When Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt died in 1877, he was by far the wealthiest American, with a fortune of $100 million. And in the ten years after Vanderbilt’s death, his son William succeeded in further doubling those assets. It was an astonishing level of wealth. But that’s precisely when [...]
Maintaining wealth
Recently, Wall Street Journal personal finance columnist Jason Zweig made this observation: Getting rich isn’t the hard part, he said. “Staying rich is the hard part.” On the surface, staying rich might actually seem like the easy part. After all, you simply need to build a balanced portfolio [...]
The seven dimensions of money
In recent weeks, I’ve discussed the election and cautioned against timing the market. But if market timing isn't recommended, then what is? Last week, I suggested one answer: that you review your finances through the lenses of leverage, liquidity and cash flow. This week I’d like to share another [...]
The most useful tool
A dozen years ago, on my first day of business school, the professor stood at the board and illustrated a concept called “present value.” Truth be told, over my remaining time in school, I don’t think I learned anything more important than I learned in that first hour. It is, in my view, the single [...]
The Spotlight Effect
When it comes to your financial life, should you care what other people think? I’ve always found this a tricky question. On one hand, it’s easy to fall into the trap of keeping up with the Joneses. If you care too much about what other people think, life can become very expensive. And that can be [...]
