When I was in school, I dedicated much of my time to the sport of wrestling. Wrestling is a demanding sport. It’s a one-on-one match between two individuals where there’s constant positioning to gain and maintain control through an ongoing series of transitions, attacks and counterattacks. The experience of this ancient sport can be likened to the journey of life; an ongoing series of transitions. Some transitions are ones we… Read More

I recently came across an image from Carl Richards, author of the book The Behavior Gap, that hit close to home – so close that I now have it hung up at my desk! It shows a Venn diagram with “Things That Matter” on one side, “Things You Can Control” on the other, and “Things You Should Focus On” where the two meet in the middle. (Image Linked here) How often… Read More

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

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

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

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 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

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 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

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