Should You Consider a Credit Freeze?

Some time back a government agency that holds my personal data reported a data breach and offered free credit monitoring, for which I signed up.  A few weeks ago the monitoring company notified me that my personal data had appeared on “the dark web,” a part of the internet that’s associated with illegal activities.  It’s…

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Between Greed and Fear: A Prudent Financial Path

Many of us arrive at adulthood with little to no formal education regarding investment management. How much financial management is taught in school or even college? Yet most of us eventually find ourselves owners of a 401(k) or similar self-directed retirement plan. Where do we start? Parenthetically, that is, in part, where I formed my…

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Resilience

Investing is like life itself; wishing to avoid periodically going sideways or backwards is not realistic. Rather than seeking to avoid all hardship or setback, we should instead focus on developing stronger resilience. Peggy and I have just spent the past couple weeks watching tennis from the US Open in New York, happily recounting the…

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Making Sense of our Economic Landscape

“Cast me gently into morning,For the night has been unkind.” -Sarah McLachlan, “Answer” With so many developments and crosscurrents in our current economy and investment markets, it can be difficult to make sense of where we are, not to mention where we might be going. Here, we’ll take a look at some of these forces…

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Translate This Page

Recently I saw these words at the top right corner of my computer screen: “Translate this page.” My mind was deep in critical thought at the moment, and at first the message didn’t register. Momentarily, however, my eyes wandered back. “What?” Then I started laughing, realizing that Google was offering to translate this page into…

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Russia, Ukraine, and Your Portfolio’s Path Forward

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, on top of inflation concerns in the US and elsewhere, markets have recently been subject to greater volatility as well as declines in value. “Markets,” a term used to describe all global investors, price assets based on available information and the implications they derive from it. It’s reasonable, then, for…

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Shelter in Motion

It’s possible that my wife, Peggy, and I have applied the State of California’s now one-year-old “Shelter In Place” order slightly differently than some. Oh, we’ve been compliant; even diligent. We place ourselves in the presence of others only sparingly, wear masks, and otherwise quite carefully adhere to our state and county guidelines in an…

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