Here is a short list of the most common financial mistakes that I see people make.  If you can avoid most of these, most of the time, you will be on a great path to building wealth and financial well-being. Overspending This one is obvious.  If you spend more than you earn, you will eventually start building up debt, and that will make your life stressful.  Don’t spend more than you make. Not Saving Enough

Maybe you’re thinking about investing with a robo-advisor or are even using one already.   While the idea in principle sounds good, there are some important risks to think about if you’re considering using an online robo-advisor platform.  In this post I’m going to talk about where robo-advice falls short. 1 – No Real Financial Planning During the signup process, nearly all robo-advisors require that you complete an online questionnaire.  The purpose is to provide a

If you have been working with an advisor for some time, you have probably become used to the high fees and conflicts of interest without even realizing it. In this post, I’m going to talk about bad advisor behavior to watch out for. 1 – High Fees If your current advisor is charging based on a percentage of your assets of 1% or more, you are being charged what I like to call Ridiculously Silly

Over time, financial complexity begins to enter our lives.  I always encourage clients to simplify their finances as much as possible, because simplifying your financial life will make your life better in the long run.  In this post I’m going to tell you why financial simplicity is important. How can you stay focused on your plans and make good decisions when you are confused?  By following the rule of simplicity, you can guide yourself to

Real financial planning involves much more than just managing investments. True comprehensive financial planning looks at all aspects of your finances to understand how they all fit together. This helps you to gain clarity about your family’s financial values and priorities. Real financial planning is also about dealing with a sea of unknowns.  Life expectancy, careers, health, inflation, investment returns, are all involved.  The key is to make reasonable assumptions and then review the plan

Make financial planning more accessible by de-linking financial planning from asset management.  Offer fee-only financial planning for a sensible flat fee.  These ideas may not sound radical, but they represent a clear alternative to the traditional financial advisor business model. Challenging Sacred Cows The most common way financial advisors change for their services are fees based on percent of assets under management (AUM), usually 1%.  This means that a client with assets of $5 million