- Good Idea, Bad Start
- When Opportunity Comes Face to Face with Hard Work and Preparation
- End of an Era
- No Strategic Approach to Wealth Management
- Alarm Bells
- It's Hard to Grow Assets AND Enjoy the Fruits of Success at the Same Time!
- Our Wealth Represented More than Cash
- We Needed to Get a Handle on Our Investment Portfolio
- Introducing Strategic Wealth Management
- We Are Stewards, Not Owners, of Our Wealth
- Taking Control for the First Time
- Philanthropy Has Emerged as a Shared Interest Among Many Family Members
- Closer Family Ties
- The Wealth-Building Legacy of E.A. Stuart
- How My Dad Taught Me the Value of Money
- A Book About Strategic Wealth Management
Alarm Bells
Between 1987 and 1994, the U.S. stock market grew a whopping 133% while the bond market grew 92.4% in value. That meant that a portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds like ours should have grown 117% over that same seven-year period. But to my shock, my family's portfolio had not. In fact, my research showed that during the roaring bull market from the late eighties into the mid nineties, the value of our main portfolio grew only 31%. Taking inflation into account, this meant we hadn't really increased the value of our wealth at all.