Kids are the best. They say the funniest things, and they don’t mind telling you exactly how they feel. They’ll give you the unvarnished truth, whether you want it or not. My four-year-old can get grumpy sometimes, as many four years olds can. It’s hard not to laugh when he gets upset, as he crosses his arms, puffs up his bottom lip, and gives a stomp and a humph. This sequence is usually followed by the declaration, “Daddy, I’m going to be upset forever.” He emphasizes the “forever” part, and w...
Sep 29, 2022•26 min
Here at The Bahnsen Group, our Founder and namesake for the firm, David Bahnsen, wrote a book outlining our primary investment strategy, The Case for Dividend Growth: Investing in a Post-Crisis World. This Dividend Growth portfolio, which we refer to as Core Dividend, is made up of approximately 30 individual businesses (stocks). This number of securities was not chosen at random, it is much like that of a golf bag holding 14 clubs. At 30 securities, our investment committee, and our team of ana...
Sep 23, 2022•26 min
What’s For Dinner? Ok, let me set the scene… Your spouse, your significant other, your friend, your sibling, or someone close to you says, “Let’s go out to dinner tonight! Your choice, just say where…” For the next few minutes, you list off ideas one by one, and your counterpart shuts down each of them. Sometimes with a “Nah,” sometimes just a look of disgust, and sometimes with a “Didn’t we just go there?” Until you finally feel defeated and surrender with the response, “Where do you want to go...
Sep 16, 2022•29 min
Today I want to talk about portfolio design. Specifically, I want to start with the basics; the foundational concepts of how one begins to build a portfolio. But first, let’s talk a little bit about road trips… Links mentioned in this episode: http://thoughtsonmoney.com http://thebahnsengroup.com
Sep 09, 2022•32 min
It was May 10th, 1996, when Twister hit the box office, a popular action-packed thriller that was the second highest-grossing film of the year. This fictional flick sparked the popularity of “storm chasing” across the country. Fun Fact: Twister was the first film to be released on DVD in the US. Some twenty-six years later and the enamor for storm chasing has not faded. A number of travel companies even specialize in storm chasing-led-adventure tours. Throughout tornado alley, local news outlets...
Sep 02, 2022•29 min
I’m writing today specifically to give you permission to transact. If you’ve met with your family and your financial advisor and you’ve collectively decided that it makes sense for your financial plan to acquire a new property - do it. If you’ve met with your family and your financial advisor and you’ve collectively decided that it makes sense for your financial plan to sell a property you currently own - do it. I’m seeing too much concern/anxiety out there about where real estate markets will g...
Aug 19, 2022•27 min
A Practitioner's Perspective I know I’m not the smartest guy you’ll ever meet. And I know I don’t have a reputation or record of predicting macroeconomic events. So why listen to what I have to say? Well, I have a distinctive vantage point as an advisor - as a practitioner versus an academic - who talks to investors all day long, every day. I know what makes investors tick. I advise folks to make wise financial decisions, and I know what fears and concerns are currently dominating their thought ...
Aug 12, 2022•31 min
So, you’ve decided that you are going to purchase a new vehicle and you’ve narrowed your focus down to one particular make and model. You’ve even determined the color along with all the bells and whistles you’d like on this new gem. Then, you can’t help but notice your desired automobile everywhere – on the freeway, driveways in your neighborhood, the parking garage at work, etc. It “feels” like now that you’ve concluded your target buy that there has been a dramatic increase this week in the pr...
Jul 29, 2022•24 min
On a few different occasions, over the last handful of weeks, I’ve had the pleasure of filling in for David Bahnsen on The DC Today. The format and style of these [The DC Today] writings are a lot different than what I am accustomed to. The focus is much more on current events, tidbits of all things markets, and politics happening around the world today. When asked to fill in, I was reluctant at first. If I am being honest, I was a little overwhelmed by the task, but in hindsight, I can say that...
Jul 22, 2022•28 min
I love good questions. The type of questions that stop you in your tracks and really make you think. Not a cornering question nor combative one, but an inquisitive one that is birthed from the inquirer’s true curiosity. For me, this is how I learn – pulling on a particular topic thread to get a deeper understanding of the nuance. Sean Latimer is my most frequent co-host on the Thoughts On Money Podcast, a dear friend of mine, and a colleague here at The Bahnsen Group. Sean asked me on a recent p...
Jul 15, 2022•35 min
Today I’d like to discuss interest rates, which have been a hot topic in markets. I want us all to understand both the basics of interest rates and how interrelated interest rates are to the markets at large. To me, Rube Goldberg’s art expresses both the complexity and chain reaction nature of interest rates, as well as the simple results/outcomes they produce. A home purchaser might see their mortgage rate as a simple cost function that determines their monthly payment (simple), but they might ...
Jul 01, 2022•31 min
In the language of computers, you have a binary system made up entirely of zeros and ones. It took me a long time to realize that the language of financial planning is not binary. For a perfectionist, it is very hard to break out of the mode of complete optimization and maximization. As I’ve matured as a planner, I’ve learned how incredibly important the qualitative factors, the psychology, and the investor’s preferences are to the equation. Today, I’d like to dig into three examples of where we...
Jun 17, 2022•38 min
Last week I talked about one of our family traditions growing up – watching Jeopardy together. One of our other favorite pass times was and is, playing cribbage. Whenever we’d have friends over we’d teach them how to play so they could join in the fun. Cribbage isn’t go-fish, but it also isn’t bridge. All that to say, you could easily teach the basics of the game in 10 minutes. We always started with the key numbers you have to know if you are playing cribbage – 15 and 31. The game has lots of r...
Jun 10, 2022•32 min
Today we will pick up part two of Hodgepodge and Potpourri. As you may recall from part one, watching Jeopardy was a family tradition growing up at my house. Nostalgia has led me to borrow these popular Jeopardy categories - Hodgepodge and Potpourri - as an excuse for me to riff on a few unrelated finance topics that have caught my interest recently. So, let’s jump right into it and pick up where we left off… Links mentioned in this episode: http://thoughtsonmoney.com http://thebahnsengroup.com...
Jun 02, 2022•20 min
I grew up watching Jeopardy with my family; it was a family tradition. I remember being amazed by how many answers my parents knew. Every so often, I’d sneak in with the right answer on a sports trivia category. This time together would eventually morph into family Trivial Pursuit (the board game) nights, where I’d team up with mom or dad versus one of my siblings. I remember as a young adult being over at a friend’s house and watching their family enjoy Jeopardy together too. My friend’s father...
May 20, 2022•28 min
A recession is coming!! Yikes! When? Not sure. How severe? Couldn’t tell ya. How long will it last? Your guess is as good as mine. When you have an event that is inevitable, but the severity and timing are impossible to know, what do you do? You prepare, you don’t prognosticate. Think about it, we prepare for all sorts of things Mother Nature throws our way and preparing for a recession is similar. Today we will talk about what being prepared for a recession looks like. Links mentioned in this e...
May 13, 2022•32 min
Timing is… Everything. That’s right. Timing is EVERYTHING. When I proposed to my wife – perfect location, the right words, and… perfect timing. One of our favorite dinners to cook at home is barbecued tri-tip. The key to a great tri-tip? Timing. The right temp, knowing when to flip, how long to let it cook, and the amount of time to let it rest. Again, timing is everything. Getting that perfect start out of the gate as a swimmer or sprinter – timing. The key to comedy – timing. When to go in for...
Apr 29, 2022•30 min
A lot of my friends are real estate investors. They love it; they have a true passion for investing in real estate. Some flip homes for short-term profits and others are buy-and-hold long-term investors. Personally, I think sometimes this zeal and/or passion can distract one from realizing why they invest in real estate. In the past, when I’ve inquired, I would get answers like: “I love real property – you can see it, feel it, touch it – it’s tangible” Or “The leverage makes a big difference. Th...
Apr 22, 2022•23 min
When it comes to financial markets, many of us have these same particular dates seared into our brains: The Great Depression 1929. Black Monday, October 19, 1987. The Dot-Com Bubble of the late ‘90’s. The Financial Crisis of 2008. These are all memorable dates of when the stock market misbehaved. It wasn’t the entirety of the financial markets that took a beating during these events, but rather just the stock market. In 1929-1932 the stock market returns were such -8.30%, -25.12%, -43.84%, -8.64...
Apr 08, 2022•36 min
I'll be upfront with you. I had reservations about tackling today's topic here on Thoughts On Money [TOM]. Why, you might ask? Because my goal in this communication is to translate complex financial topics into something palatable, understandable, and relatable. AND these topics - the Federal Reserve, interest rates, and the yield curve - are intimidating topics for me to try to translate. They almost feel too complex for translation. Some of this just begs for a general base of knowledge and th...
Apr 01, 2022•42 min
There are different ways people deal with stress – some healthy, some not. Me? I like to organize. Yup, as weird as that sounds, when I’m stressed, sometimes organizing the junk drawer is my only source of relief. Something about just putting everything in its place gives me a little peace. A few years back, we installed some ceiling racks in the garage. Putting everything in storage bins and tucked away was true bliss. With that said, I do bring this same desire for order and organization to my...
Mar 25, 2022•26 min
In keeping with the theme of the famed March Madness Tournament, today we are going to talk basketball, the evolution of the investment advice industry, and why you should seek out your own Dream Team. So, without further ado… Links mentioned in this episode: http://thoughtsonmoney.com http://thebahnsengroup.com
Mar 18, 2022•31 min
I want you to imagine that I have never heard of a casino. I have no idea what a casino is, and it is your job to explain it to me. So, you start by explaining that a casino is a business, a business made up of a collection of games, games of chance. These games pit the customer up against the casino and wagers are placed, a type of organized gambling. If you left the description there, you would have me scratching my head. Why? Because if these are games of chance and the customers compete with...
Mar 11, 2022•29 min
There's a question we’ve been getting multiple times a day recently: I am concerned with everything going on in the world right now; don’t you think we should adjust my portfolio accordingly? I first want to say this is (1) a good question and (2) absolutely a valid question. In life, when we feel threatened it is our natural instinct to react – to feel inclined to do something. Join us for today's Thoughts on Money, what we like to call, "TOM." Links mentioned in this episode: http://thoughtson...
Mar 04, 2022•27 min
I knew I wanted to be a financial advisor, but I just couldn’t figure out a way to get my foot in the door. There were not any job postings stating, “Looking for Financial Advisor, No Experience Required.” It was that chicken-or-egg problem, I needed the job to get the experience, and I needed the experience to get the job. So, I settled. I broadened my search from the specific role [financial advisor] to just getting a “resume builder” entry-level position within the finance industry. This is t...
Feb 11, 2022•27 min
As we get older, we acquire quite a robust library of life lessons. My life lessons tend to be accompanied by a vivid memory of when I first acquired each particular lesson/truth. For today's topic, I'd like to recall a memory from January 2020. I was sitting in my office in Newport Beach, conducting a review meeting with a client that had been with our firm for less than a year. The meeting was chock-full of very engaging questions, and we were pushing the ball down the field on the first itera...
Feb 04, 2022•24 min
To Sell, or Not To Sell, That is the Question... I met with a few friends this week. It was a bit of an advice gathering, a meeting of the minds of sorts. They've owned a property for some time and were contemplating a sale. One of the primary objectives was just to relieve themselves of all of the general maintenance and the burden of being a landlord. The fact pattern made a lot of sense – they'd gleaned great benefits from this property over the years, and they were ready to pivot. Then the n...
Jan 28, 2022•21 min
Recruit Paul Revere. We need to make sure everyone knows. What’s all the fuss about? Well, one particular asset class – a popular one at that – had one of its worst years in 2021, and no one is talking about it. How in the world is this flying under the radar? Why are we not sounding the alarm? A bit dramatic? Of course, but hear me out. Links mentioned in this episode: http://thoughtsonmoney.com http://thebahnsengroup.com...
Jan 21, 2022•18 min
Trevor and Deiya dive deep into the value and dangers of debt Links mentioned in this episode: http://thoughtsonmoney.com http://thebahnsengroup.com
Jan 07, 2022•32 min
It was the Summer of 2018 when Thoughts On Money was born. Brian Tong, Director of Strategy & Communications at The Bahnsen Group, was willing to entertain an idea I had for writing a weekly note on financial planning, what came to be affectionately known as “TOM.” Some three years later, and Brian (along with Glen Hall) has edited, published, and recorded about 150+ of these little TOM notes. As a reader of our content or a client, you begin to learn some of the names and faces of The Bahns...
Dec 10, 2021•28 min
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