At Master’s, our tagline is “Managing Wealth for a Life of Purpose”. I recently had several conversations about finding purpose in life. Retirement is often viewed as a panacea for the stress and struggles that come with fulltime employment. We imagine that waking up whenever we want and not having a lengthy list of tasks and deadlines will be fabulous. In addition, we can fill our schedules with all the… Read More

One week ago today, we had our annual Master’s Planning Day. As Jon wrote about in last week’s blog, this is a day set aside to focus on building deeper relationships with our team, hear input from everyone, and brainstorm about how we can serve you even better. I love that we begin that day with all of our team members around the table. We enjoy being together; it’s so… Read More

Often, we hear the phrase: “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” While there are some circumstances when this advice could possibly be helpful, there are other aspects of our lives where this advice should not be followed. One that comes immediately to my mind is relationships. Whether it be a marriage, a parent-child relationship, a friendship, or a business partnership, it is vital that we all continue to invest… Read More

Although I wear many hats here at Master’s, my primary role is that of Hospitality Coordinator. My goal is to make sure all of our clients have a pleasant experience in our office – starting from the time you schedule a meeting to the time you walk out the door. When I think of hospitality, I think of comfort. And I believe that a comfortable place is synonymous with a… Read More

I had the privilege to participate in a family meeting this past week. I’ve helped facilitate numerous family meetings over the years and I always find them to be a rich experience. Those of you unfamiliar with a family meeting in the context of financial planning might be wondering about the purpose. Of course, each family meeting is tailored to the desires and personality of the parent(s) leading the meeting,… Read More

Last March, the US Stock Market stopped it’s tailspin and reversed course, increasing 103% since it ‘bottomed out’ on March 21st. When we see the market essentially do nothing but go up, a funny phenomenon takes place; we get nervous! We know that withstanding market corrections are a normal part of being an equity investor, so we anticipate them when we see a sustained run of positive returns. We look… Read More

Over the last few weeks, we have been highlighting various sketches drawn by the popular author and speaker, Carl Richards. I love the sketch above; it serves as a great reminder. Every day, we are bombarded with headlines and life events we need to sort through. This sketch provides a nice filter that we can use to discern how to respond. We can all face the temptation to worry, especially… Read More

This week, we are again highlighting a sketch from Carl Richard’s book The Behavior Gap. The power of Carl’s sketches comes from his ability to identify a simple truth about money using an elementary illustration. The premise of this illustration is how to accumulate significant wealth over a lifetime. In other words, why do some people accumulate money rather easily and for others it’s an ongoing struggle? We might initially… Read More

In today’s blog we will explore another sketch from Carl Richards’ book titled, The Behavior Gap. This particular sketch is framed in our large conference room because it is so completely aligned with the way the team at Master’s views financial planning. Allow me to explain further. Friends, we don’t believe the end goal of investing and financial planning should be to see how large of a money pile you… Read More