Sounds exciting. Living your entire life forever postponing life. This is the path the financial factory needs you to follow. Every story they tell reinforces the money myth. The goal of this of course is to convince you to live on a perpetual investment hamster wheel. This wheel provides the factory with a perpetual income…

You can’t escape them.  The “experts” are everywhere, on TV and radio – gurus like Clark Howard, Suze Orman, and Dave Ramsey distribute financial advice to the aspirational.  In almost every single case the financial advice given tells you that if you don’t save today, you will be broke tomorrow.   Really? I just sat with…

If you’re not from the South, that strange vine that seems to permeate every vacant space is called Kudzu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu).  Native to southern Japan and southeast China,  it was introduced into the US in 1876 to combat soil erosion.  If you drive across any southern state, the impact of Kudzu is painfully clear.   When it arrived in…

A lot has happened in the three months here at Holcombe Financial. We had a wonderful turnout for our open house. We welcomed Marcia Mayoue to the firm and at the same time showed off our new office. Today we are launching our Only Get Rich Once blog as a thoughtful resource for all who…

I read a loosely translated Japanese Proverb from the Zappos Twitter feed. It made me think about issues faced by many when it comes to financial planning. “Vision with execution is a daydream. Execution without vision is a nightmare.” This quote brings back memories of the international program I didn’t pursue in college, and the…

Emotion is a powerful driver of behavior. In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt discusses the relationship between logic and emotion. Logic is the rider on the elephant and your emotion is the elephant. Others call it the rational mind versus the emotional mind. Think about the last time you thought about the 10 lbs you…

The weather is actually a perfect metaphor. The financial markets operate with absolute autonomy. Predictions have no bearing on what will occur. It will rain when it rains, it will stop when it stops. The market is a living breathing organism. The most educated meteorologist using the most robust technology is no match for the…

Golf is a very frustrating sport where form and concentration yield good results, but perfection is impossible.   People have spent billions to improve their game.  Part of the improvement process includes things like videos so you can actually see how you look from the outside looking in.  Improvement almost always begins by stopping something that is…

Changes in stock prices can swing wildly, suddenly. So can our emotions. The combination of an out of control market and an out of control investor is toxic. But did you know there is another phase of the market just as dangerous? It’s when things are calm. When the market is relatively peaceful there’s another,…

The excavation of 33 miners from a Chilean cave will go down as an amazing feat. Never before have so many miners been trapped for so long and survive. One cannot avoid the obvious questions. How did these men do it? How did they maintain physical and emotional equilibrium? The answer is profoundly simple, proper…