It’s completely natural to obsess over the numbers on our investment statements. We track the growth, review our asset allocation, and carefully project how long our capital will last. This is good practice and solid foundational planning, but it’s not the whole story. What if, in all our careful calculations, we are overlooking the most...Continue reading
We often dedicate the best, most energetic years of our lives to building a fortress of financial security. We work long hours, take on additional responsibilities, and sometimes miss important family milestones, all in the name of providing for the people we love. It is a noble pursuit, driven by a deep sense of care...Continue reading
It’s so easy to look at our budgets, our financial planning and our risk products and ask questions about what we have and don’t have. But what if, in all this planning and evaluating, we miss a crucial question? What if we don’t simply ask what we have, but remember to ask what it’s all...Continue reading
The mirror of our bank statements: Aligning our wealth with our values Have you ever noticed how increased access can actually create more anxiety and worry? It’s wonderful to be able to text someone in our family and make sure they’ve arrived safely. But what happens when they don’t respond? The temptation to keep checking...Continue reading
We tend to model our lives, and our financial plans, as a straight, uninterrupted line moving upward and to the right. We assume that our income, our capacity, and our circumstances will remain relatively constant, simply growing steadily over time. But life is rarely linear. It is cyclical. It operates in seasons. An accurate graph...Continue reading
Two key goals of a financial plan are to help you grow what you have, and help you protect what you have. This is why conversations about financial planning should pay attention to your short-term cover. Everyday insurance is a critical piece of your long-term wealth strategy and helps ensure the perimeter around everything you...Continue reading
When we sit down to project a client’s retirement, one of the biggest variables we have to account for is longevity. Thanks to modern medicine, we are living longer than any generation in human history. From a financial planning perspective, a longer life means your capital has to stretch further. But there is a glaring...Continue reading
Here’s why money shouldn’t buy your way out of friction. There is a common, unspoken assumption about wealth that many internalise early in life: we believe that the ultimate purpose of money is to reduce or eliminate our problems. We view a well-funded balance sheet as the ultimate shock absorber. We assume that if we...Continue reading
There is a very specific kind of quiet that descends on a house when the children finally leave. It affects our hearts, but it also affects our financial planning. If you’re in this situation, or know someone who is, here’s a little of the new reality… For a couple of decades, the home has been...Continue reading
As the playwright George Bernard Shaw famously observed, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Nowhere is this more evident than in our family conversations about our financial lives. We often assume that because we share a home, a surname, and a bank account with our loved ones,...Continue reading