To Inform: I (Travis) have terrible eyesight. I started with bifocals in 2nd grade and if it weren’t for the contact lenses I have worn since I was a junior in high school, I wouldn’t be able to see anything in front of me. Last week I made my annual trip to the eye doctor […]

To Inspire: What really makes you happy? Through a series of stories, Shauna Niequist’s book Present Over Perfect tries to help you identify what is really important and how you can live a simpler yet fuller and more honest life. So many of us are hardwired to want to do and have it all – […]

To Inform: Some of you may have attended TJG’s “Portfolio and Pints” hosted this week in our office. At the end of our presentation one guest asked an astute question about the “psychology” of the investor that is willing to look past some of the excesses in parts of today’s market and buy stocks given […]

To Inspire: As we step into this 4th of July weekend, it may be tempting to focus on the tremendous problems we face as a nation: growing violence, deep division; staggering poverty; and the continued breakdown of the family. But lest we move too far towards despair, I much prefer to shift our thinking to […]

To Inform: “Nothing is simpler than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson. The concept of simplicity is one that we strive to help all of our clients achieve. One key way to simplify your financial life involves regularly reviewing and updating your beneficiary designations. Beneficiary designations done well […]

To Inspire:   Maybe you’ve seen this poem before. It was featured in the New York Times Magazine in September of 2019, then gained viral fame in 2020 as people looked for signs of hope during the pandemic. Somehow, I missed it. But I read it a few weeks ago and have been thinking about […]

To Inform:  Every Friday morning at 11am, we hold what we call our ICAT meeting – Investment Communication & Advisor Team. Our entire advisor team gathers, and we typically spend the first 20-30 minutes talking about what is happening in markets and how portfolios are responding before doing a deep dive into financial planning topics. […]

To Inspire: How’s your heart? I don’t mean your physical heart – all of us likely are getting plenty of information and insight on our physical heart and how to better care for it. I mean your spiritual heart – your soul, the place where our deepest sense of identity, love, meaning and purpose is […]

  Recently the Employee Benefit Research Institute released the 2023 “Retirement Confidence Survey Results” and the results are eye opening. Within the last 18 months we’ve seen some historically bad market volatility, including the worst year ever for the bond market in 2022, recent highs in inflation, and three of the biggest bank failures on […]

To Inform: John Templeton a famous investor from a different generation once said, “The investor who says, ‘This time is different’, when in fact it’s virtually a repeat of an earlier situation, has uttered among the four most costly words in the annals of investing.” Few people at the start of the year would have […]