Surveys show that the most common New Year’s resolutions are physical and financial. I have certainly made my share of both of these types of resolutions over the years but I have had a lot more success in keeping my financial resolutions than my physical ones. Why is that? Is it just my personality or…
Here are links to my top 10 posts for 2014. If you are a regular reader, thanks for your support and I hope I was able to help you improve your personal financial situation in 2014. If you are not a regular reader, take a look at what you missed and join us for 2015. There…
“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” –Progressive rock band Rush in the song “Freewill” The Economist Magazine reports that a study was done at an upscale California supermarket. A table was set up in the supermarket with a choice of 24 gourmet jams that shoppers could sample. Shoppers who…
“The great paradox of this remarkable age is that the more complex the world around us becomes, the more simplicity we must seek in order to realize our financial goals. Never underrate either the majesty of simplicity or its proven effectiveness as a long-term strategy for productive investing. Simplicity, indeed, is the master key to…
The other day I saw a cartoon of a turkey jogging on a treadmill. Hanging on the wall behind the turkey was a calendar turned to the month of November with a Thursday late in the month circled in red. By getting fit the turkey was hoping to make himself unfit for Thanksgiving dinner. The…
I grew up before computers, video games, the internet, i-Pods, i-Tunes, i-Phones, i-Pads, Facebook, and Twitter. Back then people had to entertain themselves and one way this was done was through sing-a-longs. When I was a kid many community and church gatherings had sing-a-longs and one song that was often sung was a silly old…
My father, Kent Esplin, was an entrepreneur. The word wasn’t much in style in his day, and I never heard him refer to himself as an entrepreneur, or even say the word. Nevertheless, my father was an entrepreneur. He grew up in Southern Utah during the Great Depression. His family lost their sheep ranch near…
Understanding the importance of investment costs requires understanding the difference between a percentage point and the percent that something is to a whole. My wonderful wife Alice and I learned this lesson in an unforgettable way recently when dealing with something far more important than investing. In July Alice was diagnosed with breast cancer. It…
Some of you are probably familiar with the famous Marshmallow Test. In the 1960s psychologist Walter Mischel designed a simple experiment to test the self-control of preschoolers. Mischel would let the students pick from a variety of treats. He would then tell them they could eat the treat immediately, or they could wait until he…
How We Think Investment Costs Work When I first started investing twenty years ago I had no clue what I was doing. I had, however, read enough to know that it was important to keep investment costs low. I remember looking at a list of mutual funds I was considering investing in. One of the…
