In my last blog post, we explored how to discriminate between helpful and misleading financial charts and graphs. Scrutinizing the source of the material and whether it has undergone robust peer review is one of the best ways to determine the likely quality of an illustration without further ado. Beyond that, it helps to understand some of the tricks that can be – and sometimes are – played in presenting...

If human enterprise is the soul of our capital markets, then its body is made up of numbers. It’s no surprise, then, that there is a never-ending supply of charts, graphs and tables seeking to translate all that mind-numbing market-driven data into a meaningful story at an approachable glance. I was reminded of this by a recent Monevator blog posting: “Too Big to Scale: Long-term Stock Market Returns.” Monevator is a...

BY GUEST AUTHOR: CHRISTOPHER J. ANNELLO, ASSOCIATE ADVISOR This article was inspired by Sheri’s niece, Jessica Iannetta, a newspaper and online journalism and political science major at Syracuse University, class of 2015. When I was in college, my dad gave me a “cool” gift – or so I thought at the time. Looking back on the gift now, it was the BEST gift. Before I tell you exactly what it was, I...

When surfing the web on your laptop, your browser has a “refresh” button, in case you want to ensure you’re seeing the most up-to-date version of whatever you’re viewing. When we were redesigning our website last year, I used that function a lot! I wish I could provide America with a refresh button, to revisit how we collectively view retirement. Too many investors are still conducting their financial planning in...

In the past few weeks, I’ve dedicated our SAGE blog to four streams of consciousness that combine to serve as the undercurrent, or the “life” portion, of financial LIFE planning: Gratitude Meditation Spending time with your tribe Giving I’ve intentionally saved Giving as the best for last. If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap. If you want happiness for a day — go fishing. If you want happiness for a year — inherit a...

Have you caught this two-minute YouTube video that’s been making its way around the social media channels lately, “Cat-Friend vs. Dog-Friend”? Be forewarned, it’s edgy. Huffington Post describes it as “tastefully offensive,” a combination I’m still pondering. Either way, last I checked, it’s nearing a billion hits, and counting. Besides offering a laugh, it provides a lead-in to this week’s discussion on the importance of spending time with friends and family....

If you ask me, I don’t think it’s coincidence that “meditation” and “medication” are but one consonant apart. As introduced in my last post, academic research indicates that a few minutes of daily meditation yields countless physical and emotional benefits … without any of the usual fine-print, like: “Do not drive or operate heavy machinery after taking meditation.” Once the purview of those who sprinkled their conversations with “groovy” and smelled...

A Question of Equilibrium “Sellers were out in force on the market today after negative news on the economy.” It’s a common line in TV finance reports. But have you ever wondered who is buying if so many people are selling? “The returns we expect from investing do not necessarily show up every day, every week, every month, or even every year. But the longer we stay invested, the more likely we...

At SAGE Advisory Group (now SAGEbroadview Financial Planning effective 1/1/2014), among our key messages on our website home page and in our practice is: Financial planning is about resolving life’s complexities – not expanding on them. It’s one reason we call it Financial LIFE Planning. Those who know me, know that I experienced my own challenging life lesson when my family and I were in a serious car accident in 2008....

Your favorite sweatshirt. An unfinished paperback. That doggy bag left on the table. Small losses when they go missing, but don’t you just hate that sinking feeling when you realize they’re gone? As our financial holdings accumulate and our memories diminish, we can lose track of our money that way, too: A pension plan from several jobs ago, the IRA from a former spouse, age-old bank accounts never closed. It gets...