Singing the investment returns blues? Your investment returns aren’t performing as well as you planned? Does your Morningstar investment rating show 5 stars, but your actual investment returns only show 1 star?  You might need a better investment returns recipe! Not too long ago, I...

In this post, we examine how our investment planning returns (outcomes) can vary based on our investment experience and behavior. Investment Planning and Investing on Average When you hear the average return is 10%, what do you think you’re going to get the next five...

Are your social concerns incorporated into an impact investing plan for your retirement or other long-term goals? Maybe you have had no training in investments. Or perhaps your first introduction was the enrollment meeting for your 401(k). And maybe you saw many investments with unfamiliar...

Do you dream of retiring one day to a brighter future? Have you thought much about the journey, its uncertainties, twists and turns? I call that the pain. You probably need to invest in the markets to get a return to at least keep up...

Most people I talk to haven’t taken a class on retirement planning, much less 401(k) investments like a QDIA. A QDIA — qualified default investment alternative — is where a 401(k) puts your money if you don’t select investments. Yet most employees don’t remember reading...

One of the biggest mistakes investors can make is to invest using emotion instead of intellect. An investment policy statement can help take emotion out of the picture. In fact, it may be better named an emotional policy statement. While finance and economics are often...

Do your investments express your risk tolerance or better stated your comfort with risk? Most often risk tolerance has been approached intellectually. You may have been told: You are young and should take risk. You are retired you should be risk...

It can be hard to give up on the idea that investing should be exciting. Picking stocks can be fun, after all, and there’s nothing like getting your timing right and bragging about it later with friends. Bad investing habits Some people see investing as...

Every so often the opportunity to win not just a million but hundreds of millions of dollars in the lottery comes along. Many people have their dream book filled out with the places they would go and the toys they would buy. Speculation or investment...

The Bible is full of life lessons, and that includes investment lessons. Let’s look at one lesson in particular in the New Testament and what it can teach us about wealth management. In the Parable of the Bags of Gold (Matthew 25:14-30), a man goes...