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The Secret to Using Money to Buy Happiness
Invest in experiences, not stuff, to get more enjoyment from your money.
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Building Wealth
The Secret to Using Money to Buy Happiness
I’m always excited about getting a new iPhone.
Plan For Life
Student Loan Repayment, Simplified
Graduating from college is a fun and exciting time of life. For most students, this time also means...
Plan For Life
How to Automate Your Finances in 5 Easy Steps
Remember in high school when you had to read The Odyssey? Homer’s epic told the story of Odysseus’...
Investing
Reduce Investing Anxiety by Focusing on This One Value
The first time I went deep-sea fishing I learned a valuable lesson about focus. A few miles out to...
Building Wealth
What You Need to Understand About Owning Bonds
Interest rates have been on the rise since 2013, but the latest move by the 10-year U.S. Treasury...
Building Wealth
Going Global: Olympic Lessons in Investing
If you’re like me, the wrap up of this year’s Olympic games left you wondering: What do I watch on...
Achieving Goals
How to Prevent Lifestyle Creep
If you place your hand in a bowl of lukewarm water and start heating it, you’re unlikely to notice...
Achieving Goals
5 Advantages of Using Mutual Funds to Invest for Your Goals
I’ve always been a fan of simplicity. One of my goals in founding Plancorp in 1983 was to simplify...
Building Wealth
Court of Appeals Invalidates Fiduciary Rule. Is Your Advisor Putting You First?
I am thrilled that the fiduciary rule continues to be in the news. Sure, the Court's opinion is...
Plan For Life
How and Why I Gave My Four-Year-Old an Allowance
Last month, I started giving my four-year-old son an allowance.
Building Wealth
Women Are Better Savers than Men. Here's Why We Need to Invest, Too.
Picture yourself holding a crisp $100 bill in your hand. What sounds more appealing?
Achieving Goals
"DON'T PANIC." How I Stayed Calm When Stocks Fell
Last week SpaceX launched their first Falcon Heavy Rocket, releasing Elon Musk’s cherry-red...
Building Wealth
What to Do When the Stock Market Drops
Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 entered “correction territory,” meaning...
Achieving Goals
7 Reasons to Choose a Goals-Based Financial Plan
In many areas of our lives, the importance of goal-setting seems obvious. If you go on a diet, you...
Achieving Goals
5 Reasons to Open an IRA and Max it Out Every Year
The Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is perhaps the best retirement savings tool.
Achieving Goals
4 Steps to Improve Your Finances in 2018
The New Year brings with it new resolutions for self-improvement. Many people want to improve their...
Plan For Life
Is There Such a Thing as "Good" Debt?
Have you ever eaten too many donut holes? The first two or three send you to heaven. But as you eat...
Building Wealth
Keep This Much Cash in Savings and Not a Penny More
People say that cash is king, but they don’t always give their cash the royal treatment it...
Building Wealth
Year-End Tax Tips in Light of Tax Reform
This post was co-written with Wealth Manager Scott Ngo, CFP®, CPA, PFS The end of the year is...
Building Wealth
Should You Invest in Bitcoin?
The frenzy around cryptocurrencies only goes up by the day. All the excitement drives everyone from...
Plan For Life
How to Set Up Your Emergency Fund
Your emergency fund can help you cover the cost of life’s unpleasant surprises like medical bills,...
Plan For Life
Your Financial Advisor Should Put You First
Did you know not all financial professionals are required to work in your best interest? It sounds...
Building Wealth
Selecting Stars from the Investment Universe
There are 27,000 mutual funds, ETFs, and hedge funds available in the United States. Despite the...
Plan For Life
8 Reasons to Start Planning Your Next Vacation Right Now
In this always-on economy, taking time off to relax, rest and recharge has never been more vital to...
Achieving Goals
BrightPlan Launches, Bringing Fiduciary Advice to Everyone
After a venturous couple of years and many late nights and long weekends, I’m pleased to announce...
Achieving Goals
Spending Too Much? Here's What to Do
What do you think is the most common problem people have in the process of building wealth?
Achieving Goals
How Much Can I Afford?
One of the most frequent questions I get from friends and family is, "How much can I afford to...
Plan For Life
To Educate, Not Sell
In an industry where most are focused on driving sales and pitching products, investors have a...
Building Wealth
How Good is My 401(k) Plan?
When I meet with clients, I’m always amazed by the huge differences in quality between retirement...
Building Wealth
Where to Save for Retirement
One of the trickier decisions when saving for retirement is determining which accounts to...
Achieving Goals
Planning for College Costs: A Roadmap
Whether you’re a parent, grandparent or student, the phrase “college tuition” comes with some...
Achieving Goals
Reverse Budgeting: How To Create A Budget That Actually Works
What if budgeting was quick rather than time consuming. Simple, not complex. Imagine a budget you...
Building Wealth
Should You Invest or Pay Down Debt?
BrightPlan is all about helping you set and achieve life and financial goals. As we prioritize...
Achieving Goals
How I Paid Off $28,000 of Student Loan Debt in 2 Years
I graduated from college in Spring of 2013 with dreams, a degree, and some serious debt. $27,993.86...
Building Wealth
4 Bad Reasons to Buy A Home
Economic commentators spent the last several years lamenting the fact that Millennial homeownership...
Building Wealth
Are You Financially Fit? Answer These Questions to Find Out
Until recently I couldn’t have told you how many steps I walked, how many calories I burned, or my...
Building Wealth
7 Ways To Relieve Financial Stress
In the American Psychological Association’s annual study on stress, the financial variety has...
Building Wealth
Stop Checking Your Investment Portfolio
Quit looking at your portfolio. You’ll be happier, and perhaps even wealthier over the long term....
Plan For Life
Announcement: Prumentum Group Raises $25M Series A
We marked an exciting milestone for Prumentum Group as we announced the close of a $25 Million...
Building Wealth
Three Critical Choices for Successful Investing
This is the final post of a series on the BrightPlan investment philosophy, our game plan to help...
Building Wealth
The Smart Way to Fund Your Future
This post is part of a series on the BrightPlan investment philosophy, our game plan to help you...
Plan For Life
Stop Obsessing About Making More Money, Focus on This Instead
Quora is an online community devoted to “bringing together people from different worlds to answer...
Plan For Life
Is it Possible to Enjoy Life Now and Still Save for Later?
Late in 2015, Elite Daily author Lauren Martin ignited a controversy with her blog post entitled,...
Building Wealth
What Should I Do With My Tax Refund?
Last year the IRS processed roughly 150 million tax returns, giving refunds to 73% of filers. The...
Plan For Life
Planning Ahead for Multiple Decades of Retirement
As life expectancy has increased the reality of retirement has changed dramatically. When the...
Building Wealth
Let the Market Work For You
Our first two investment philosophy posts outlined core tenets of our investment approach:
Building Wealth
Introduction to Evidence Based Investing
The next few posts outline BrightPlan’s core tenets in our investment philosophy; our playbook for...
Building Wealth
Don’t Try to Outguess the Market
In our first investment philosophy post we discussed the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The EMH leads...
Plan For Life
How Can Millennials Save More for Retirement?
Millennials face tough challenges when it comes to saving for retirement. The generation in their...
Achieving Goals
How to Actually Follow Through with Your Goals
It’s impossible to ignore the fact that people often have trouble following through with their...
Building Wealth
The First Question You Need to Ask Your Investment Advisor
Before ever investing with an investment advisor it’s important to know he or she has your best...
Building Wealth
One New Habit Could Change Your Financial Future
A few weeks into a New Year, I’ve taken stock of what I accomplished last year and how I hope to...
Giving Back
How to Change a Life - 5 Reasons to Give on #GivingTuesday
What is #GivingTuesday?
Achieving Goals
10 Inspiring Life Goals and the Awesome Bloggers Behind Them
We scoured the Internet and found inspirational bloggers who have undertaken audacious life goals....
Achieving Goals
The Day I Discovered the Beauty of Goal Setting
Growing up, much of our life is spent on someone else’s schedule. Each step of the path is often...
Building Wealth
How to Make a Financial Plan That Actually Works
Money management has never been a more fluid enterprise. We can now easily split a bill between...
Achieving Goals
Why Getting Inspired is the Critical First Step Toward Reaching Your Goals
Recently my wife Jordan and I were talking about one of my favorite topics: investing. As I...
Achieving Goals
To Reach Your Goals, Take Them One Step at a Time
After getting inspired to tackle your big goals, it is easy to become overwhelmed and distracted...
Achieving Goals
What We CAN’T Learn From Olympians
I am a self-professed Olympics nerd. I just spent (17) days watching the Olympics morning and night...
Plan For Life
How To Create A Simple And Effective Life Plan
A Life Plan is the foundation for your financial plans, driving how you need to spend, save, and...
Building Wealth
Have a Plan to Boost Your Investment Returns
When it comes to investment returns, it seems everyone wants to pick the perfect portfolio,...
Achieving Goals
Why Goal Setting May Be The Surest Route To Achieving Your Dreams
Some people just seem to have a knack for accomplishing whatever they set out to do, whether it’s...
Plan For Life
Top 5 Benefits Of Having A Financial Plan
Ever been curious about how much money you’ll earn over the course of your lifetime? The United...
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