Laird Hepburn

There is no shortage of investing strategies but successful ones generally follow some common principles laid out by Benjamin Graham (with my paraphrase and comments): 

• Always invest with a margin of safety by finding good companies trading at a fair price or better.
• Expect volatility and profit from it being cautious when the market is irrationally exuberant and dollar-cost averaging your purchases.
• Know what kind of investor you are – are you a long-term investor or a trader? Both make money but in very different ways.

Of course, you could always hire a professional to either help you or take on the investing task for you.  Your money, your choice.

Disability affects everyone.

Did you know May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month? Guess who made this up – the insurance industry of course.  But just because a bunch of insurance companies got together to try to convince you to buy disability insurance doesn’t mean they’re wrong.  If you need your paycheck, you need to protect that paycheck.  There’s nothing you can do about the economy, inflation or Acts of God, but you can work to protect your income from four common things that may happen to you if you become disabled.

Four bad things happen to the long-term disabled:

It’s April 15th as a write this. The Federal debt is around $28,100,000,000,000 and our 2020 deficit was around $3,000,000,000,000. What the heck!!!???

Ever visited the IRS website?

Like me you might be saying: “I can’t believe how much the government spends!”

[Read more…] about The Joy of Taxes! (Yes, I said it.)

Have you ever been distracted, and the consequence was that something bad happened?

I’m not talking about crashing a car bad (but that qualifies). Maybe you were painting the bedroom wall, the dog distracted you, and you ended up painting the trim. Or you were on the phone with a friend and forgot the cake in the oven. Lots of things get damaged or ruined when we allow ourselves to get distracted and lose focus on what we’re really trying to accomplish.

The same is true of investing and planning.

[Read more…] about Cancelling Noise & Staying Focused

For those who are Christians (and many who aren’t), we just finished celebrating God taking on flesh in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth some 2,000 years ago. By the time you read this, January 6th will have come and gone but the date holds deep meaning for me (not because of the joint session of Congress, mind you).

January 6th is A Lot of Things

It’s my wedding anniversary…

…the Twelfth Day of Christmas & the day we celebrate the three kings coming to worship the Christ (called Epiphany)…

…and the beginning of the Mardi Gras season. That means I have a reason to make another King Cake!

I’ve spent years perfecting my recipe – find it here.

Read more…