By: Laura Walton AFC® When Dr. Randy Horwitz said these words, he was talking about a ‘healthy diet’. Dr. Horwitz is the medical director of the UA Center for Integrative Medicine and recently spoke at Banner-UMC. He went on to say “People may be disappointed to hear it, but the truth is, moderation is what…
“What if…….. the dollar crashes?” “What if……..terrorists hit the US again?” “What if……..I win the lottery?” “What if……..they start taxing all the IRA’s?” “What if……..inflation goes crazy?” “What if……..my parents never die?” In the day to day world of money management and financial planning, these are very common questions. I find it interesting that these…
By: Laura Walton AFC® As my friend described his business model to me over lunch, I said, “Oh, you’re the jeweler equivalent of a fee-only planner! Your customer knows exactly how much they’re paying you and what they’re getting in return.” I think there’s every bit as much mystery to buying a diamond as there…
By: Laura Walton AFC® I recently asked friends and family to name a couple of things that they thought had been important in becoming financially secure. Their answers are below and although they echo the advice we routinely hear from experts they seem to carry more weight coming from the guy or gal on the…
By: Laura Walton AFC® The friendly waitperson comes to your table and says “what may I get you to drink?” If you’re 11 years old, you could easily assume they’re just being nice and will bring your drink of choice out of courtesy. And that’s just what the daughter of one of the financial advisors…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Delaying gratification leads to saving money, leads to having money to invest, leads to financial security…it’s that first step, delaying gratification, that trips most of us up. The old-fashioned advice is to pay yourself first through payroll deduction. But, thanks to a new and very clever personal finance app that falls…
By: Laura Walton AFC® President Obama put a big spotlight on a long-time issue/problem in the financial services industry this week. In a speech to AARP (see the link below), he outlined the necessity for financial advisors to be held to a fiduciary standard. While this may surprise you, very few of the “advisors” in…
By: Laura Walton AFC® There are a couple of routine tasks that I put off doing. I make them out to be bigger than they are. One of them is unloading the dishwasher. So I timed it – how long does it take to unload the dishwasher? About three minutes. Why put off something that…
By: Robert Swift What a special week this has been. The TCI Foundation began its first official series of investing classes on Tuesday. Thanks largely to an article in the Arizona Daily Star (read further for a link to the article), interest has been very high. While classes through April are now full, we will…
By: Laura Walton AFC® …the 5% of us who have an error on our credit report serious enough to knock our credit score down a tier or two and make it likely that we are charged higher lending and insurance rates? There are 10,000,000 of us in that 5%. “These are eye-opening numbers for American…