By: Laura Walton AFC® Pretty much everyone has one – it’s the thing you do on the side –the thing you’re interested in outside of work. It could be your hobby, it might even be your passion. And it could be lucrative. You’ve heard the expression, “don’t quit your day job.” Well, Killer Mike and…
By: Laura Walton AFC® The headline caught my attention. A long-standing cornerstone of the American Dream has been owning a home. Dreams are powerful, but current generations are rethinking this one. The article, by Liz Weston writing for Nerd Wallet, gives two examples. Perhaps you read recently that Warren Buffett’s Laguna Beach home is for sale for…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Join us in celebrating the graduation of our first two 3rd Decade classes! March 29th marked the first formal graduation from the 3rd Decade program for some forty individuals. Successful completion included attending all four classes, two one-on-one advisory sessions and passing the final exam. Those who did so were rewarded with a check…
By: Laura Walton AFC® When something in our lives is scarce, we tend to focus on it. That focus can be both good and bad. I frequently catch Shankar Vedantam’s excerpt from his website, Hidden Brain, on NRP. A recent piece on scarcity attracted my attention. In economic terms, scarcity concentrates demand on fewer resources which,…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Tucson has a bit of a “startup” culture – maybe even more than a bit. This weekend, the TCI Foundation will participate in a forum for young professionals, Ignite 520. Tucson Young Professionals (TYP) is the drive behind this event. They describe themselves as a “group of diverse young professionals united together to…
By: Laura Walton AFC® If you earn and spend money, you pay taxes. Let’s see how they all add up and inject some humor into the subject. Some interesting stats for the 2015 tax year: The IRS received 150.6 million returns 50 million of those returns showed no federal tax liability That meant the average taxpayer…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Spring is early…trees are leafing out, desert flowers are starting what promises to be a record bloom year, allergy sufferers are suffering and bird song, if you’ve noticed, is abundant. On Sunday, we joined friends and a professional birding guide in Madera Canyon. It was an eye-opening experience and, guess what,…
By: Laura Walton AFC® “‘Devaluation’ of homeowner tax advantage feared by some” was the headline in our Sunday paper that caught my attention. Just how important is the mortgage interest deduction and who benefits most from it? According to the article, the National Home Builders Association, Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors are characterizing…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We’re 9 years into this historic bet pitting passive index funds against actively managed hedge funds. Who’s winning? Or, more accurately, by just how much is the index fund trouncing the hedge funds? My blog last March explained the bet: In 2007, Warren Buffett responded to a question about hedge funds (actively managed funds designed…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We’re always trying to think up good ways to drive home our lessons – spend less than you make, invest for the long term and with inflation in mind, watch your costs, and start today. Bob Swift came up with a great analogy… I spoke to a large group of UA students…