/ Blog /
The Terminal Value Review
I explore markets, money, and long-term financial planning through a behavioral and real-world economics lens where incentives matter and human behavior drives outcomes. As an independent CFP®, my goal is to educate, simplify, and occasionally inject a bit of humor along the way. Nothing here is personal advice, and nothing predicts the future. Past performance guarantees nothing. These are simply my perspectives on how the economic world works.
Roth Conversions; A BETR Way – Part 4 of 4
“If the future tax rate is higher than a calculated BETR, a conversion is generally considered financially sound.“ – Vanguard Group In my previous post, Roth Conversions; No Guarantees, Part 3 of 4, we discussed some of the risk factors that could potentially reduce or completely negate the benefit of front-loading taxes via the Roth…
Roth Conversions; No Guarantees – Part 3 of 4
“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” – John Allen Paulos Uncertain outcomes have always existed and always will. We live in a world defined by uncertainty and decision risk, and the goal of sound planning is not to eliminate it, but to…
Roth Conversions; the Economic Hurdle – Part 2 of 4
“The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.” – Milton Friedman Just about every business has two objectives: first survival, then growth, achieved through the optimal and effective deployment of both current and future resources. When viewed through this lens, the same principle applies to your personal financial life. You are, in…
Roth Conversions; No Free Lunch – Part 1 of 4
“A BETR analysis, however, offers a more complete way to think about the issue” – Vanguard Group There is no more enjoyable dinner in my household than a meal that involves steak. My 12-year-old and I prefer ours medium rare, while my wife and 16-year-old choose whatever comes after well done. Irrespective of our…
Volatility isn’t Chaos
Past performance is no guarantee of future returns; this is NOT investment advice and is meant to be educational in nature. “The market is always trying to price in events and earnings expectations roughly 3 to 30 months in advance, often looking past current, and backward-looking data.” – Ken Fisher Stock prices are uncertain…
Who Is Fountainhead Wealth Planning?
Past performance is no guarantee of future returns; this is NOT investment advice and is meant to be educational in nature. “People don’t care what you know, until they know that you care.” ’95 – Joe F. Anderson “trustworthy” is the name of the game… Financial planning begins with trust, not tactics. Before…
Is Bitcoin MONEY?
Past performance is no guarantee of future returns; this is NOT investment advice and is meant to be educational in nature. “Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act. Even the sanction of political authority is not necessary for its existence. Certain commodities came to be…
The word “Fiduciary” – what does it really mean?
“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident, which everybody has decided not to see.” – Ayn Rand Not another post on the word “Fiduciary”! I get it everyone writes about it, and everyone says they’re a fiduciary. Well, they’re not, and I’ll do my best to explain why in as few words as…
Valuations and the Fed Put
Past performance is no guarantee of future returns; this is NOT investment advice and is meant to be educational in nature. “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau..” – Irving Fisher PhD, Yale University, 1929 current stock market valuations, structural change, and the Federal Reserve “cure-all” … Shortly after Irving…