Understanding the Tax Game, Part 1 - The Cashflow Quadrant

I love the film Hoosiers. Not just because it’s a great Cinderella story, but because it has so many great lessons to be learned. Lessons about the values of fundamentals.

The basketball coach in the film is a relentless fundamentalist of the game. For example, he obsesses over his players making “three passes!” before anyone takes a shot. This is initially met with outcry from the fans and rebellion from the team, but as the film progresses the coaches commitment to the fundamentals wins his team over…all the way to the championship.

I’ve been thinking recently about some of the fundamentals of another game—the tax game. Few of us actually look at taxes as a game (rather, a complete headache), but the game becomes much easier—perhaps even fun—when the principal rules are understood.

What You Need to Know About the Stock Market

When speaking on a radio broadcast in 1939, Winston Churchill made the following comment about Russia and its national interests:

"I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma..."

When I talk to people about investing--especially in the stock market--I get the same kind of vibe. The stock market feels so complex, puzzling, and unpredictable, that the lack of understanding fosters a distrust of it, and lack of willingness to participate.

3 Ways to Improve Your Financial Health in 30 Minutes

Last week I gave a presentation on 3 ways to improve your financial health. I love getting down to the nuts and bolts of personal finance! We (including financial planners) often make the topic more complicated than it needs to be. When you really gets down to it, you can address 80% of your financial management problems with three things: a budget, a savings plan, and a debt payoff plan.

In this article I’ll explain these 3 points, and for each I’ll give you a simple exercise you can implement this weekend--each one taking about 30 minutes.