"Every gambler knows that the secret to survivin' Is knowin' what to throw away and knowing what to keep 'Cause every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep" So sang legendary American singer Kenny Rogers on the title track of his album, "The Gambler," over four decades ago. Written by Don Schlitz, the song compares playing cards to life and offers lessons about judgement, self-awareness and knowing when to act or

While financial planning isn't usually "sexy" or fun, as my wife likes to say, it's probably the most useful thing I do (please withhold your jokes). Why? Let's take a look at just a small part of a recent financial plan I wrote for a couple with two young children. Reviewing the couple's financial documents, I noted (among other things): The couple's new baby had been omitted from the prior year's tax return. Whether this omission was an oversight of the CPA preparing th

Many of you know I have a 10 year-old son, Micah. A few years ago, Micah started taking more of an interest in my work and began visiting me in my office during the work day, inquiring how the market was doing, and asking what I thought would happen next? For a while, it was cute, and I enjoyed sharing this part of my life with him. However, about a year ago, Micah became less interested in my views, and more interested in looking at stock charts and telling me when I shou

Stocks continue to tack on gains driven in large part by the AI build-out. Valuations are at historically high levels and caution is being thrown to the wind. Will it matter? Someday, but that day continues to not be today, and it may not be for a while. Right now, the promise of future revenue has seen companies as large as Oracle deliver 30% overnight returns. A Fed easing cycle, driven by concerns over rising unemployment, seems to be incoming despite above target infl