Are you in search of ways to make yourself a better investor? Do you feel like you don’t know what to do when and how? Do you get overwhelmed and confused by all the advice out there about investing?

Well, let me be one more person giving you advice. No frills, selling points, or fancy terminology, just 6 quick and easy ideas of how to become a better investor.

What’s the status of the economy in the week leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election? Is it good? Is it awful? Should it affect my investing? Should it affect my vote? A quick look at the facts and stats from your friendly neighborhood financial planner.

Should we let political uncertainty and our political views affect the way we invest? Are Democrats or Republicans better for the stock market? Do politics and portfolio mix? Let’s dig in.

In Part 1 of this quick two-part series on bonuses, we looked at how to deal with the uneven cash flow aspects of receiving large bonuses.

In this installment, we’re going to go into more detail about different ideas of what to do with the money.

Bonuses. They’re the best, no?

A nice infusion of cash that comes in and opens up so many opportunities.

A common issue people run into is how to deal with the “cash flow” aspects of receiving a large bonus. In this post, we’ll look at a couple of different ways to deal with the issue of having uneven cash flow, illustrated with specific examples.

Spencer Financial Planning turned 4 years old!

In this blog post, I share some facts, non-facts, observations, and reflections regarding four years of providing financial planning services to my clients.

Spoiler alert: I love my job.

Not that Bond. Those Bonds.

I Bonds have been very popular investments during the past few years. But as inflation has cooled down, so has the interest rate on I Bonds.

Where do things stand? Should you sell? Or stay put?

Let’s take a quick look.

What does it mean to “rebalance” your portfolio?

Is it important to do? How do you do it?

Let’s take a look at this important topic, as rebalancing can help you manage risk, enforce discipline, and optimize your investment returns.

I love baseball. It’s the best.

With baseball season starting and tax returns due soon, let’s take a look at an interesting intersection between the worlds of baseball and taxes:

Shohei Ohtani’s contract.

Are forecasts related to the markets and economy useful?

Or are they useless?

You could even argue (persuasively) that predictions and forecasts are more a source of risk rather than a tool to help you avoid risk.

"When you think about your finances, how far into the future do you tend to think and plan? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Decades? Generations?"

This is a question I often ask people during the prospective client process, as how someone answers is very helpful in understanding their financial approach.

How far ahead do you think?

Wondering what you might be able to do to improve your tax picture?

Tax planning can be extremely beneficial, potentially leading to thousands upon thousands of dollars saved if done well.

Let’s go through 15 common strategies I use with my clients. My hope is that perhaps something in here will be helpful to you, hopefully reducing that pesky tax bill a bit.

Looking at your insurance picture?

Wondering what to consider, what to prioritize, what to do?

Let’s go through 15 quick ideas.

“If she’s being abused by her partner, why doesn’t she just leave?”

This is a common question about survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV).

In this guest blog post, Kimberly Klein outlines some basics about IPV and economic abuse, and discusses a few connections to financial planning and long-term economic stability in the lives of IPV survivors.

Has your home insurance premium skyrocketed lately? Has your insurance company stopped writing policies in your area? Is the home insurance market broken?

Welcome to the crazy world of getting your home insured against disaster. In particular in the great state of California.

Thinking about retiring?

There’s a lot to unpack. Lots to consider.

Just to get the juices flowing, here are 15 quick ideas.

It's official. We've entered a new bull market in the United States.

At least according to the generally-accepted definition of stocks going up by 20%.

Does it matter? What should we do about it?

Spencer Financial Planning turned 3 years old this week!

In this blog post, I share some facts, non-facts, observations, and reflections regarding three years of providing financial planning services to my clients.

Spoiler alert: It has been amazing (still).

What happens if the U.S. doesn’t raise the debt ceiling and then defaults on its debts?

What about a different type of crisis?

Are our investments in danger? Should we sell?

How much did we spend on our Emergency Planning supplies?

This post also has a downloadable copy of the Emergency Planning Top 10 Checklist, which is a one-page summary that consolidates much of what we covered in this blog series.