At Apprise we want to help people make better decisions about money. As a result, we plan to publish weekly blogs in which we share information we believe can help you make smart decisions about your money.
Here are this week’s articles as well as a brief description of each:
Are you paying $106,000 for that cup of coffee?
When it comes to spending money, we have choices. We can make what we want at home, or we can go to our favorite spot and have someone prepare it for us. While having someone else do the work is easier, it also costs more. In this article, the author takes a long-term view and estimates the difference between buying a cup of coffee at your favorite barista versus brewing it at home and investing the difference in your retirement account. Over the years, the cost of that cup of joe can really add up.
MARKET RETURNS ARE NOT JUST THE RESULT OF WHAT WE CAN MEASURE
Morgan Housel is one of my favorite financial writers. In this missive, using physics as a guide (something that strikes a chord with me as my oldest son is a physics major), he looks at the differences between probabilistic and deterministic thinking. While we can easily measure company performance using accounting techniques, we cannot predict how a given investment will perform with certainty. To a considerable extent, market returns are based on moods and perceptions that can change easily. As investors, we should try to distinguish between what we can determine with certainty and what amounts to theories about what might happen.
TECHNOLOGY THEN AND NOW
While this last commentary is not specifically about finance, I still found its comparison of the environment and scale that today’s technology leaders (Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon “GAFA” face versus that which Microsoft and Intel (Wintel) operated in during the 90s worth a read. Over the years, we have progressed from mainframes to PCs to smartphones and other mobile devices that are much more powerful than the PCs we first used.
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For firm disclosures, see here: https://apprisewealth.com/disclosures/
Phil Weiss founded Apprise Wealth Management. He started his financial services career in 1987 working as a tax professional for Deloitte & Touche. For the past 25+ years, he has worked extensively in the areas of financial planning and investment management. Phil is both a CFA charterholder and a CPA.
Located just north of Baltimore, Apprise works with clients face-to-face locally and can also work virtually regardless of location.