Posts by Barry Spencer

Product or Purpose? “Sold” says the auctioneer every few seconds. If you’ve never been to an auction, it really is quite exciting. When it comes to planning your retirement and enjoying your future though, this is not the experience you want, and it certainly isn’t the one that will give you confidence. Yet, the financial…

Do You Know What It’s For? The financial industry would lead you to believe that the purpose of your money is to get a certain return. Yet, no one can control what that return will be. The stock and bond market will go up and down by varying degrees over an uncertain period of time.…

Are You Going It Alone? What is it like the first time you do something? It’s clunky and uncomfortable, isn’t it? The first time you ride a bike. Your first job interview. First child. Life is full of “firsts.” Retirement holds the unique place of not only being a “first” for everyone, it also holds…

Chasing Returns Learning to crawl, walk, then run… When my kids first learned to run, I had a blast chasing them around the backyard. Once I caught them, I’d let go and off they’d go and we’d do it all over again. Most young investors chase returns of the likes of Game Stop never realizing…

Does Your Retirement Work Under Pressure? It was the 9th inning, bases loaded, two outs, and we were up by one run. My son is on the mound pitching. Cool. Calm. Collected. He knows his pitches, and he knows how to set up his final pitch for an out. Whether he strikes out the runner…

Find Time for What Matters A whole weekend. Yes, a whole weekend dedicated to my daughter. That is the purpose of our annual Father/Daughter weekend at Camp Highland. There is fun, adventure, and time to connect at a heart level. It is a highlight of our year for now the sixth year in a row.…

Consumerism Drives Our Economy Dine. Shop. Travel. Spend. This is what drives our economy and increases the value of equity holdings (to over-simplify things a bit). It is also what has been missing for the last year. What happens when it returns? Americans did the smart thing of saving the money they had, and the…

This Is What People Want to Know When it comes to retirement, people want to know the answer. They want to know, “Am I okay?” This is true for most, whether they have $500,000, $1,000,000, $5,000,000 or more. The financial industry tends to answer the question with an investment return and withdraw percentage. But this…

The Trap is the Prioritization of YOU Have you been to a gathering where there is that one person who walks around acting like the smartest person in the room? Maybe for a while it’s kind of interesting, listening to the person pontificate about what they know, and if you listen long enough to their…

Because What Gets Your Attention… MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Business, CNN and all the others are in the same business. You are led to believe they are in the information business, but they are NOT. They are not running content over the airwaves to inform, in order to help you make wise and confident decisions. Nope!…