So, why is it so much easier for some families to save and invest?
Experience has taught me that it is not a function of intelligence or education.
If anything, it is the simple acceptance of delayed gratification as a life skill…and this take a great deal of focus and persistence in a culture geared towards instant […]

It’s time to re-focus your efforts in pursuit of your financial independence.
And in the process, you are going to have a great burden lifted from your shoulders.
There are two distinct and binary outcomes that we must deal with:

Actions that we directly control
Actions over which we have no control whatsoever.

When I find clients in distress over […]

Time to step back from the minutiae and the mundane to get the big picture.
We are so focused on our problem solving routines as we work through our to-do lists, that we often obscure the major impediments to our success.
Since this is a blog on wealth management, you expect specific direction, and I’ve never been […]

Like many observers, I predicted that the major reforms in bankruptcy law in 2005 would make it difficult, if not impossible, for most consumers to walk away from their credit card debt.
Wrong.
The intent of the new law was to force consumers into debt restructuring and repayment, and not wanton and wholesale charge-offs…behavior exacerbated by prior […]

We need to do some heavy lifting here, because the ideas presented are not in the mainstream. We have allowed the problem to be defined as such:

All high school graduates go directly to college. Whether they are ready or not.
All funds come from the parents.
Or massive, lifetime Student Loans.
Or as a free ride […]

Part I explained what drives higher education inflation. Today we will try to cope.
This is highly topical, because so many private lenders are bailing out on college loan funding. This is a self-inflicted wound Congress brought on itself, when it cut the margins on such loans, just as the credit markets locked up […]

There are two massive markets almost impervious to free market discipline: Health Care and College Expenses.
Both are increasing at rates much higher than core inflation would indicate. Both owe their inefficiency to the stealth factor of third party payment, which obscures and prevents marketplace clearing and pricing.
Expect both to be major campaign issues in […]

It’s amazing how every simple spending habit leverages your financial security.
Positively, or negatively.
Today we take up the topic of food…very much in the news since we started diverting grain into fuel, thus distorting two markets for the price of one idealistic, but simple minded goal.
Unimpeded markets send pricing signals to both producers and consumers, pulling […]