Wealth Management Archives - Rightpath Investments & Financial Planning, Inc.

Will Artificial Intelligence replace your financial planner?

Meanderings, Wealth Management / Steven Smith / February 9, 2023

Artificial Intelligence applications — and especially chatbots, which can seemingly research and write like us humans, are becoming increasingly prevalent. Chatbots are by no means perfect in the output they produce. And they are somewhat controversial, particularly in academia, as students begin to use them to assist with their homework. The following answer to the […]

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Book Review: The One Page Financial Plan: A Simple Way to be Smart About Your Money, Carl Richards (Penguin 2015)

Financial Lifestyle, Peak Thoughts, Retirement, Wealth Management / Steven Smith / November 15, 2021

Running joke: If it’s a one-page financial plan, then why isn’t the book only one page? I first read Carl Richards’ novelty of a book, The One-Page Financial Plan, when it was published in 2015. But I only recently grabbed it off the shelf to re-read and figure out ways to apply it in our

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Is Retirement a Dirty Word?

Financial Lifestyle, Financial Planning, Life Transitions, Peak Thoughts, Retirement / Steven Smith / September 30, 2021

I made the mistake of asking a client when she wanted to retire. This is a common inquiry to my clients. Yet unwittingly, I opened a fraught subject for this couple. She loved her job and wanted to work forever. He was ready to retire now and see the world. I learned a valuable lesson.

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DOL Proposed Rule Change Brings Awareness to Sustainable Investing

ESG Investing, Financial Lifestyle, Investment Management, Mountain Lifestyle, Peak Thoughts, Wealth Management / Steven Smith / October 16, 2020

The current US Department of Labor (DOL) has a bone to pick with sustainable investing; what is now colloquially called Environmental, Social & Governance or ESG investing. On June 23, 2020 the DOL issued a proposed rule that would limit the use of investments that consider ESG factors in retirement plans subject to ERISA, such

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Preparing for Short-Term Election Volatility

Financial News, Investment Management, Peak Thoughts, Political News, Uncategorized, Wealth Management / Steven Smith / October 2, 2020

What’s better for investors, Republican Presidents or Democrat Presidents? It’s a trick question. First, because in general, over the long run, it doesn’t matter. While some data correlates Democratic administrations with stronger markets since the end of World War II, there is no evidence of a cause and effect relationship. And this nifty interactive exhibit

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Dreaming of a Mountain Retirement

Financial Lifestyle, Life Transitions, Mountain Lifestyle, Peak Thoughts, Retirement, Wealth Management / Steven Smith / October 10, 2019

Do the mountains call you for your dream retirement? Many people, including most of my clients, aspire to retire to the active lifestyle, fresh air and natural beauty of the Colorado mountains. What will it take to achieve that dream? Here are some considerations for planning your mountain retirement: Follow Your Dream

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Lessons From the Madoff Fraud, 10 Years later

Investment Management, Meanderings, Uncategorized / Steven Smith / December 28, 2018

Has it really been ten years? One of the low lights indelibly associated with the Great Recession of 2008 was the discovery and unraveling of Bernie Madoff’s massive Ponzi scheme. It feels like only yesterday that I wrote about that almost incomprehensible fiasco in real time. But the journalist Erin Arvedlund wrote the book on

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The IRA Charitable Rollover – Laserlike Tool for the Seasoned Philanthropist

Peak Thoughts, Philanthropy, Tax Planning, Uncategorized / Steven Smith / November 16, 2018

‘Tis the season…for charitable giving. In our last post, we discussed the basics of the new tax law, its possible effects on charitable donations and the concept of “bunching” and a Donor Advised Fund as a workaround. Today we address the IRA charitable rollover – or, more technically, the qualified charitable distribution (QCD). IRA Goes

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Regaling the Donor Advised Fund – The Swiss Army Knife of Charitable Giving

Peak Thoughts, Philanthropy, Uncategorized / Steven Smith / November 6, 2018

Nothing sharpens the mind like a deadline. Sometime around Halloween, when we have a couple of months left in the year, we begin to think in earnest about our charitable giving. On account of the charitable contribution deduction on Schedule A of the 1040 individual income tax return, many taxpayers scramble to complete their charitable

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3rd Quarter Client Note – Yield Curve Ball

Investment Management, Waypoints / Steven Smith / October 11, 2018

The S & P 500 (total return) Index experienced its best quarter in five years, rising 7.2%. (Of course, things happen so fast, that as of this writing the S&P 500 has fallen almost 4.5% in the first nine days of the third quarter; led largely by falling technology stocks and possibly attributed to the

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