By: Laura Walton AFC® In recent blogs I’ve shared some excerpts from Jack Bogle’s webinar celebrating his 65 years in the investment business. By now, you all know who he is – founder of Vanguard and credited with launching the first index mutual fund open to the everyday investor. He’s an inspiration both professionally and…
By: Laura Walton AFC® A term used to describe couples who, because they love each other, assume that they have the same money goals – they engage in magical thinking. Assume is the operative word. Rather than talk about money, we slide into a system that works well enough until we hit a financial bump.…
By: Laura Walton AFC® “It really is a way of life … it’s a way of concentrating your mind to only focus on the aspects that you need to be working on at that moment, to rid yourself of distractions.” This is the way Melissa Gray, a senior at the Culinary Institute of America, described…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Jack Bogle, founder of Vanguard and credited with launching the first index mutual fund making investing more affordable for you and me, celebrated 65 years in the investment business this summer. Like most visionaries, he has strong views and opinions. I’ll share some of his thinking, captured in a Vanguard webinar,…
By: Laura Walton AFC® It’s predictable. When I give a presentation or tell people what I do, they often ask “what should I invest in?” This morning I talked with a group of 40 college freshman and, yes, they asked that question. I know that investing is the sexy part of finance but it’s putting…
By: Laura Walton AFC® For the past six years, the editors of Financial Planning magazine along with the Foundation for Financial Planning, a non-profit dedicated to the delivery of pro bono financial planning, recognize those advisors who have gone over and above in providing financial planning services to people who might otherwise not meet with…
By: Laura Walton AFC® It seems we are trending in that direction. Financial understanding is falling while our confidence in making financial decisions is rising – perhaps the worst of both worlds. We’re making poor decisions but with confidence! See how you score on this 6 question quiz. Arizonans averaged 3.25 correct answers out of…
Zachary and Jasmine make saving fun – you have to see the look on their faces! There’s a lot of literature on how to teach kids about money and a lot of regret as they become adults over lessons not learned. Most of us end up learning the hard way. Below is a heart-warming story…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Good math skills + good behavioral choices = good financial outcomes…but we struggle with both. Statistics show that two-thirds of us are poorly prepared to make good financial decisions! The National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the Nation’s Report Card, tells us that just 37% of American high school seniors were…
By: Laura Walton AFC® About 2% of our spending goes to vacations – but that’s an average of all kinds of vacations – from driving and staying with relatives to flying and staying in a hotel. I’ll share a low-cost, high-value vacation a friend took recently but, before that, let’s look at our average spending…