Wisdom on Wealth

The following column was published in The News Star on Saturday, November 1, 2014.

Question: I have decided to buy a pretty large life insurance policy on myself so that if something happens to me my wife can keep raising the kids. She would have to forgo much of her career to raise our kids alone, so it wouldn’t be fair for her to have to go back to work later in life just because I died early. So I’m good with all that, but I am not interested in some dude coming along after me and sweet-talking my wife out of the money I leave for my her and my kids. How to I keep that from happening?

Answer: The way I usually hear this expressed is, “I trust my wife completely. It’s the guy after me I’m worried about.”

The following column was published in The News Star on Saturday, October 25, 2014.

Question: My uncle has a lot of money but he is not a happy man. He’s always grumpy, he’s never at home and his kids don’t like him. All his big business buddies think he hung the moon, but they don’t really know him. Do people just get to the point that when they have a bunch of money, it just ruins them?

Answer: One of the most quoted verses in the bible is “money is the root of all evil.”

The following segment first aired on KEDM 90.3 on August 20, 2014

     

The following column was published in The News Star on Saturday, October 18, 2014.

Question: We are nearing retirement and it seems we’ll have more than enough. We want to begin passing some of our wealth to our adult children while we are young enough to see them use and enjoy it. But we do have some concerns about one of the marriages. And we don’t want to give them so much now that we end up being a burden to them later. How do we find the right balance?

Answer: As I stated last week, the secret to finding balance is having a plan.

The following segment first aired on KEDM 90.3 on August 13, 2014

     

By Byron Moore, posted October 16th, 2014

Question: How many mutual funds do I need to own to be properly diversified?

Answer: A lot more than you think.

By Mike Jones, posted October 16th, 2014

Just because you hear something often enough and loud enough doesn't make it true.

Sound bites about the investment environment proffered by the media - even the financial media - may not be a solid foundation for investment decision making.

The following column was published in The News Star on Saturday, October 11, 2014.

Question: We are nearing retirement and it seems we’ll have more than enough. We want to begin passing some of our wealth to our adult children while we are young enough to see them use and enjoy it. But we do have some concerns about one of the marriages. And we don’t want to give them so much now that we end up being a burden to them later. How do we find the right balance?

Answer: The secret to finding balance is having a plan.

The following segment first aired on KEDM 90.3 on July 30, 2014

     

The following column was published in The News Star on Saturday, October 4, 2014.

Question: I was making an investment with my guy and he got me to fill out something called a risk tolerance questionnaire. It asked me questions like how much was I willing to have my account go down. At first I put zero, but he said I couldn’t say that, so I put something else, I don’t remember. Why do you guys use those questionnaires? They seem silly to me.

Answer: The “right” answer is to say that we use risk tolerance questionnaires to protect you (the investor) from putting your money in anything that has more risk than you may be willing to tolerate.