2025

My Old Country is Fading

April 13, 2026

I emigrated from the UK to the US in 1996. Since then, my country of birth has changed, as have I. My visits to my old country usually make me feel like the old cliché: “a stranger in my own…

Left Behind: The Story of a Tennessee Mountain Town

April 6, 2026

I recently spent a weekend with a friend in Mountain City, Tennessee, a small Appalachian town at 2,400 feet, surrounded by stunning mountain ridges and good people. It is a town that has been losing its economic footing for decades.…

Expect to Fall Off the Beam

March 30, 2026

My daughter competed in a USA Gymnastics state meet this weekend. The girls were judged on many elements. It caused me to ponder a possible analogy to the way people manage their money. A lot of folks approach money with…

Job Interview Tips in 2026

March 23, 2026

Another college graduation period is almost upon us. I was recently asked by a client to talk to their soon-to-graduate son about how to get a job in an increasingly difficult labor market. I agreed. The client asked me what…

The Winter of Disruption: AI, Markets, and Ice

March 16, 2026

Early 2026 has proven to be a season of upheaval.  In technology boardrooms, technology stock prices, and even on the ice in Milan, we are seeing signs of disruption. Four stories, seemingly unrelated, together paint a picture of a world in…

The Self-Cleaning Portfolio

March 9, 2026

As a family of four, our oven has increasingly become one of our most used appliances. Between the nearly endless supply of chicken that 4- and 6-year-olds somehow are able to consume, birthday cakes, and daily meals, it gets plenty…

Culture and Character: From Berkshire to Claude

March 2, 2026

An old friend used to say, “Write something worth reading. And if you can’t do that, go do something worth writing about.” It sounds easy enough, but it is hard in practice. I was in the salt marshes along the…

Fifty Years of Passive Success

February 23, 2026

The investment approach of passive index investing began inauspiciously. In 1975 Jack Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, launched the first index fund available to retail investors. He hoped to raise $150 million but only managed to gather $11 million.…

The Future Is Closer Than We Think

February 17, 2026

I made a statement recently that raised a few eyebrows: within ten years, my family will have a drone taxi landing in our front yard, ready to take us to our home in the North Georgia mountains. That may sound…

The Bots are Calling

February 9, 2026

Something has shifted in the world of financial fraud. The FBI reported $16.6 billion in internet crime losses last year, a 33% increase from 2024. But the more troubling statistic is this: the number of fraud reports stayed flat. Scams…