Blog

It has been said that Those who believe they can do something and those who believe they can’t are both right. What engineering, technological, or medical breakthrough could have been accomplished without someone believing it...

As many of you know, Thomas Sowell is my favorite economist and one of my favorite people in the world. He is also, in my view, one of the greatest thinkers of the past century. His life is the American dream. Born in rural poverty in...

I began my career as a stockbroker, on Wall Street in New York City, in 1995. At that time, I knew nothing about life insurance apart from what I suspect most people think they know. Namely, if you were insured and died, your family...

The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s second largest bank, has shaken people’s confidence in the banking system. Again.According to the news, bitcoin has been surging as panicked...

Honesty, it has been said, is always the best policy. By my lights, truer words have never been spoken. Honesty sometimes involves a small amount of pain/ anxiety in the short term and an almost complete absence of it in the future.

Fear is an interesting thing. On the one hand, most people do not like the feeling. On the other, we owe our lives to fear in no small measure.Without fear we would be running into traffic and jumping into the lion cage at the zoo. The...

People seem to believe that whatever has been going on for a while will continue that way forever. Bull markets will never end, and bear markets will go on indefinitely.We know that is not true but that is not the way it feels. The sun...

There is no present and there is no future. There is just the past repeating itself again and again, now. That is what I thought was a quote from Eugene O’Neil’s play A Moon for the Misbegotten.Just to be sure, I looked up...

United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan once said, “We are entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts.” Someone whom I cannot recall said, “It’s easy to lie with statistics. It’s...

We have been warned since we were children about the dangers of making assumptions. The old saw goes

I would like you to join me in a thought experiment.Part One:Do you believe you can change your mind?Most people, including me, feel sure they can change their minds, if new information comes in that renders our old beliefs untenable....

“The essence of investment management is the management of risks, not the management of returns...

We often tell ourselves that we will do worthy things at some vague point in the future: lose weight, exercise more, save more of our income, plan for the future, take that trip we have always dreamed of, etc.Part of the reason we put...

“NFT projects are getting ‘obliterated’ amid crypto crash, The Drop CEO...

One of the things I have always looked forward to most during the Thanksgiving Day celebration is pie. Apple is my favorite, but I do not turn my nose up at blueberry, pumpkin, coconut custard or pecan. I am oddly indifferent to sweet...

THE BABY Almost 20 years ago, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in a movie titled Million Dollar Baby, which won the Oscar for best picture. It was so good, I will never watch it again. (A bit on that later.) His two co-stars were...

We all need a good suit. Man or woman, elder or child, no one should have to live without a good suit. It should be custom made, of course, and cut from a bolt of the finest fabric. People of taste know there will be at least three...

Every waking moment of every day we pursue gratification. All of us. This is not controversial or insightful. Do you doubt it? Many of us wake up and begin our day by heading straight to the bathroom, where we gratefully relieve...

Last month, I mentioned what I perceive as the recent increased use of big words by people in general and journalists in specific. I am seeing these ten-dollar words in articles on subjects ranging from food to finance. The words,...

Success in any endeavor is more the product of effective systems than sublime talent. To borrow a time worn phrase, effort and perspiration beat talent and inspiration. We all know a lot of things we can do that will make our work and...

“Stocks dip, extending last week’s declines as inflation jitters linger.” Yahoo Finance Headline The headline above appeared on the Yahoo Finance homepage on Monday, May 17th. Inflation has been consistently in the...

We all have a tiny voice in our minds that whispers to us. At times, we are only vaguely aware of it. Sometimes, we do not hear it all. Rarely do we analyze its message in any detail. Rather, we simply get the gist, or not, and move...

Financial planning places an emphasis on the future. Well thought out financial plans seek to have us systematically save and investment money now, with the goal of building wealth. The wealth that is created can serve a variety of...

I recently watched the entire Harry Potter film catalogue with my four children. We did a movie a day for eight days and I enjoyed them quite a lot. My eldest, Jack, who is going on 11, was particularly fascinated and had lots of...

As I get older, I find I am increasingly aware of how quickly time goes by. I wish it would slow down. Having said that, I cannot wait for this year to be over. We all have bad days from time to time. Our favorite sports teams or...

In every movie I have ever watched or book I have ever read, I have been the hero. I hid Anne Frank in my attic and valiantly battled the Germans during WWII. I fought for the Union Army. In fact, I enlisted. I have been every...

A good friend of mine once said “The world has been coming to an end since the day after the world began.” I would add that, folks often talk about the fall of Rome, but Rome still stands. 200 years ago, London was the...

What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet. William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet The way our political system works is simple. People vote for the politicians they prefer. If that...

We all know and love that friend who is the life of the party. They are glib, relaxed, and fun. Everyone thinks so. They light up every room they enter and they always seem to have people eating out of the palm of their hand. These...

I recently finished a book on engineering titled, Structures, or why things don’t fall down, by J. E. Gordon. It is one of the best books, on any topic, I have ever read. For several years now, I have enjoyed playing a thought...

Everyone who has ever played baseball, softball, golf, tennis or any contact sport, knows the sweet spot. In baseball the sweet spot is the middle of the bat’s barrel. In tennis, it is the middle of the strings. In boxing, it is...

The stock market has been nothing if not durable over the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant lock-down. From the all-time high reached in mid-February to the recent bottom in mid-March, the S&P 500 stands at 3,000 as of this writing....

I served the City of Bayonne, New Jersey as a Firefighter and more recently as a Fire Captain for over 20 years. I was on shift, just across the Hudson River from New York City, when the planes struck the Twin Towers on 9-11-2001....

For those who follow my blog, you have probably noticed a number of recurring themes. Spend less, save more is certainly one of them. That effective investing requires both offensive and defensive strategies, simultaneously, is...

Thomas Sowell is an American economist who was born in North Carolina. He grew up in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City. After enlisting in the Marine Corp and serving our country during the Korean War, Sowell enrolled at Harvard...

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I am often at odds with virtually everything “they” say. Ah the ubiquitous “they.” I am sure you have heard of “they.” “They”...

To all our wonderful family and friends, we at Unified Planning Group wish you a happy and healthy holiday season. 2019 is coming to a close. At this time of the year, we often reflect on the year that has passed. Some of you have had...

I watched an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast recently on YouTube. One of the guests, a public intellectual with a popular podcast of his own, spoke of the desire to arrange society to maximize what he referred to as,...

Before proceeding, I want to make a statement about what is to come. None of what I am writing here pertains to everyone all the time, though it has all pertained to me at various times in my life. And, indeed, some of it might not...

Abraham Lincoln once posed the following question, along with providing an answer to it:“How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail as a leg? Four. Counting a tail as a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” Recently,...

Late last year the stock market dropped approximately 20 percent. Through the first 7 months of 2019, it has recovered all of that lost ground. In fact, the S&P 500 made a new all-time high this past April, to retreat quickly, only to...

Invert, always invert. Karl Jacobi Mostly, our decision-making process follows a predictable arc. We decide that we would like to achieve some good end, like financial security, effective estate planning, a plan to retain key employees...

“There are two types of people in the world, those who want to know and those who want to believe.” Friedrich Nietzsche I love whole life (WL) insurance as an asset. I think of it as a sort of Swiss Army knife of financial...

I have written about, devoted whole seminars to and discussed privately with clients, friends and family the importance of saving more money. Meanwhile, we have been sold the idea that our return rate is more important than our...

James Bond or 007, the British spy created by author Ian Fleming, was one of favorite characters and is perhaps my all-time favorite movie franchise. One of my earliest childhood memories is seeing The Spy Who Loved me at the Lyceum...

I love sweets: cookies, cakes, pies, etc. I often struggle with my desire to eat them. I have read that excess sugar can cause unwanted consequences like inflammation, weight gain and even cancer. Worse, the confections that I...

For the past 20 years I have played tennis recreationally and competitively. I love the sport. Once upon a time though, I was a boxer. To be more specific I was a novice level, amateur boxer with only a handful of official fights. If I...

I read recently that "Some of the best days of your life haven’t happened yet" and said to myself; gosh that is an encouraging and optimistic thought. And, I believe that it is true! In fact, I believe, with the proper steps...

Random thoughts on the interesting times we live in. - Why do so many folks who are not close to retirement get so hot and bothered when the market drops and their investments lose value? Even if the market dropped 50%, you still have...

Here, for your consideration, are three concepts worth considering that might just leave you wealthier and healthier. 1.) Save More – In our society, wastefulness has somehow become the rule instead of the exception. This, I...

I recently watched the remake of the movie True Grit, starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld and Matt Damon. Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn, a trigger happy, U.S. Marshal (played in the original by John Wayne.) Hailee Steinfeld plays...

A few decades back, someone driving a fancy car, wearing a fancy watch and decked out in expensive clothes might have been thought of as someone who was financially successful. And they might have been. However, today, it seems to me...

I wonder how many investors are financial tourists. What do I mean by a financial tourist? Well, that would be someone who has an interest in investing and, consequently, kind of sort of, window shops a bunch of different investments...

When it comes to investing, I believe in diversification. Sure, when the bulls are running and the stock market is strong, many people seem to believe the answer to all investing questions is buying equities. If only life were that...

Together, let’s think of all the things we have in the world which make our lives better. To simplify this task, let’s organize these things by tiers, from most important to least important. In the first tier I would put...

There are all kinds of terms and abbreviations associated with investing.We have: ROI – Return on investment P/E – Price earnings ratio IRR – Internal rate of return Alpha – The return on an investment above...

A placebo, as most of you know, is an inert substance that is administered to medical test participants in place of a drug, during the process of evaluating that drug. Traditionally, a placebo is simply a sugar pill. In pharmaceutical...

It’s not our fault that life can be challenging at times. It is our responsibility to rise to life’s challenges. It’s not our fault that we might become sick or injured. It is our responsibility to plan for temporary...

Abundant good news exists for people desiring to build wealth. This good news is predicated on a number of things, chief among them, self-control. If we are willing to act logically and not simply on impulse, if we are willing to take...

Imagine I told you that for the majority of Americans an investment plan where they lost three percent every year on their money would benefit them tremendously! Now, you might be wondering about the sanity of a person who thinks that...

I suspect that most people, perhaps save for children, understand the inherent frailty of life. Maybe, it is because we understand just how fragile life is that we, on some level, work so hard pretending it’s not. Many of us eat...

If you have an investment portfolio and a significant portion of it is in equities, you probably rejoice when the stock market is running strong and you see the value of your stocks rising. When things are going our way, it is natural...

Dolores O’Riordon, the lead singer for the Cranberries, is dead. She died at 46 years of age. For many of us, who came of age in the 90s, Ms. O’Riordon and the Cranberries provided significant entries on the soundtrack of...

My friends, we, as a society, are on the wrong path when it comes to personal finance. Before the rise of easy credit, we did something interesting. If we wanted to buy something, we saved our money until we could afford it....

I have written about, devoted whole seminars to and discussed privately with clients, friends and family the importance of saving more money. I believe we have been sold the idea that the rate of return on our investments is more...

I do not believe that any professional can tell you, with any degree of certainty, what the future holds. There, I said it. Does this mean that when it comes to wealth accumulation and plotting a course for our economic future that we...

I have four children that, beginning about 10 years from now, will most likely be heading off to college. Owing to this, I've been reading up on college in general. The articles I have looked at discuss things like school rankings,...

“America is like the people's republic of spring break, everyone is in pursuit of happiness and not fulfilment.” Bobcat Goldthwait Bobcat Goldthwait? You are quoting Bobcat Goldthwait in a piece about wealth building? To...

A few moments before you take your last breath, what will run through your mind? Hopefully, it won’t be one of the saddest thoughts imaginable, “I thought there’d be more time.” Before you start thinking in the...

Stored Freedom Why save? We all know we should be saving a significant portion of our income, but in recent months there have been media reports claiming that the average American cannot write a check for $500. Clearly, what we know we...

The Tricks our Minds Play The ability to help folks implement plans for their family's prosperity is attributable, in part, to spending a lot of time understanding why I do the things I do. That also encompasses giving careful...

5+5= 10 Certain things in life are obvious to virtually everyone. The difference between day and night, land and sea, mountain and crater, etc., is immediately clear. As people sometimes say, you don’t need to be a genius to tell...

One Weird Trick We have all likely read the title of this post, hundreds of times online in click bait advertisements. You know those ads making outrageous promises related to dozens of desirable outcomes. They run the gamut from acne...

Hail Mary Investing Jeff Goldblum, playing the role of Michael, a magazine journalist, in the 1983 movie the Big Chill said, “I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations.”...

The American economist and political philosopher Thomas Sowell said, “When you want to help people you tell them the truth, when you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.” He was talking about...

Here is something to think about. At times, when it comes to people's finances, the concept of future planning comes up. Future planning, stated another way, is planning for the future - future needs, future events, future desires....

Max Planck was a physicist who lived about a hundred years ago. He is considered by many to be one of the most intelligent human beings who has ever lived. He invented what we know today as quantum mechanics. To the best of my...

A friend of mine once told me the following story: It seems two people met in a chess club, to, unsurprisingly, play a game of chess. One of the players was a renowned chess master. The other was not well known and had come in off the...

“To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season turn, turn, turn and a time to every purpose under heaven” You may already recognize the above quote, which is from one of my favorite folk songs, the Birds Turn! Turn!...

Have you ever put your keys, or some other small item, into your pocketbook, gym bag, attaché case or carryall only to have them seemingly disappear? You know what I mean. You drop your keys into the bag and, literally seconds...

The economist Thomas Sowell says that when considering the value or lack thereof in any policy, plan or premise, you should ask three questions. Compared to what? At what cost? What hard evidence do we have (supporting the premise)? It...

The intelligent want self-control. Children want candy. Rumi. Why do we act surprised when the stock market crashes or a bear market occurs? The stock market does not move in a linear progression upwards. Historically, however, over...

"Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty." Socrates Recently, I gave a seminar. The topic I covered was Save More, Spend Less. The reason I chose this topic is simple. It seems to me that investors, as well as folks...

Back to the Future "The bad news is time flies. The good news is that you are the pilot." Think about all the people that you love. Think about the way they make you feel and the memories that first appear when their faces form in your...

Bigger is Better vs. Less is More "You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy." Eric Hoffer Frequently, both individually and as a society, we are obsessed with having more. More is often viewed as superior to...

“While the vessel is safe, whether it be a large or a small one, then is the time for sailor and helmsman and everyone in his turn to show his zeal and to take care that it is not capsized by anyone's malice or inadvertence; but...

Investing and Confirmation Bias Consider, if you will, some of these phrases: “Buy low, sell high.” “The trend is your friend.” “Buy straw hats in winter.” “The bulls make money. The bears make...

This year, the day after Thanksgiving, which most folks know as Black Friday, fell on November 23rd. For many people it has become a day of unrelenting shopping. For me, however, it will be known forever more as a day of reflection and...

Visualize, if you would, the following scenario. You are in your early twenties, looking great and feeling great. You have on your best clothes and you are out at a local hotspot with your best friends. You have no idea what it is like...

I recently read an article in The Opinion Pages of the New York Times titled, Ignoring the Debt Problem. The piece ended with this sentence, “Take some advice from two observers who have been around for a while: The long term...

Some time ago, I read a wonderful book chock full of wisdom, called Poor Charlie’s Almanac – The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Munger. The title is a play on Benjamin Franklin’s book, Poor Richard’s Almanac, which...

Let’s make this easy. All human endeavors carry some degree of risk. Investing is a human endeavor. Investing carries some degree of risk. Now, certain forms of investing are riskier than others, but I want to be clear, every...

Let’s examine the following fictitious example: There are two people. They both hate the rain. The first person spends a lot of time and energy, daily, trying to predict the weather by reading tea leaves, consulting psychics,...

What is financial literacy? To get to its meaning, we can break down that phrase into the two words composing it. Doing that, we get financial and literacy. So first we look at the word financial and we understand we are talking about...

Things to remember: 1) The worth of character; 2) The improvement of talent; 3) The influence of example; 4) The joy of origination; 5) The dignity of simplicity; 6) The success of perseverance. - Marshall Field The other day I was...

The other day I am speaking with a friend of mine. He’s a regular guy, a plain spoken guy like me. He is unpretentious. He likes to enjoy his life, yet at the same time he does not like to waste money. Like me, my friend needs...

We are taught that an investment portfolio should have balance. Balance comes, in large measure, through diversification. In simple terms, we should not put all our eggs in one basket or all our baskets on one truck. Simple! Well,...

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. What does this mean to individual investors, particularly in the United States? Let's start from the beginning. I have no crystal ball. Whatever I say should not be taken as...

The other day I heard an expression, "Down on it, without being up on it." Immediately, the words resonated with me. How many of us have formed opinions about something with scanty little if any information and come to the conclusion...

With the passage of time, I realize more and more how little I know. Gone are my younger days, when I was convinced that I knew it all. The years roll on and prove to me, over and over again, that I still have much to learn. I’ve...

We have all heard terms like risk/reward ratio or cost/benefit analysis. These are the concept of weighing what we are risking against what we hope to gain by assuming that risk. When dealing with risk and cost, we want those elements...

A famous expression has it that, “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” I believe this to be true. However, I also believe that it is even better to have loved and not to have lost. Yet, this...

Are you interested in what something is called or what something does? This is an important question when it comes to investing. Imagine the following scenario: A person goes to a financial services professional for advice. During...

The Cost of Cool Recently, I watched Napoleon Dynamite on cable television. It’s a 2004 comedic movie about an awkward high school kid, named Napoleon, and his attempt to get a date for the prom. It certainly wasn’t the...

When it comes to investing, it seems like every time you consider a potential vehicle to help build your wealth there is some type of disclaimer. These disclaimers should most certainly be there. Investors should enter into any...

Please consider keeping an investment idea journal. What exactly is an investment idea journal, you might ask? It is a pretty simple concept really. Keep a book, like a diary or a document on your computer or smartphone where you can...

Let’s look at a story of a young, imaginary entrepreneur. This fellow, let’s call him Joe, lives in a town by the ocean. Being an enterprising young man, he decides to start a business. He gets a permit from his town to...

Try as we might, we cannot contemplate every specific way in which economic factors might affect our investments. However, we can develop an understanding of the interconnectedness between general economic factors – on a national...

As we get older we are supposed to get wiser. Let’s focus on the operative words here, “supposed to.” Unfortunately, just because something is supposed to happen does not mean it will happen. We only grow wiser with...

Any human activity is tied to risk. Walk outside your home in the morning and who knows, you might slip on a crack in the sidewalk. Or, you might cross the street and get hit by a car. Those things do not sound appealing. At the same...

January seemed tough. The beginning of the month saw the stock market follow a steady trajectory downward. On a social front, big name stars were dying one after another. Between January 10 and January 18, rock star David Bowie, actor...

We do not spend a lot of time in society focusing on philosophy. Sometimes, I think, people believe philosophical discussions are not productive. However, I believe that if you want to lead a successful life, a congruent life, a life...