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Suppose you knew every statistic about football: players, referees, field conditions and on and on. Could you make money betting on football?

Probably not. That is because you not only have to know about the sport itself, but because you also must consider the spread set by the bookies. So, to make money you must know when the spread is wrong.

Interest rates affect the decisions you make with money. Some of these are obvious – think about how much more money you would stick in your savings account if it paid 15% interest instead of 0.5%. How much less money would you put into stocks if you could get 15% in a simple bank account?

Helping our clients implement “tax-smart” strategies is where I believe we provide a substantial amount of value. Anyone who is a DIY investor can open a Vanguard account and fund an S&P 500 Index Fund on a regular basis. Many of those that do this think they have just equaled the work of a financial advisor and saved themselves a lot of money in fees.

During these days when travel and contact with loved ones is so restricted, I sought a way to reach out and touch my grandchildren. So, I started Grandpa’s Storytime. It’s a really easy way to keep in touch and connect in a personal way, and a great deal of fun.

You’ve probably read the article about the couple who make $500k to just “scrape by”. It describes a lifestyle of student debt, childcare and home maintenance expenses that we all face.

Most of the rhetoric that you hear in financial media is typically melodramatic. So, when there is an economic crisis caused by a health crisis you can expect it to be even worse. And it is.

Did you know that 70% of elementary school children have at least one living grandparent? And that 65% of seniors live for 30+ years after retirement?

The question of how long your money will last is more important now than ever before.

I think of it this way.

You’ve read the articles. I am guilty of writing a similar one. Countless other financial professionals have used the same example. Stop buying expensive coffee, save the amount you would have spent. Then, your savings compounds its investment returns.

I think people spend too much time thinking about that. It’s not the coffee holding your savings back.

After 10 years of underperformance, gold is back near its all-time high achieved in 2011. Gold is a unique asset in the public investing world. In the past, it was tied to currency. Some investors still consider it a store of value and a place to put their money during times of uncertainty.

You may have heard that mortgages are once again attractive to refinance. Over the last three months, these rates have managed to achieve five all-time lows. Just the other day, Freddie Mac, which buys mortgages from banks, reported an average 3.03% rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, and there is a chance that we could see rates below 3% without points between now and the end of August.