The Retirement Field Guide

For the last 13 years, growth stocks have outperformed value stocks by a comfortable margin. Prior to that period, value stocks had outperformed for decades. With the shift in the tide toward the end of 2020 (when value finally outperformed again) the question begins to loom: “What should you own for what lies ahead?” The answer to that question is, “Yes.” There is no shortage of people who are willing… Read More

When you look around your local community, just about anyone who has made serious money is most likely a business owner. One of the great investors of our lifetime, Naval Ravikant, said the following: “Being an owner in a company basically means you own the upside. When you own debt, you own guaranteed revenue streams and you own the downside.” Investing in the public markets isn’t all that different. You… Read More

The irony of having investment experience is the acute awareness that humility is always right around the corner ready to remind us that we’re not as smart as we think we are. When throwing out predictions for what the market is going to do next, it is only a matter of time until humility finds us. While I have written before that pundits on TV have no career risk with… Read More

There is an idea I’ve become a big fan of and that is the idea of “learning in public.” In April of 2020, I self-published a book on Amazon titled, Medicare Simplified – What Retirees Need to Know about Medicare in 100 Pages or Less. Also, an announcement! I just published my second book titled, Creating a Retirement Income Plan – What Retirees Need to Know About Creating a Retirement… Read More

Let’s face the facts. Nobody likes to be called emotional. Nobody likes to be told they are acting irrationally. As Rory Sutherland in his book Alchemy says, “When we do put a name to non-rational behavior, it is usually a word like ’emotion’, which makes it sound like logic’s evil twin. ‘You’re being emotional’ is used as code for ‘you’re being an idiot.’” But investing exists in a world full… Read More

One of my favorite books of the year was written by Morgan Housel titled, The Psychology of Money. It may be the most accessible lesson on money that I have ever read. I judge the quality of the book based on how much I highlight it, and I highlighted this book as much as any. Below, I will share a few of my favorite quotes from just two chapters. My… Read More

Perhaps the greatest benefit (albeit it was unknown to me at the time) of contributing to the book, How I Invest My Money, was that I was sent a beautifully framed version of the personalized sketch Carl Richards put together for my chapter. Though this wasn’t the case for many of the contributors, it’s quite obvious where his sketch idea came from for my chapter. I said, “For me, enough… Read More

I am a willing consumer of the “self-improvement” section of the bookstore. After two decades of reading these books, it occurred to me why the continuous reading of these style books is helpful. It’s because we have short memories and need constant reinforcement of these ideas if they are to become a reality. As I have been writing this blog for almost three years, I believe this same benefit is… Read More

A couple of years ago, a friend offered an observation that has stuck with me and I think much of our lives (and financial perspectives) can be traced back to this one single idea. That is “We can only see half of our life ahead of where we are.” Meaning, if you are 20, the oldest you can truly see yourself being is 30. Thinking about my own experiences and… Read More

I want to briefly rant about something I believe retirees should be aware of that can potentially run their portfolios off course. That is the subject of the permabear pundits. Surprisingly, it’s not the general pessimism that bothers me. My problem with these folks is two-fold: Their pessimistic position never changes (hence the name permabear). The record of a permanently pessimistic viewpoint is historically absurd. I was sent one such… Read More