2023 Summer Reading List
Summer is a time of warmth, sunshine, and relaxation—a perfect opportunity to unwind and immerse yourself in the captivating world…
Survive and Advance
March is my favorite time of year. I like the way the transition in the sports world in March…
Charting a Course for 2023
Investors had to navigate an environment full of twists and turns in 2022. After hitting a new all-time high in…
Year-End Review: How History Provides a Path Forward
As 2022 progressed, investors and consumers were treated to a steady stream of bad news, and the markets reacted in-kind,…
Freedom and Financial Planning
One of the great traps of the information age is the wealth of data at our fingertips. It stands to…
A Real Cool Hand
My favorite movie for many years was the 1967 Paul Newman classic Cool Hand Luke.* It’s a fairly straightforward tale…
Knowledge Is Power: The Great Wealth Transfer & Financial Education
In 1973, just shy of the 100th anniversary of his death, descendants of Cornelius (“the Commodore”) Vanderbilt gathered at Vanderbilt…
A Form that Accommodates the Mess: Financial Planning in an Age of Uncertainty
The idea that times past were simpler isn’t new. Modern life buzzes with confusion. The pace at which things change…
Cybersecurity: What Can You Do to Stay Protected?
Prior to the pandemic, the risks of cyber fraud and identity theft were already a significant worry for many. As…
Inflation Returns After a Long Hiatus
An old foe returned in the fall of 2021, one we had not seen in more than 30 years, as…
Here Be Dragons: The strange new world of bitcoin, SPACs, meme stocks, and more
The first chapter of the financial story during the pandemic focused on how quickly recovery took off, long before we…
Lessons from the Plague Year | Part II – At AFM
DEVELOP A PLAN, AND STICK TO IT A handful of us were working at AFM in our old office at…
Lessons from the Plague Year | Part I – Planning & Investing
Around this time a year ago, you would have been considered a pessimist if you had said we would still…
With Election Season Heating Up, How Much Volatility Should We Prepare For?
As we head into October, with a contentious election less than five weeks away, it’s easy to see why investors…
Is the Market Recovery Rooted in Reality?
Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman famously said that “nobody knows anything” when it comes to what works in Hollywood. Despite decades of experience,…
Machines of Loving Grace
I like to think (it has to be!) of a cybernetic ecology where we are free of our labors and…
Is the Market Recovery Rooted in Reality?
Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman (All the President’s Men, The Princess Bride) famously said that “nobody knows anything” when it comes…
All Of It
We lionize problem solvers. Rescue someone, and you’re their hero. Problem solvers earn accolades, headlines, and promotions. Problem solvers tend…
The Usual Mistake
The financial world gave scant attention to the passing of Murray Gell-Mann last May at the age of 89. Gell-Mann…
Future Shock
Metropolis 1927 We like to think we take things at face value. But it seems that our emotions are not…
The Survival of the Modern Portfolio
By the time he was 25 years old, Henri Vaillancourt of Greenville, New Hampshire had been on four canoe trips.…
When Information Is Cheap, Attention Becomes Expensive
In the introduction to his 2016 book “The Attention Merchants,” Tim Wu writes: As William James observed, we must reflect…