OUR WEALTH MANAGEMENT BLOG

Have you been Greenwashed into owning ESG/ SRI Investments?

Have you been Greenwashed into owning ESG/ SRI Investments?

What is socially responsible investing (“SRI”) or environmental social governance (“ESG”) investing? Socially Responsible Investing and Environmental, Social, and Governance factors aim to make capitalism (feel) “good,” and punish companies that do “bad” things. “Bad”...

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Fidelity Target-Date Funds Take $100k+ in Returns

Fidelity Target-Date Funds Take $100k+ in Returns

Fidelity Target-Date Funds Take $100k+ in Returns Hiding in Plain Sight: Expensive Defaulted Target-Date FundsBelow are two client examples. Each Fidelity 401(k) Target Date Fund ranged in internal fees from 0.55% to 1.00% (e.g., expense ratios). Instead of clients...

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Client Survey Unedited Results

Client Survey Unedited Results

MARGIN's clients participated in an NPS Survey– here are the unedited results. ——————————————————————————- How do you trust words that sound too good to be true? You read them for yourself. You’re more likely to walk into a place if it has windows for you to peak...

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Just Markets, Plain and Simple

Just Markets, Plain and Simple

Misinformation ≠ Education I used to think markets commentary wasn't a good use of time for our clients. But, with so much profit conflicted "education," I've had enough. "Vending machines don't belong in monasteries. So, I created this video as a sacred place to talk...

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AMA: Retiring at 40 & traveling the world full-time

AMA: Retiring at 40 & traveling the world full-time

AMA: Retiring at 40 & traveling the world full-time No, it’s not some fairytale, it’s a reality for more and more people. Including my friends Eric and Katie. I’ve been intrigued with early financial independence and traveling the world before 40. So, I found...

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2021 Road Map – Getting Better – For Our Clients

2021 Road Map – Getting Better – For Our Clients

“Less than half (47%) of the Fortune 500 companies spent anything substantial on R&D, in 2018” While they may be profitable...these companies are at the greatest risk from new competitors, startups, changing customer demands and market shifts.” Top 1000 companies...

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MARGIN – 2020 Client Successes

MARGIN – 2020 Client Successes

2020 - Year Two: Surviving To Thriving Let me catch you up From 2018 to 2019, cease and desist (ex-employer) lawsuits hit my door-step as I was brining our Thanksgiving turkey; old clients who referred to me as their “son” stopped answering my calls; immediate family...

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Is Inflation Closer to 10% per Year?

Is Inflation Closer to 10% per Year?

Almost 50% of all US Dollars in circulation were printed in 2020 Let’s back up...In 2008, the Federal Reserve added about $2 Trillion (with a T) to the financial system. Avoid global contagion meltdowns. Avoid the next Great Depression. Avoid turning into Japan. Avoid...

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You’re not thinking; you’re just being logical

You’re not thinking; you’re just being logical

As Niels Bohr (Danish physicist, philosopher and Nobel Laureate) apparently once told Einstein, ‘You are not thinking; you are merely being logical.’ With apologies to logic (and my overly stoic friends) Sorry Seneca, Aurelius, and Aristotle, humanity’s greatest...

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The BEST Investment Newsletter

The BEST Investment Newsletter

This post was inspired by investors who tell me they use a newsletter to pick stocks, that diversification is for losers, and it's easy to beat the market. Here's a case study in what happens when you follow financial newsletters sent straight to your front door....

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“The market” is NOT your portfolio

“The market” is NOT your portfolio

Years ago, a client sent me an e-mail. It simply stated: “Us down, the market up, why?” Why am I underperforming the ubiquitous “market”? I blame financial media. Fox. CNBC. MSNBC. Barron's. Bloomberg. Money. Forbes. Dave Ramsey. Suze Orman. All of ‘em, for giving...

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Re: “It’s not the right TIME to invest”

Re: “It’s not the right TIME to invest”

Is investing really all about timing? You wait for the right time: corrections, recessions, pull-backs, blow-ups, and inflection points. Then, BAM—you make hay, and get out. Do it again and again. That's how investing works, right? Clichés like "time in the market,...

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Flipping Off The “Average Return”

Flipping Off The “Average Return”

Unmet expectations cause us distress. At times we lose perspective. When things are going well, we bask in the warm sunshine of +20% returns. But when it temporarily and inevitably floods worst-case -30% returns, we forget there are seasons. Return seasons. Sorry,...

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Understanding Poverty Can Help You Become Wealthy

Understanding Poverty Can Help You Become Wealthy

What really keeps people in poverty? Is it the same self-destructive patterns that hold us back, whether we’re poor, middle class, or wealthy? Are we all really not that different? Isn't a foundation of wealth built and lost in the day-in-day-out decision making...

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Cutting Off 4 Fingers for a “Rule of Thumb”

Cutting Off 4 Fingers for a “Rule of Thumb”

When I read some of the rules for speaking and writing the English language correctly—as that a sentence must never end with a particle—and perceive how implicitly even the learned obey it, I think: "Any fool can make a rule, And any fool will mind it." -         ...

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The Best Advice You Never Received

The Best Advice You Never Received

So…What do you actually do for me? Before I launched MARGIN almost two years ago, an obsessive quest began: What were my peers really delivering to clients? Not just their marketed online services. Not just the lip service of their pitches. Not just their portfolio...

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Fast Food Financial Planning

Fast Food Financial Planning

Welcome back! I haven't written you in a while, but I promise there's a few good reasons: As you see, we've revamped our site! Check out our new complexity based flat- fee structure (for current clients, nothing is changing for now). We've also added the story behind...

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Recession Investing Mistakes for Dummies

Recession Investing Mistakes for Dummies

There would be this advantage in traveling in your own country, even in your own neighborhood, that you would be so thoroughly prepared to understand what you saw you would make fewer traveler's mistakes. - Henry David Thoreau You think the "experts" know, so you...

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How can you be (MUCH) wealthier? Learn more than money.

How can you be (MUCH) wealthier? Learn more than money.

"Most of us, however, are specialists…Each specialist sees something different. A typical Engineer will think in systems. A psychologist will think in terms of incentives. A biologist will think in terms of evolution. By putting these disciplines together in our head,...

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People are frugal with money, but waste so much…

People are frugal with money, but waste so much…

<![CDATA[Time!   "If each of us could have the tally of his future years set before him...how alarmed would those who saw only a few years ahead, and how carefully would they use them!" - Seneca, On the Shortness of Life     How many days do you...

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How you get Sold: Market-Linked CDs

How you get Sold: Market-Linked CDs

<![CDATA[ We sell these things like hot cakes to people who want FDIC insurance, and no risk - Veteran Financial Advisor at Colorado Bank. You're thinking...I wouldn't fall for that...I've been with my advisor for 10+ years, and they would never... They do...I've...

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