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One of the most common educational props in the financial planning world is something known as the Callan Periodic Table of Investment Returns.

In this series of articles, we’re looking at the emotional and behavioral biases—most of which are unconscious—that can affect investing behavior in ways that aren't usually helpful for achieving the best long-term results.

We find that people who have reached the highest levels of success and built truly significant wealth tend to share a number of key traits that are responsible for their amazing results.

One aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic that few seem to be talking (or writing) about is the impact of those hundreds of thousands of COVID deaths on the life insurance industry—and on policyholders.

We are accustomed to regular reports on the rate of inflation from the US Department of Labor. Inflation, measured by the amount of increase in the cost of commonly purchased goods and services as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has been running at a relatively low level for a number of years now.

In the first article of this series, we introduced the broad concepts of behavioral investing, especially the ways in which our human instincts and behaviors—evolved over millennia to keep us safe from environmental threats—tend to work against us when it comes

As many readers may already know, I was privileged to walk the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route in Spain, during the summer of 2018.

Nearly every company we can think of has a brand that communicates its culture and mission. But chances are, most of us have never considered what our family’s culture is all about—what we and our closest loved ones stand for as a unit.

Legendary economist and investor Benjamin Graham (1894–1976) made a timeless observation, decades ago: “The investor’s chief problem—and even his worst enemy—is likely to be himself.” In other words, our own behavioral biases are often the greatest threat to our financial well-being.

Very few of us, looking back at the big picture for 2020, would likely say, “it was a good year.” And yet, especially for certain investment sectors, 2020 was, in fact, a record year. One of the sectors that had tremendous growth in 2020 was the sustainable investing sector.