Thing One Play The Long Game In early 2009, the world felt like it was coming apart. The financial crisis was in full swing, major banks had failed, unemployment was rising, and fear dominated every headline. The S&P 500 had fallen nearly 50% from its highs. It didn’t feel like an opportunity. It felt like the end. But history tells a different story. If you had invested $1,000 into a simple S&P 500 index fund at the market lows in 2009 and done nothing but reinvest the div

Thing One All Debt Must Be Repaid Ten years ago, a good friend wrote about an article he'd read about debt. Below is a rewrite with updated stats. It's defintiely worth a read... The article "Managing Debt in an Overleveraged World" by Michael Spence warned that global debt had surged by roughly $60 trillion since the financial crisis — a 75% jump relative to global GDP. At the time, that number felt staggering. The world had failed to deleverage after 2008 and instea

Thing One Choose Carefully Several years ago, the organization that oversees the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards conducted a revealing experiment. They wanted to see whether prospective clients would truly evaluate an adviser’s competence—or simply respond to confidence and presentation. They hired a professional DJ, gave him a crash course in financial buzzwords, dressed him in a sharp suit, and placed him in front of individuals actively searching for f