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It’s still a year off but seeing all these graduation ceremonies and commencement speeches on Twitter started me thinking of what I’ll tell our daughter when she graduates college next spring. Plus, I know she just can’t wait to get more advice from me, so why not start early?

While in Kansas City to visit family recently one of my cousins posed a question to the Byars boys at lunch, “I don’t want to retire – so what do I call that?” So, for context, here’s the backstory: My cousin is extremely bright with an MBA from Northwestern and is the CFO for a company headquartered in Omaha not called Berkshire-Hathaway. He already knows that accumulating enough money to support him and his family throughout their lives isn’t really his pertinent question but, what am I going to do with my life to challenge myself and make my mark, is. Essentially, he explained that he likes to work, doesn’t have hobbies that consume him and wanted to know what should he plan for if not retirement? My answer? Glance back at the title of this post for a hint – Financial Independence!

I first met Bob Bova, founder of Moneywatch Advisors, in 1986 right after I had graduated from college and Bob was hosting my Dad, his client, for their regular quarterly meeting. For perspective, this was the year the Mets broke the hearts of the Red Sox by winning the World Series after Bill Buckner, who just died this week, let an easy ground ball roll through his legs. Economically, the U.S. was doing well after a recession in the early ‘80’s and the Federal Reserve was lowering short-term interest rates that offered the economy a bit of a tailwind. To me, the ease with which Bob explained his strategy for helping my parents as they were just starting to really focus on some long-term financial goals seemed like he had been born to do this – although he had just founded the firm 6 years prior.

We traveled in March to Argentina to see our daughter who is there studying this semester. While in Cordoba, a city of 1 million boasting the country’s largest university with an enrollment of 100,000, we rented an apartment and tried to experience as much Argentina life as one can over a two-week span. One day, my son remarked how the lifestyles we saw seemed much less affluent than we’re used to seeing: fewer people own their own cars and houses and apartments are smaller and more modest, for instance. So, with an opportunity to teach a life lesson, I dove into the conversation that “all wealth is relative.”

The University of Kentucky added a high-deductible health insurance plan to its mix of options for the enrollment period that ends this Friday, May 10. UK continues to add benefit options for faculty and staff that provide arguably the best mix of benefits in central Kentucky. Choices, however, can be tricky. Here are some pros and cons on high-deductible plans and a link to a quite comprehensive, but understandable, article on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

Come on, admit it, you place at least one bet each Derby on the name that means something to you. I do. For fun, below is the list of this year’s Derby horses with the investing or financial planning lesson that can be gleaned from their names. (In the order of their Road to the Derby points)

Clients ask us all the time about either keeping a house they used to live in and renting it out or buying a house to rent out. I guess us Americans have some kind of burning desire to control our section of the Monopoly board. Usually I begin my response with a flip answer such as, “A mutual fund won’t ever call you at 3:00 in the morning with a stopped-up toilet.” And, while the hassle of managing rental property can’t be overlooked, let’s concentrate on the numbers of residential real estate as an investment.

Yes, I know, you just filed your taxes and the last thing you want to think about is taxes. I get it. But, what if there were some simple ways of reducing your tax liability and decreasing your chances of owing next April? Interested? Take 90 seconds to skim the following tips:

If you’ve ever read this blog before you know I’m a huge fan of the book, The Millionaire Next Door. Written in the mid ‘90s the authors sought out the rich in the U.S. to learn how they became wealthy. To their surprise, they learned that most were ordinary working professionals who lived beneath their means, saved with a purpose and became wealthy the old-fashioned way: steadily, over many years. Since most of us accumulate our wealth through our 401(k)s or 403(b)s, here are 5 tips to maximize the value of those accounts:

The term “sandwich generation” commonly refers to those people who are caring for aging parents and their children at the same time. Today, I introduce a new term – The Financial Sandwich Generation.