The Best 5 Minute Financial Advice

Parents and students all across the country continue to wonder how they are going to pay for college. Over the last thirty years, the cost of college has risen astronomically. Since 1987 we have had over a 500% increase in the cost of college tuition. In that same time frame, college tuition has risen at a rate 2.5x that of home prices, over 3x that of medium income, and 4x that of general inflation. Because of this, we often have ...

Can you DIY your personal finances? By now, most of us are familiar with the term DIY or “do-it-yourself”.  The idea behind DIY is essentially that anyone can figure out how to do something by spending a few hours on YouTube or on the internet. We make our own home improvements, fill out our own taxes, and make our own car repairs.

• But what about the more complex situations?
• What if your home needed a serious paint job?
• What if yo...

Can A Financial Advisor Help You?

Can a financial advisor help you in a meaningful way? The short answer is yes but, we do in fact have the data to back it up. In today’s Bench Talk, we’re going to discuss how a financial advisor can help you in a meaningful way.

Let’s start with a quick example. Most of us reading this have probably tried to do our own plumbing or electrical work at some point in time. When you finished, ho...

What is investing? We all hear about the great investors like Warren Buffett, Jack Bogle, and Benjamin Graham. Hollywood portrays these investors and the likes as shrewd investors who outsmarted the market. Investing can oftentimes seem like a difficult or foreign task when you hear these stories, but it doesn’t have to be. Here is the investment checklist that we look at before deciding if someone is ready to start investing. Read...

The great Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you will end up in a different place.” When planning for retirement, Yogi’s words are spot on. Today, instead of lecturing you on retirement we thought it would be easier to ask two main questions.

1. Are you saving enough for retirement today?
2. How much is enough?

Its important to know what you need to be earning on your retirement assets in the next 20, 30, ...

Did you know that there are over 45 million people in the United States that carry student loan debt? And….as of right now, you just watched me make my last payment, and I am no longer one of them. Here’s how I paid off $50k in student loan debt.

When I graduated from undergrad less than four years ago, I had 12 different loans with a principal balance of 42k. Upon entering the workforce, I wasn’t making much money, so I chose a gra...

One of my favorite movie quotes is from a film called Miracle. If you’ve seen that movie, you know it’s about the 1980 U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey Team, a team that was comprised of a bunch of college-age boys who were given no chance as they entered Lake Placid, NY in the Olympics. They ended up stunning the world by taking gold.

The scene that’s my favorite scene is the night when the U.S. is getting ready to play the Soviets. The U...

It’s important to assess the health of your estate plan. More often than not, people do not adequately prepare for estate planning and retirement. In order to make it easier, we compiled together 10 simple yes or no questions to help you assess your estate plan.

1. Does your family have a mission statement?
2. Can your heirs participate in decisions?
3. Do all your heirs have an option to participate in the management of the family assets?
4. ...

For today’s episode, I’m going to be talking about beer and financial plans. I know what you’re thinking, those two things don’t go together. But, the similarities may surprise you. As an avid home brewer I’ve spent countless hours trying to perfect different recipes. However, the process as a whole is actually quite simple and requires only four ingredients. You have water, grain, hops and yeast. From those we can produce hundreds...

This episode is all about understanding your 401(k) plan. At its core, a 401(k) is a type of retirement savings plan that companies will offer to their employees to help save for retirement. The general consensus and what most of us have been told is that you should contribute to a 401(k). This is true for many of us, but a lot of people follow this advice blindly and don’t ask the right questions when it comes to their 401(k) plan...

One of the biggest concerns couples have is how to talk about their finances. When it comes to money and finances, this question almost always hits the top five list.

So, how should couples talk about finances? Well first, it’s important to ask these three questions: What? How? and When?

First, you need to determine what you are specifically going to talk about when it comes to your finances. Start by asking questions like what are y...

How To Become A Millionaire

Do you want to be a millionaire? Of course, that’s a silly question because most people would answer yes. When we think of millionaires, we think of people with big mansions, fast cars, and elegant clothes and jewelry. We also tend to have an image in our heads of how they became millionaires. If you Google “how to become a millionaire,” you will see numerous results for how millionaires acquired...

Value of Fee-Only Advice

After being in the business for a while now, I have found that most people really don’t know what we do. Of course, our clients know, because they see it on an on-going basis, but does the general public really know the value that we add?

Let’s take a step back…

Most of us are familiar with the traditional relationship with a stockbroker. He/she would call you about some “hot new stock” or tell you to...

You Need a Solid Financial Plan

Here’s a quick recap of the importance of having a solid financial plan.

Some of you will remember the football player Brandon Williams who was drafted in 2006 by the San Francisco 49ers. In his early career Brandon’s Uncle, who was a die-hard fan, would send him a 49ers jersey every year – unaware that Williams could get them for free.

Playing in the NFL is often the pinnacle of the football c...