“When I’m bearish and I sell a stock, each sale must be at a lower level than the previous sale. When I am buying, the reverse is true. I must buy on a rising scale. I don’t buy long stocks on a scale down, I buy on a scale up.” –Jesse Livermore When investing in … Read more

“A son can bear with equanimity the loss of his father, but the loss of his inheritance may drive him to despair.” –Niccolo Machiavelli I remember reading a book called Die Broke (#aff) by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine sometime shortly after it came out. I don’t remember all of the details of the book … Read more

“One way we gave small businesses more money to invest was by extending tax provisions on expensing.” –Dennis Hastert “If at first, you don’t succeed, take the tax loss.” –Kirk Kirkpatrick When I worked at Capital One, I managed a team that was in four different physical locations. My office was in Richmond, but one … Read more

“Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” –William Wordsworth I’ve been there. I’ve suffered from the siren song of a chart pornist who wants to show you beautiful charts that somehow convince you that paying a 5.9% front load on a mutual fund ensures that, somehow, some way, the mutual fund is going to … Read more

“Diversification and globalization are the keys to the future.” –Fujio Mitari A recent article on Done By Forty (with a hat tip to Matt Becker at Mom and Dad Money for pointing him in my direction) lamented the lack of advice about asset allocation for early retirees. Though I’d argue with the premise of his … Read more

“It is not the answer that enlightens but the question.” –Eugene Ionesco Let’s face it. I’m a Certified Financial Planner. I’m trying to convince you that, even if you think that you can do it yourself, it’s not worth the time, effort, energy, and risk to try to find all of the various bits and … Read more

“If you wait until you have enough money to decorate and make your home your own, it will never happen. If you wait until you can afford to buy everything new, you are missing the point. It is the old, the new, the hand-me-down, the collected, the worn but loved things in your home that … Read more

“Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs.” –Ambrose Bierce Six months of savings in an emergency fund… You hear that nugget of wisdom all of the time. It’s usually followed by: “…kept highly liquid like a money market account.” Is that thinking right? We’ll explore that question in today’s article along … Read more

“Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.” –Elbert Hubbard I recently had clients who were working on developing wills for their families ask me a question about creating a spousal testamentary trust and whether or not they (husband and wife) should create one. If you’re using a standard online will creation program like LegalZoom, then you’ll … Read more

“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.” –Benjamin Franklin Previously, I’ve explained that it’s important to know how much you’re spending on fees in your investments, and why I’m no fan of people who charge assets under money management (AUM) fees) for you to hand your portfolio over to them … Read more