financial plans and our investments. Here are some ideas how to do that.

The list of things I don’t know would stretch from here to, well, I don’t know where. I’m perfectly comfortable admitting when I don’t know something so it amuses me when “experts” claim they know exactly what’s going to happen in the future.

Recently, the mother of a dear friend passed away without a will and it reminded me of this blog post I wrote a couple years ago.