Wisdom for Your Wisdom Years

The idea of diversification is pretty simply -- own a variety of investments in different asset classes and industries so that if one particular industry, asset class, or security tanks, the others will offset any major losses. This sounds reasonable and most people are on board with the idea... until it comes to actually living with a diversified portfolio. Then emotions, impatience, and FOMO oft...

Matt shares a recent story about Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales, who spent an entire week of practice drilling fundamentals with his players -- blocking and tackling, footwork and positioning. With some of the best athletes in the world (and some highly experienced veterans among them) at his disposal, Canales chose to focus on the most basic skills of the game. And it's wise practice:...

What can you learn from an NFL player's salary? Despite the huge numbers, a lot actually! Logan Ryan earned over $80 million during his 11 seasons in the NFL, and by his own account barely spent a dime of it. Matt shares Ryan's unusual financial story from a league where short-lived careers often end up with short-lived financial prosperity. Matt points out that, once you get past the large number...

Every dollar in your portfolio has a story behind it -- a struggle or sacrifice, a triumph, or perhaps just a consistent habit of saving and living on less than you earn. It's easy to get lost in the comparision game, thinking about your portfolio as merely a number, a measuring stick, and wonder whether you measure up to your peers. Recalling The Gap and the Gain book from episode 47,  Matt encou...

In the second installment of the series, Matt Murphy sits down again with Matt Reynolds to discuss all the factors and decisions that go into selecting investmetns for a client. Just like the financial plan in general, investments are tailored to each individual's unique circumstances and needs -- there are no cookie cutter investment allocations. Matt selects investments and investment allocation...

Which is better, a corvette or a pickup? Kind of a hard question to answer, right? If you want to go fast, a corvette is the obvious choice. If you need to haul a ton of dirt, the pickup wins easily. "Better" depends on context, and what the vehicle needs to do for you. When discussing investments, Matt Murphy likes to make analogies like these to help his clients understand where each of their in...

Matt takes a moment to reflect on what the "wisdom years" part of the podcast actually mean. Many people assume that wisdom comes with age, but in Matt's experience that's not the case. Wisdom comes with actively grappling with change, and working through the new roles and responsibilities and focus that different chapters of life present. Many people get to retirement age having saved and prepare...

Matt ran across an interesting statistic recently, that only about five percent of financial advisors operate on a fee-only basis. This is not an official SEC or FINRA statistic, but it does highlight something important about the industry of financial advice. Most advisors are getting paid fees for assets under management and commissions from selling certain products like mutual funds, annuities,...

Matt reflects on a question Warren Buffet posed in a talk from the early 2000's: if you could own 10% of any person's lifetime earnings, who would you pick? And why? Conversely, if you had to short any one person's lifetime earnings -- that is, you had to pay out 10% of their earnings -- who would you pick? Buffet set out a few rules: it has to be someone you know, and it has to be their earnings,...

Matt breaks down the mechanics of the new Trump Accounts, which are savings vehicles for kids. He discusses the tax deferred status of the accounts, what the funds can be used for, how they can be invested, who owns the account, and how the account can be divested, spent, or tranferred into an invidividual retirement account (IRA) when the child turns 18. Matt also discusses how these accounts dif...

Matt recently returned from a family trip to Pinehurst, an iconic golf resort in North Carolina and the home of US Kids Golf World Championship, which his daughters have competed in, and as always with such trips, with a fresh point of view. In today's episode, Matt shares his perspective on life, memories, and the moments and phases that we often don't appreciate until they are in the rear view m...

Most people when they think about investment portfolios and retirement are concerned with the rate of return of the portfolio. How much does it earn every year, how much will it grow over time, is it matching or beating the market (i.e. the performance of a broad stock market index)? While these are reasonable questions to ask, they miss an important point. What matters is not how much your portfo...

Before you sit down at the conference table to with Matt, many hours of work go into your financial plan -- gathering information, reviewing your accounts, optimizing your tax situation, coordinating with accountants and attorneys, and much more. In today's episode, Matt Murphy invites the newest advisor at Benetas Wealth, Matt Reynolds, to talk through everything he's learned in his first year ab...

Life moves through seasons, and one characteristic of a season is you often don't realize you're in it until it has passed. You grow up, start working, kids come along, all of a sudden you're in the thick of parenting. Then, as children grow the nature of parenting changes, along with your schedule. And then, they're gone, and you are supporting them from afar. At each stage of the process, there...

Matt draws an analogy between the movie Man on Fire and the character of Crecy, who teaches a young protege how to think under pressure -- to solve a puzzle, not react emotionally -- and the process of investing. One of the most dangerous things an investor can do is get emotionally invested (pardon the pun) in the securities they are evaluating, looking for ways to confirm why they should buy the...

      Follow Matt Murphy  Web: https://www.benetaswealth.com Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/jb7SNc LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmurphycfp   Advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network®, a Registered Investment Adviser. This material is intended for informational/educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a solicitation, or a recomme...

Your life's journey is full of wins and losses, and however lumpy, it is a journey, a movement toward something, which means it is also full of gains. One common trait of successful people is they set goals and, having achieved them, move onto the a new goal, the next thing. Wherever they perceive a gap -- in their knowledge, experience, their financial position, etc. -- they seek to close that ga...

Matt tackles a common question from clients: will traditional investing work with AI? AI is changing how businesses operate, with explosive increases in scope and scale over the past couple years. There is enormous hype around AI technologies, with some people comparing it to the advent of the internet or even the invention of electricity. Naturally, many retail investors are wondering how to inve...

Simplicity isn't just a nice feature of plans and documents, it carries real value. When things are complex, whether it's your investment allocation (or the investments themselves) or your estate plan documents, it costs you more than just money to maintain and administrate. It also costs brainpower and attention. As you age, your energy for managing these things may decrease. Inevitability, your...

    Follow Matt Murphy  Web: https://www.benetaswealth.com Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/jb7SNc LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmurphycfp   Advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network®, a Registered Investment Adviser. This material is intended for informational/educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommend...

Gold and other precious metals have been used as stores of value for thousands of years, so naturally investors are curious about adding them to their portfolio. Curiosity typically peaks not when the markets are quiet and things are going well, but when things are volatile and the future is uncertain. Whereas common investment classes like stocks and bonds generate growth and income for a portfol...

    Follow Matt Murphy  Web: https://www.benetaswealth.com Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/jb7SNc LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattmurphycfp   Advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network®, a Registered Investment Adviser. This material is intended for informational/educational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommend...

Retirement income is not like income from a job. It's a layered system, and it can be confusing. Matt explains how retirement income shows up on a tax return, and how each piece -- IRA distributions, Social Security, etc -- builds up to your taxable income. He also explains why people are sometimes surprised by their tax bill in retirement, and why financial planning that looks at your income thro...

Matt walks thorugh exactly what happens with your IRA as you approach end of life and death, including required minimum distributions, changing Medicare thresholds (IRMA), and the changing tax brackets upon death as the surviving spouse inherits the account and, therefore, the additional income stream. Matt also covers how IRA's transfer to children and the income and tax implications of the remai...

Growth for a company tends to be talked about in simplistic ways: revenue, profits, employee count, new locations, etc. However these are simply outputs. When an organization grows, it's responsibility grows as well -- at least the way Matt looks at it. As Benetas grows he's looking carefully at how he can preserve good communication and relationships, to make sure that important conversations are...