I admire Warren Buffett as much for his manner of speech as for his investing prowess. Below I’ve pulled some commonsense quotes from his just released 2017 Berkshire Hathaway Annual letter – enjoy! Buffett’s view on debt, which could apply to any of us: “Our aversion to leverage (debt) has dampened our returns over the years but we…
By: Laura Walton AFC® “Managing money is the most profitable business in the United States.” Jason Zweig pulled this quote for his recent Wall Street Journal article from a 1996 speech made by Arthur Zeikel, then president of Merrill Lynch Asset Management. Zweig’s article, “Financiers, Heal Thyselves,” applauds the recently announced pact by Jeffrey Bezos (Amazon), Warren Buffett…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Hyperbole – synonyms: exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, embroidery, embellishment, excess, overkill. There’s been a lot of hyperbole in the financial news the last few days – below are some examples I culled from news stories: a big whoosh lower massive selling the Dow plummeted two huge sell-offs in a row stop the…
Johanna Willett’s article “This free Tucson finance class for millennials helped me master money” appeared last week in the Tucson Life section of #ThisIsTucson, an online platform of the Arizona Daily Star: This free Tucson finance class for millennials helped me master money – Johanna Willett A free Tucson course wants to make you the master of your…
By: Laura Walton AFC® That’s what I said to the radio yesterday morning. In response to the government shutdown, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey was asked the question “how with this affect you?” and, to my dismay, he said “I can’t miss a house payment. If I miss a paycheck, I don’t have reserves to…
By: Laura Walton AFC® We talk about life balance, a balanced diet, balancing work and play, the balance of nature. Now’s an important time to talk about balance and our investments. All too often investor behavior hurts us when making buying and selling decisions. We get excited and buy when we see a stock’s value rising…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Couples who report disagreeing about finances once a week are over 30 percent more likely to get divorced than couples who report disagreeing about finances a few times a month. This from a study of 2,800 couples surveyed in 1987 by the National Survey of Families and Households. In this survey, both husbands…
By: Laura Walton AFC® I often say that wealth is built in the margins – in the small decisions that add up over time. I’ve seen a couple good examples of this recently in my practice that I’d like to share. First the “money jar”. In our regular progress meeting last month the client started…
By: Laura Walton AFC® ‘Tis the season for charitable giving and, with tax filing just around the corner, you may be able to re-direct tax dollars owed to the State of Arizona to a charity or school of your choice. Arizona offers a dollar-for-dollar credit for certain programs: The Arizona school tax credits: Credit of…
By: Laura Walton AFC® I meet with a lot of young adults through our 3rd Decade program and I’ve noticed what they pay for auto insurance is all over the map. So I was relieved to see the recent story in the Arizona Daily Star that reported just that – the headline read “You could…