Looking back over the first 20 years of my career as a financial advisor and meeting with thousands of people, very few strategies or financial products were thought of as “must haves.”  Wills and trusts are the closest thing to it, meaning whenever I asked if...

I recently had the pleasure of having Jamie Lerner on the LifeBlood podcast to talk about personal responsibility and how we can get more of it in our lives.  You can find her episode here.  Jamie shared some of the wisdom she’s learned over her career as a...

Dignity is “The quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed.”  Wikipedia defines it as “is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as...

How often do you see something and think “how is that happening?” or “why is that the way it is?”  When you look at your community, is there anything you’d change?  Here’s the thing; you’re the right person to make those changes. You’re the right person to...

The family trust has been a powerful estate planning tool for a long time. The need for what trusts do came about in the 12th century, and family trusts have been used for a long time as well. Over a century ago, Frank Mars (candy bars) created a trust which had the...

I love getting coffee. I mean, I really love it.  Sure I love coffee itself, but there’s something about the action of going into the coffee shop, the whole experience of it ‌I’m super into.  I haven’t dug into why I like it so much, I just know that I...

Teddy Roosevelt famously said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”  Another related well-known quote is, “Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like.”  It’s a very human thing to...

Merriam-Webster defines peace of mind as a feeling of being safe or protected. What does having peace of mind mean to you? When I start feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious, or a combination of all of them, I think about the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the...

Old 401(k)s. Odds are, you probably have one.  Maybe it’s an account at a job you had for six months and there’s $1,000 in it.  Or maybe it’s from a previous career where you were at the company for 10 years and there’s a $100,000 balance.  Either way,...