Can you believe it? Three weeks until the May 17th deadline! You'll forgive me if visions of vacation and beaches are dancing through my daydreams.For many in Southern California, daydreams like these become more frequent while contemplating retirement (not just...

Fatigue.Lockdowns, election politics, masks -- we THOUGHT we might be done with these things by now ... but nope. And I bet you're tired of it all. Most Southern California people are, aside from the zealots on every side. And I get it.That doesn't mean these things...

Unfortunately, this is a follow-up piece to some advice I shared in the spring -- March to be exact.When tornadoes ravaged Lee County, Alabama, the country rushed to its aid. Although nature is beautiful in various forms, it's also equally unpredictable. And that...

The World Series is here, football seasons are in full swing, school is deep in session, and the weather is shifting for sure.Fall has a way of running along faster than we realize.It's kind of like our financial picture: things can change REAL fast, and before you...

The stock market has caused some alarm as of late. Will investors wake up panicked or encouraged tomorrow? It's hard to say.But one thing is clear: basing your peace of mind on market signals is no way to live.That said, I'd love to see my Southern California clients...

November has officially begun.Decisions are upon us. All of the normal holiday decisions, like which Lego set to buy the little one or which relatives to invite (or not invite) for Thanksgiving dinner, are dancing through our heads as the seasons change.But not only...

These last couple weeks of 2021 are already a little unusual.Current events are swirling around virus policy, the big Biden "Build Back Better" Act seems to have hit a Joe-Manchin-sized brick wall, sports leagues are in an uproar around rising case numbers, and...

We're almost at the end of September, which is bewildering -- where did summer go? Pumpkin lattes are everywhere, the weather is turning ... and life is really starting to accelerate. But we do know something that can stop anyone in their tracks on an accelerating...

A few timely things to get to, before I offer you my thoughts on a good task for you to do this week...First of all, the IRS has apparently caught up on processing their backlogged mail that stacked up during COVID closures. Or, well enough, they say.That means that...

With a third round of "stimmy" (as the kids say) hitting bank accounts for the past week, 90MM+ Americans (including some of us in Southern California) are once again flush with cash. It remains to be seen what this will do for the economy, but combined with what...