.The Good Advisor

Robin Powell | August 13, 2020

What are people paying for when they seek out a financial planner? Where’s the real value? The answers may surprise you. Financial planners typically tout their advice on asset allocation, retirement planning, cash flow analysis, insurance, wealth protection, estate planning and so on. But is that really the benefit they bring to consumers?

Consider an entirely different business. When you take your car to get serviced, what are you paying for? Brake repair, transmission diagnosis, tire rotation, oil change? Actually, what most people want is a car that gets them safely, reliably and efficiently from A to B. They want the car serviced in good time, they want a fair estimate of what it will cost, an itemized bill, and a guarantee on parts and repairs.

Likewise, the value of a good financial planner—at least in the eyes of most clients—will often differ from the advertised services. To be sure, asset allocation and portfolio advice are important components. But these are just means to desired ends.

.Reflections On Money And The Needs It Meets: I Bought A Lamborghini

Leo Widrich

Last week I turned 30 and as a present, I bought myself this Lamborghini. I posted a picture about it on my social channels this last week and the hundreds and hundreds of reactions to it got me thinking. There were more reactions to this picture than anything I’d ever posted before. They went into all different kinds of emotional directions, 95% sharing in with my excitement and celebrations, including many comments about my shoes. And some reactions that I interpreted as more irritated, hurt, or envious.

The exposure of wealth seems to often trigger something to a lot of us, no matter our personal circumstances. It brings out vulnerable, forgotten, dreamy, and sometimes irritated and hurt fragments in us that are touched and want to come out.

.What Would You Do If You Didn’t Have To Work?

by Retirebyforty

What would you do if you didn't have to work? Have you read Ernie Zelinsky’s How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. I really like it because he challenges traditional retirement. Most people only think of retirement as the end of a journey. We feel useful when we work and retirement means the end of that usefulness. However, retirement doesn’t have to be that way. Ernie encourages us to think of retirement as an opportunity to find yourself and rekindle your zest for life.

Early in the book, Ernie asks – what would you want to do if work was abolished in this world? That’s a bit extreme so let’s modify it a bit. Work won’t be abolished so let’s take the primary motivation away. My question – what would you do if you don’t need to work for money? Would you keep working in the same job/career? Think about this. The answer will tell you whether or not you’re in the right place.

.Don't Feel Like You're 'Good' With Money? Here's where to start

Emily Pandise August 24, 2020

Let’s face it: It can take a lot to feel like you’re “good” with money. We don’t learn about personal finance in school, going through credit card bills can be a big scary mess and some so-called experts will shame you for simply buying a cup of coffee. But your finances are not something you can ignore forever. If you feel like you’re not good with money, here are some important principles to keep in mind.

Dealing with your finances isn’t about doing math; it’s about knowledge.

For a lot of people, there’s a big misconception that being good with money means being good at math or knowing the ins and outs of the stock market. That’s simply not true. Yes, you may need to whip out a calculator for some basic number crunching, but you didn't need to earn an A in high school algebra to get a handle on your finances.

.The Money Middle Way: My Evolving Relationship from “Money Pay” to “Metapay”

By Kyle Kowalski

Naval Ravikant, who apparently has a net worth in the tens of millions, says:

“When you’re finally wealthy, you’ll realize it wasn’t what you were seeking in the first place.”

Jim Carrey, who apparently has a net worth in the hundreds of millions, says:

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Over the last decade—and especially the last few years—I’ve noticed an emerging evolution in my relationship with money toward what I describe as the “money middle way.” I’ve received some questions about my relationship with money, so I figured I’d finally cover this part of my journey. Each phase below includes an overview of some milestones and highlights to bring it to life.

.How to Curb Emotional Spending

by Jessica | Aug 17, 2020

Making the decision to work part-time was a hard pill to swallow. I decided to give up 50% of my income to work 3 days/week at a less stressful job. I was sure that it would greatly improve our lives. Given my mental health challenges, living a happier and healthier life was the highest priority. Speeding up our timeline to reach financial independence was lower on the list. I had no idea how much this decision would improve our lives.

I went from working 50+ hours/week at a toxic job to 24 hours/week in a great work environment. I cut my commute in half and no longer needed to face traffic, as I started taking public transportation to work. I now have 30+ hours of my life back every week!

I have been able to: Focus on my mental and physical well-being (including sleeping 8+ hours per night); Learn to manage my anxiety; Work on passion projects; Focus on my relationships with friends and family; Not feel like I needed to rush through everything just to get onto the next thing; Over the course of a year, I completely recovered from burnout.

.Take It Slow

Adam M. Grossman

ONE DAY BACK in 2012 I received a life-changing windfall. Contrary to what you might imagine, however, that day was not very different from the day before it, or the day after. It went something like this: Woke up. Went to work. Came home. Thought about ways to splurge. Ultimately gave up and went to bed.

In other words, there was no visit to the Ferrari dealership, no trip to Las Vegas, really no dramatic change at all. It was, on the surface, a very ordinary day. And the next day was pretty much the same as well.

Don’t get me wrong: Over time, I have made a few changes. My family moved to a new house, we take nicer vacations and we give more to charity. But on that first day, and even in that first year, we did very little differently.

.Risk Is Never as Simple as It Seems

Posted August 18, 2020 by Ben Carlson

“The financial models many banks used gave them a false sense of security leading up to the Great Financial Crisis. Garbage-in, garbage out is the same for financial models as it is for your sink.”

A number of years ago I was packing up my bags on a Sunday morning to fly out to an investment conference when my wife told me we had a plumbing situation. Water was coming up out of the drain in the shower. And the kitchen sink was backed up. That’s not good.

She was scheduling a plumber to come to the house as I walked out the door to hop on my flight. As my flight touched down I called to see what the verdict was. The news was weirder than I expected. So what’s the damage? I asked.

Well it’s not great she told me. When the plumber put his snake video device into the pipe that runs from the kitchen sink to our master bathroom he discovered it was full of eggshells.

.Price Is What You Pay, Value Is What You Get

August 15, 2020 · by The Escape Artist

Imagine that Bill and Ted have gone trekking in a remote corner of the Death Valley National Park in the USA.

They’ve been backwoods camping and were carrying all their own food, tents and equipment.

Unfortunately some coyotes stole all their stuff a couple of days ago and its taken 2 days to walk back to the edge of the national park towards the car park. Their water ran out a day ago and they’re still a full days hike in the hot desert sun from where their car is parked. Without water they won’t been able to keep going much longer.

As luck would have it, they then turn a corner and see a lemonade stand that has been set up by some enterprising kid. What a relief!

Then they see the price: the mini-entrepreneur is charging $10 per cup of lemonade when they know perfectly well that, at home in the suburbs, the normal going rate for a cup of lemonade is $0.50 a cup.