There are a handful of questions that most financial planning clients bring in our front door. The answers can vary widely, of course, since the situations folks face are so very different. But there are some commonalities, some points of contact — and in this series, we look at a…
Life can only be understood backwards — but it must be lived forwards. — Søren Kierkegaard Whenever the markets get a little shaky, one comment that we hear a lot from our clients goes something like this: “I sure hope we’re making the right decision!” If pressed, we find…
The University of Oxford announced today that their endowment, the Oxford Funds, does not now and will not in the future hold direct investments in coal and tar-sands oil companies. This announcement, exciting as it is, still strikes some activists as insufficient, since it does not commit the Oxford Funds…
Some of our clients have, in the last few years, asked us about local investment opportunities. Some are encouraged, by Woody Tasch and the Slow Money movement, to consider investing as much as “50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live”. Others are encouraged, by Michael Shuman…
Kim and I are back in the office this week, having spent last week in Orlando. We didn’t go to Disney World, but to “INSIGHTS 2015”, the 11th annual conference of fi360. Together with the Center for Fiduciary Studies, they are the folks behind the AIF® designation that Kim and…
Last fall, we heard some great news: Solar City, a leading provider of solar power systems to homes and businesses in the US, had found a way to let investors participate in the shift to renewable energy. The “solar bonds” that they created and unveiled in October of 2014 work…
For the last decade or so, economists and investment advisors have agreed that “interest rates can’t go much lower — they’re bound to rise, and probably soon”. But the rate on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond has, over the last ten years, fallen from between 4% and 5% down…
On Friday, February 13th, I had the delight and honor to be interviewed by my friend Steven Saint-Thomas, host of the “Adventures in Permaculture” radio show on Colorado Springs’ new community radio station, KCMJ (93.9 FM, for those in the Pikes Peak area — streaming online at http://kcmj.org/ for everyone…
At this point, we think that the evidence is clear: Humanity’s 250-year reliance on fossil fuels, accelerating all the way, has driven Earth’s ecological balance to the brink. We understand that something needs to be done, and quickly, if we’re to prevent ecological collapse. But what needs to be done,…
One of the biggest stories in the economic and SRI press right now is the nosedive that oil prices have taken in the last seven months. After several years of running right about $100 per barrel, after the end of June the price dropped below $45. The pundits can’t quite…
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the reasons we have for short-term optimism — the reasons why we think that 2015 is likely to be a good year for the markets, and for social justice and environmental sustainability. But, naturally enough, talking about optimism for the short term…
January is thought to be named for the Roman god Janus, the god of beginnings and endings, whose two faces look forward and backward at the same time. The change of the calendar makes this a great month for reviewing what happened last year, and looking ahead into the year…
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