Sound Investment Insights

You’ve built a substantial portfolio. You understand investing, and you may even enjoy managing your own money. So why pay someone else to help? Honestly, you might not need to. But as your portfolio grows and retirement gets closer, picking investments may become the...

If you’re 70½ or older and regularly give to charity, it’s worth looking at which account you give from. A qualified charitable distribution, or QCD, lets you send money directly from your IRA to an eligible charity. Because the distribution is generally excluded from...

Donor-Advised Funds: A Smarter Way to Give? If charitable giving is already part of your life, it should also be part of your financial plan. A donor-advised fund is a charitable account that allows you to contribute cash or investments today, potentially receive a...

How 10 Years of Saving Can Beat 30 Years Ten years of saving early can be as powerful as thirty years of saving later. Consider someone who invests $500 per month from age 25 to 35 and then stops contributing completely. They would contribute $60,000. Assuming a 7%...

Before You Write That Check to Charity The same charitable gift can produce very different tax outcomes depending on what you give and when you give it. Cash has become the default for most charitable giving, but it isn't always the best asset to donate. Appreciated...

A financial planner recently shared that their family has a rule: no travel sports. The concern was understandable—they had watched families spend thousands on hotels, gas and tournaments while saving nothing for college. But I don’t believe “no travel sports” is a...

What Happens When You Get Rich Too Fast Receiving a large amount of money should make life easier—and usually it does. But whether it comes from an inheritance, selling a business, a settlement, or a professional contract, sudden wealth can create problems almost...

Most people think retiring at 55 comes down to a single number. After almost 25 years of doing this, I can tell you it doesn't. I've worked with people who could retire comfortably at 55 — and others, with even more money, who realized they weren't ready. The...

When people ask me about the biggest retirement mistake, they expect me to point to something financial — not saving enough, claiming Social Security too early, investing too aggressively. But after 25 years of helping people retire, I've noticed something surprising:...

We live in an era of unlimited financial information. CNBC, YouTube, X, podcasts, newsletters, AI—you can consume investment news around the clock. Yet despite having more information than ever, investors don't seem any less emotional. In fact, the constant flow of...

A few weeks ago I hiked the Enchantments here in Washington State — one of the most beautiful trails in the country, and one of the most punishing. Going up Aasgard Pass, you climb nearly 5,000 feet to almost 8,000 feet above sea level. More than once, I caught myself...

Why Investing Never Feels ComfortableMost people assume that good investment decisions should feel confident and clear. The reality is almost the opposite. After nearly 25 years working with investors, one of the most consistent things I've observed is that the right...

Have you ever made an investment and immediately wondered if it was the wrong decision? That feeling is called buyer’s remorse, and it’s something every investor experiences from time to time. In this video, I share three practical ways to overcome it: trust your investment process, focus on the long term instead of short-term results, and avoid comparing your journey to someone else’s. Because in investing, discipline is usually more profitable than regret.

For years, investors have been told that maxing out their 401(k) is one of the smartest financial decisions they can make. And in many cases, that's true.But there's a hidden tradeoff that often gets overlooked: tax diversification. In this video, I explain why...

It happens to almost every investor at some point. You open your phone and see someone talking about a stock that doubled. A friend mentions a winning investment. The market seems to be rewarding everyone except you. That feeling has a name: Fear of Missing Out, or...

Most people assume that intelligence leads to better investment decisions. History suggests otherwise. Isaac Newton revolutionized mathematics and physics, yet he still lost a fortune during the South Sea Bubble of 1720. Afterward, he reportedly said: "I can calculate...

Predicting the market is a losing game. After 25 years in the investment industry, the lesson is clear: investors who survive difficult markets aren’t the ones with the best predictions, they’re the ones with the best process. Because while you can’t control markets, you can control how you respond.

Wondering what really happens when you contact a financial advisor? This video demystifies the 15-minute intro call — what questions get asked, what to expect, and what comes next. No pressure, no deep dive. Just a straightforward conversation to see if moving forward makes sense for your situation.