Financial Life Focus

Insights

The keeper of no

October 1, 2026

The keeper of no

Jessica brought up Lopud again last week, a small island off Croatia with no traffic, just stone paths and monastery gardens she is enchanted by. We went three years ago, and she loved the sun, the beaches, and the scenery. It isn't the only place on her list, which is a dozen places long, but it's the one she keeps circling back to.

The sentence I didn't finish

September 15, 2026

The sentence I didn't finish

I sat down across from my son at lunch, mulling over something that I had been working through in my mind.

When I let myself want

September 1, 2026

When I let myself want

A few weeks into my divorce, a man in my long-standing men's group asked a question I wasn't ready to answer. He didn't ask what happened with my ex-wife; he wanted to know what I had learned about myself through the failure of that marriage.

Someone else's miracle

August 15, 2026

Someone else's miracle

I was twenty-one years old, sitting at a dinner my father had brought me to. His banker was hosting the evening for a small room of entrepreneurs. My father was one of them. At one point, having had too much to drink, the banker stood up to toast the room.

The wrong ruler

August 1, 2026

The wrong ruler

A few months ago, I watched a semiconductor company's stock price triple over the course of just six months.

Broken heirloom

July 20, 2026

Broken heirloom

Around 2020, during a hide-and-seek game with her friends, my then-11-year-old daughter fell while running. Her momentum carried her knee right into a 300-year-old jade antique, smashing our most precious family heirl…

My journey so far

July 20, 2026

My journey so far

People often ask me why I gave up a successful corporate career to become a financial planner. It's a fair question, and for years I gave a fair, tidy answer. The real answer isn't tidy. It's a story about money, and about everything money turned out to be standing in for.

Experiencing experiences

July 20, 2026

Experiencing experiences

My father has always believed that you can lose stuff, but you'll always have memories.