Financial planning blog

Timely and free financial planning advice

Compass over China map – global financial strategy

May 10, 2022

China Faces Challenges

Read this post for a brief overview of some of the challenges faced by America’s biggest economic rival, and the world’s second largest economy. China wants to be the biggest and best China has ambitious goals and the country’s recent success has increased the chances that it will achieve them. One of the goals...

Business district in China – financial growth and investment

May 4, 2022

China, a story about when I grew up…

China, a story about when I grew up… Read this Periscope for insights into the world’s second largest economy and how it is influencing the culture and behavior of the world at large. When I grew up in Singapore… So begins our conversation with Louis Lau, one of our investment managers who specializes in...

City skyline in China representing economic growth

April 26, 2022

Is China on the rise?

China is going its own way As I discussed at the beginning of this year, China is going its own way. With the world’s second largest economy and the fastest growth rate of any large country, they are flexing economic strength. Read more: Our 2022 Outlook is Cautiously Optimistic Watch the video from January:...

Financial documents and calculator on desk – financial planning

April 20, 2022

Inflation and Our Portfolios in Q1 2022

Read this post for insights into what we are doing to protect our usual client portfolios from inflation and the investment opportunities we see today. Last week we gave a link to clients with a lot of detailed information. Today’s newsletter is shorter than that, but still pretty detailed! Make sure to contact your...

Mature couple enjoying retirement lifestyle

April 12, 2022

Q1 2022 Investment Commentary – Threats and opportunities investing in global markets

Read this post for our investment research partners’ perspective on the first three months of 2022. Clearly, the changes in the world are outside our scope. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine beginning February 24, 2022 changes a lot of things. Our focus in this Periscope is to discuss the investment threats and opportunities we faced, and...

Smart ways to use your bonus and salary increase

April 5, 2022

8 Ways to Make Best Use of Bonus, Annual Increase in Salary (With 3 Worst Ways)

Read this post for 8 good ideas and 3 bad ideas for what to do with a bonus, or other influx of money. Recently, I published an article for the CFP Board of Standards. I thought I would add some color to the article for our clients. The question was, what should you do with...

March 29, 2022

In Just Three Minutes, A Big Investment Lesson!

In our recent lunch and learn Zoominar, Bob Schmidt gave us some tips for how to become better investors. Here, I skip ahead to one of his best, most practical ideas. Click Here to Use the Wheel of Investor Emotion Watch Video on A Phenomenal Portfolio He will walk through an...

March 22, 2022

Managing Your Emotions While You Are Investing

Check out this post for an informative video with tips for managing our emotions while investing during these uncertain times. I encourage you to watch this video and share it with your friends. I spoke with an investor recently who said it was just a whole lot easier to deal with the turbulence of...

Retired couple hiking in the mountains, enjoying financial freedom and adventure

March 15, 2022

Why pay more for Medicare?

Retirees face unpleasant taxes on Medicare Karl Frank recently published an article in Retirement Investor about an unpleasant surtax for some retirees. Read this post to learn more about the Medicare surtax that might surprise you. One of the least pleasant surprises in retirement is to find out that you suddenly have to pay more...