On a recent Saturday with some strong encouragement from my wife, we cleaned out a bunch of stuff from our crawl space storage area. While I was working in this infrequently visited area, I noticed that one of the walls was damp. After consulting with a construction contractor about how to remedy the problem, I was reminded again that water always flows to the place of least resistance. This property… Read More
The Master’s Minute – The Great Mitigator of Equity Risk
When investing, you cannot separate risk and reward. In general, when the stock market is rising, the more equity risk you assume, the greater your potential reward. Conversely, in a down market the more equity risk you have taken on, the greater your potential for loss. Risk is a very real part of our investing lives. We can’t eliminate it, but we can manage it. An online publication called “the… Read More
The Master’s Minute – That Nasty Little Emtion
In last week’s blog Garry challenged us to have an opportunistic perspective when stocks go “on sale.” This occurs, of course, when we experience a drop in the markets. It’s not a question of if it will happen, but when it will happen. Markets are cyclical. They always have been and always will be. There is one little, but powerful, human emotion that keeps most people from doing the right… Read More
The Master’s Minute – Prospect Theory 2019
When I was a young boy, I always enjoyed Thursday mornings with my mom. That was the day each week that we would go grocery shopping. Rarely would my mom buy something that was not on sale, and never would she buy something not on sale that we didn’t need. If you grew up in a house like mine, sales ruled the day. In my house today, they still do!… Read More
The Master’s Minute – An Apt Word
The dictionary defines apt as “appropriate or suitable in the circumstance.” When apt is used to describe our speech, it carries a tone of understanding, care, and forethought. At Master’s, our conversations, both advice and service related, are intended to be in the best interest of the hearer. The team members at Master’s strive to communicate clearly and effectively during conversations related to your personal financial situation. When we understand… Read More
The Master’s Minute – In Defense of Staying Invested
When we view a volatile market in hindsight, there is a temptation to wish we had pulled out of the market before it went down and then jumped back in right before it started going up again. Wouldn’t it have been great to have gotten out of the market at the beginning of October last year before the market started to decline and then have gotten back in immediately before… Read More
The Master’s Minute – Spring Cleaning
The latest craze with some of my friends is this idea of 40 Bags for Lent. You may have of heard of it: empty your home of clutter by filling a bag each day of Lent and either donating or tossing what you can do without. I tried this a few years ago, only I chose to organize/clean an area, drawer or cupboard each day. That lasted about one week… Read More
The Master’s Minute – Welcome to the Family
Recently, the team at Master’s had another OTB week. An OTB (On the Business) week means that we take a pause from our normal business activities to focus on team building, specific internal projects, and brainstorming on how to enhance our advice, service, and client relationships. During that week we watched a video promoting the idea of treating each client as a welcomed and honored guest. One of our team… Read More
The Master’s Minute – What’s the Point? (4 of 4)
What’s the point of integrating our emotions into financial decisions? We can be led to believe that all financial decisions are a simple equation. We can run the calculations and get a YES or NO without having to consider the emotional impact! It is true that calculations are a big factor in making financial decisions, but without integrating our emotions and values into the decision-making process, we could end up… Read More
The Master’s Minute – What’s the Point? (3 of 4)
What’s the point of being successful anyway? Weren’t we always told that we need to get good grades in school, so we could get a good job, so we could save enough money, so we could have a nice retirement? And isn’t a nice retirement what we all really want? I recently met with a client who was staring retirement in the face. After many years of hard work building… Read More
