My family has Appalachian kinfolk who will predict your future by reading coffee grounds. Of course, you could just visit a fortune teller in Pigeon Forge. While I don’t know the track records of mountain folk divinations or palm readers, I do enjoy keeping an annual “Forecasting” folder to review the predictive powers of the…
What a year 2017 was! After a lingering slump for worldwide economies and markets (2014 through late 2016), the past 12 months have been crazy, chaotic, and chart-topping in ways both good and bad. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma brought destruction. The Equifax cyber-hack created its own tidal wave of financial security concerns. A reality TV…
Recently, I was catching up on my reading stack of financial journals and daily periodicals and I was struck by one consistent inconsistency: the conclusions of any given study (research or survey) are always battling the conclusions of another study (research or survey). Public and private institutions are always publishing new or updated interpretations of…
On a typical Easter weekend, we travel to the Tri-Cities to visit relatives. One particularly sweet soul that we enjoy seeing is Aunt Naomi. She is almost 90 years old and living independently. “All I do is pay bills and check stuff,” she said last weekend: Is the door locked? Did I leave the water…
It is a quote often attributed to the Buddha, or more likely to a 1970s kung fu movie: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Unfortunately, when it comes to personal finance, the classroom appears to be empty. According to a new survey, nearly 7 in 10 Americans have less than $1,000 to their…
Why do we invest? Why do we rack our brains over where to invest or when to invest? For one thing, we are trying to build wealth and financial independence but we are also trying to protect our standard of living. What is a dollar worth? As we know, the cost of living is higher…
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley (oft go astray),” quoted from a Robert Burns poem, is often used to describe the futility of making detailed plans when our ability to execute said plans is uncertain. Market volatility can certainly trigger behavioral responses that are detrimental to our financial plans. Sometimes…
In bygone days, the term “hot mess” referred to a soldier’s meal. My father-in-law would have coveted a hot mess as he crawled across Europe in the winter of 1944. On one cold night, he was hiding from a Panzer tank patrol in the bottom of an outhouse latrine, but that was a different hot…
“The only thing constant is change,” said the philosopher Heraclitus. Over the past year, I’ve learned his wisdom in spades. On a daily basis, just when I conclude that I’ve got things figured out or settled concerning people or situations, I’m quickly humbled to learn that I know nothing. This awareness has vast implications for…
Some Tips on Building Your Financial Resilience was originally featured in the Knoxville News Sentinel As I used to lace up my Converse Chuck Taylors in the high school locker room, I recall coach saying, “The best offense is a good defense.” So when we are getting knocked down or muscled around, how can we…