Not Just Numbers: Honest Conversations with a Financial Advisor (and Lawyer!)

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie discuss a Wall Street Journal article that suggests that Baby Boomers are investing like 30-year-olds and questions the wisdom of that. As he always does, Mike takes issue with some of the methodology in the reporting and the conclusions the paper drew from it. Mike thinks that most people should have somewhere between 50 and 100% of their portfoli...

Send us Fan Mail Madison and Mike discuss Certificates of Deposit (CD’s), what they are, and options that are available. He explains that since the Fed started raising interest rates, people are more interested in bonds and other fixed-income securities for the first time in 15 years. He advises Madison and our listeners to buy only individual securities if they are backed by insurance or a govern...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie discuss advanced estate planning and its difference from basic estate planning. Michael explains that advanced estate planning uses the tax code to save taxes to effectively transfer more assets to other people or charities in your estate plan. Common advanced estate planning techniques include Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts and Annual Gifting,...

Send us Fan Mail Madison and Mike discuss Trusts and some of their more common uses. Mike explains that a Trust is a legal document that can stand on its own or be part of someone's Will. People with children and  grandchildren as beneficiaries of their Will often use them to manage money and property for the younger generation. Liz Young, the owner of Commonplace Reader bookstore on Main Str...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie discuss why a Will, Power of Attorney, and Advance Health Directive are key components of an Estate Plan. Hiring a lawyer who specializes in estate planning is the best way to ensure a will is legally valid and effective. Later in the episode, Heather DiPrato joins us to share about her business. Heather is the publisher of Yardley Living and Newto...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Mike and Maddie discuss how Yardley Wealth Management decides which asset allocations make sense for clients, which mutual funds or ETFs to use, when we change funds, and when we re-balance. While we use 3rd party software (Fi360 and Tamarac) to help with our decision-making, it is mature, rational financial advisors who make those decisions, not a computer algorit...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie talk about how we invest money for our clients with mutual funds and ETFs at Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade, including why we prefer funds to individual stocks. Then we talk about all the money people are giving up by keeping their savings in low yield accounts at mega banks like Wells Fargo. Mike goes on about the credit union he uses and loves...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie discuss how we work with clients, how Mike stays current with the financial and legal landscapes, and how clients should take appropriate risks. That means for different goals they should often do different things with their money. We go over a story from the New York Times where a guy lost a lot of money not realizing the amount of risk he was rea...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie discuss our process for onboarding new clients, a little about the financial planning process and the 60/40 portfolio. In a podcast and an article, the Wall Street Journal said a lot about the 60/40 portfolio that Mike and Maddie take issue with. Short story: its not bulletproof or dead, its an asset allocation that can make a lot of sense for many...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Mike and Maddie discuss the purpose for the podcast, give an intro to our fee-only firm, and discuss how to handle things when a loved one dies and you have never handled the family's money.  Spoiler alert: we discuss the "F" word, yes fiduciary