My wife and I were recently shopping when we saw an elderly man near us collapse. We asked the lady with him, who we later found out was his daughter, if she needed help, and she indicated she did. Fortunately, we were able to find a doctor and a nurse who were also shopping in the store at that time. Neither of them could find the man’s pulse so they… Read More

Most people think it would be great to suddenly come into a large sum of money. They dream of what they could do with all that money and fantasize about being set for life! But more than half the people who come into sudden wealth lose it in a few short years. Unwise decisions, bad habits, and sadly, unscrupulous advisors can cause wealth to quickly erode. Whether sudden money becomes… Read More

Being in the business of advice-giving, we are continually thinking about the most effective way to advise our clients. How do we communicate most effectively? How can we increase the success rate of the implementation of that advice? How can we learn the art of when to speak and when to listen? I think a few tenants of advice-giving can serve us well in solving this puzzle. Advice is Personalized… Read More

I remember during my teenage years, before the internet, when the only forms of electronic media were television and radio. Back then, the main battle was to be thoughtful and intentional about the choices of media I invited into my life. Today, it’s not only about our media intake; it’s also about protecting access to our personal and confidential information. We take cybersecurity seriously at Master’s, and I will share… Read More

You have undoubtedly heard and read many ideas and comments related to a company’s core values. At Master’s, we worked through an intentional process last year to rediscover our core values as a team and redefine what those mean to our clients. Over the next few blogs, you will read about our core values of Authenticity, Empathy, Conscientiousness and Optimism and why they are so vital to the DNA of… Read More

Planning our family vacation this year has been a significant challenge. Pre-COVID, we planned a trip to visit a family friend in Vermont and then continue north to Montreal and Quebec City. About a month ago we realized that it was unlikely Canada would be welcoming US tourists into their country at the time of our trip so we diverted our trip to a couple other spots in the New… Read More

The first question we typically ask when contemplating retirement is “Will I have enough money to retire?”  To answer this, we add all the monthly expenses we expect to have in retirement and then determine if our income from Social Security, pensions and investments, exceeds those expenses.  If we have more income than expenses, we are ready to retire.  Right? While it’s good to be prepared financially for retirement, there… Read More

Here we are at the mid-point of 2020. Needless to say, it’s been an unexpected ride. My wife recently shared with me a humorous social media post that I think frames this year accurately. The post said that 2020 is going to be a synonym for “crazy” moving forward. “Hey, look over there, they’re getting a little, you know, 2020.” “I gained control of the car for a moment, and… Read More